First off what are your system specs? Secondly, have you tried using studio 7 in compatibility mode? Right click the executable file located in the Pinnacle folder under the program folder in your C: drive.

Then select properties, compatibility mode, and select the windows 98 feature.
See if that does not help resolve the dropped frames issue.. it might, then again it might not.

Now on to movie maker, don't use it, it sucks. Get yourself a trial copy of Adobe premiere. I have found this program to work wonderfully well when capturing video from a DV camera. Give it a go and tell us what you think.

Back to studio 7, have you tried the most recent patch? S7_DL_US.htm (4/9/2002) 10.8 MB Version 7.13.5
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/d...&DocTypesID=14

The link above will take you to the most recent patch available. That might resolve some of the issues you are having. Further, you might try shutting down any non-essential programs that might be running in the background, and try adjusting the settings in Pinnacle to best suit your purpose.

Hope that helps,
BB