Linux 'motion' software drops frames and is all round doing a terrible job -- any way to fix?

[18358414]

I'm trying to use 'motion' on a 2006-era macbook with a cheap 2002-era external webcam.  The webcam works fine, and I can record as much as I want with ffmpeg, but for some reason the 'motion' software is struggling terribly. 

 

Example: in a 30 second clip recorded by 'motion', 80% of all frames are dropped (typically I get 5 seconds of video followed by a static frame)

 

Why is it so horrible?  I could just leave this computer recording the entire day and it won't have as many dropped frames, but when motion is processing it everything drops.  I'm using the default configuration file that comes with Arch Linux (aur repo ; attached below)

 

############################################################
# System control configuration parameters
############################################################

# Start in daemon (background) mode and release terminal.
daemon off

# Start in Setup-Mode, daemon disabled.
setup_mode off

# File to store the process ID.
; pid_file value

# File to write logs messages into.  If not defined stderr and syslog is used.
; log_file value

# Level of log messages [1..9] (EMG, ALR, CRT, ERR, WRN, NTC, INF, DBG, ALL).
log_level 6

# Target directory for pictures, snapshots and movies
target_dir /home/user

# Video device (e.g. /dev/video0) to be used for capturing.
videodevice /dev/video1
auto_brightness on


# Parameters to control video device.  See motion_guide.html
; vid_control_params value

# The full URL of the network camera stream.
; netcam_url value

# Name of mmal camera (e.g. vc.ril.camera for pi camera).
; mmalcam_name value

# Camera control parameters (see raspivid/raspistill tool documentation)
; mmalcam_control_params value

############################################################
# Image Processing configuration parameters
############################################################

# Image width in pixels.
width 640

# Image height in pixels.
height 480

# Maximum number of frames to be captured per second.
framerate 10

# Text to be overlayed in the lower left corner of images
text_left GOLDMONKEY

# Text to be overlayed in the lower right corner of images.
text_right %Y-%m-%d\n%T-%q

############################################################
# Motion detection configuration parameters
############################################################

# Always save pictures and movies even if there was no motion.
emulate_motion off

# Threshold for number of changed pixels that triggers motion.
threshold 1500
threshold_tune on

# Noise threshold for the motion detection.
noise_level 32

# Despeckle the image using (E/e)rode or (D/d)ilate or (l)abel.
despeckle_filter EedDl

# Number of images that must contain motion to trigger an event.
minimum_motion_frames 4

# Gap in seconds of no motion detected that triggers the end of an event.
event_gap 30

# The number of pre-captured (buffered) pictures from before motion.
pre_capture 3

# Number of frames to capture after motion is no longer detected.
post_capture 5

############################################################
# Script execution configuration parameters
############################################################

# Command to be executed when an event starts.
; on_event_start value

# Command to be executed when an event ends.
; on_event_end value

# Command to be executed when a movie file is closed.
; on_movie_end value

############################################################
# Picture output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Output pictures when motion is detected
picture_output off

# File name(without extension) for pictures relative to target directory
picture_filename %Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q

############################################################
# Movie output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Create movies of motion events.
movie_output on

# Maximum length of movie in seconds.
movie_max_time 30

# The encoding quality of the movie. (0=use bitrate. 1=worst quality, 100=best)
movie_quality 0
movie_bps 500000

# Container/Codec to used for the movie. See motion_guide.html
movie_codec flv

# File name(without extension) for movies relative to target directory
movie_filename %t-%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S

############################################################
# Webcontrol configuration parameters
############################################################

# Port number used for the webcontrol.
webcontrol_port 8080

# Restrict webcontrol connections to the localhost.
webcontrol_localhost off

# Type of configuration options to allow via the webcontrol.
webcontrol_parms 0

############################################################
# Live stream configuration parameters
############################################################

# The port number for the live stream.
stream_port 8081

# Restrict stream connections to the localhost.
stream_localhost off

##############################################################
# Camera config files - One for each camera.
##############################################################
; camera /etc/motion/camera1.conf
; camera /etc/motion/camera2.conf
; camera /etc/motion/camera3.conf
; camera /etc/motion/camera4.conf

 

I've tried manually setting the bitrate or changing the output file formats, but that doesn't seem to help.  The camera captures in mjpeg and so if possible I would *like* to just copy the video stream from the camera without any transcoding (but motion doesn't seem to allow that).  What are my options to get this to a reasonable state?  I'd like to avoid upgrading to new hardware because the next step for this laptop is the bin (and I prefer to avoid creating e-waste if I can)