Device Control Glitch?

PeterMac wrote on 3/29/2002, 5:53 AM
When I'm using the Vegas capture utility I more often than not need to position the tape before starting capturing.

I've noticed that if I click the >> or << buttons while the tape is playing, the displayed frame freezes at that point. There is then no way of getting it to display something else other than by restarting the capture utility (not Vegas). The capture controls all continue to work and to control the camera, it's just that you can no longer see any footage apart from that frozen frame.

This means that I have to play something, guess that I need to go back a couple of minutes, stop playback THEN hit the << button, stop rewind, finally restart playback. It becomes a bit tiresome and I often resort to using the TRV900's controls direct.

Anyone else suffer from this?

-Pete

Comments

deef wrote on 3/30/2002, 8:09 PM
Does Options->"Reconnect to current Device" restore the video?

Please post you system, OS, hard drives, motherboard, 1394 card, etc. info.
PeterMac wrote on 3/31/2002, 4:01 AM
Yes, 'Reconnect...' does the trick.
I seem to have overstated the problem too. It only happens on rewind. I can fast-forward while viewing the speeded up footage. On resumption of Play, regular playback resumes.
However, clicking Rewind while the tape is playing causes the picture to freeze. 'Reconnect...' from the capture utility's Option menu then restores regular playback.

Surely this isn't standard behaviour?


OS: W2K Pro + SP2
Mobo: Asus A7V (CPU Athlon Thunderball 1GHz) 256Mb RAM
1394: Cheapo (supplied with Pinnacle's Studio DV)
HD: Twin IBM Ultra100 DMA 75Gb Deskstars
Cam: Sony TRV900


-Pete
deef wrote on 4/1/2002, 10:58 AM
It almost seems like the TRv900 stops devlivering frames while rewinding? Have you have any other issues with this device?
deef wrote on 4/1/2002, 10:59 AM
Also, you may want to try another 1394 card.
PeterMac wrote on 4/1/2002, 3:16 PM
Hmm...
I wouldn't want to try another 1394 card for a very good reason.
The reason is this: I can use ScenalyzerLive with the same camera and the same card and it all works perfectly. That is, I can view the speeded up display in fast rewind and fast forward while cueing. There is never any need to 'reconnect'.

I'd have thought that the 'reconnect to device' was the clue. Why would this be necessary? And the answer is: it isn't necessary per se. Connection is never lost and control is always provided. What is lost is the display update. I'm guessing that 'reconnecting' has the handy side effect of re-initialising the display and this gets us out of the frozen frame mode.

Are you suggesting that the card itself is also re-initialised?

-Pete
deef wrote on 4/1/2002, 10:40 PM
With Video Capture, do you always lose the preview when playing only in fast-rewind?

That is, do you lose it in other rev or forward modes?

Does it happen every time?

Have you used another device?

Tried a different tape?

SP or LP?
PeterMac wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:43 AM
Taking your questions in order:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. If you mean camera - Yes (Canon XM1 and Panasonic MX300)
5. No - only use Sony 'chipped' tapes.

You have to remember that the device, card and the tape are constants. The variable is the internal flow of the capture software. For example, switching immediately to fast rewinding from normal play without stopping the tape first - in other words, cueing - freezes the image. The image remains frozen, even after the camera is then returned to normal play. (Stop/Start/Rewind, etc. signals can still be sent to the camera by the software, and the camera acts upon them).
Prior to this operation, normal play worked perfectly (and on the camera's LCD screen continues to do so). So the normal play signals are presumably the same; all that has changed is the software's ability to display them.

It seems to me that the images returned to the software while the camera is in [cued] fast rewind are such as to get it into a deadly embrace with something like DirectX, and from which only a Reconnect (or a restart) will break it.

But look, if no one else experiences this, then it has to be my machine. When I raised this topic I was really seeing if anyone else was affected - and if no one is, it's my problem, not yours. Strange that Scenalyzer doesn't exhibit the same problems though...

-Pete

(The very latest DirectX drivers are installed)