DV Camera Hangs VV3

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/2/2002, 12:42 PM

I've been running VV3 on an IBM IntelliStation M-Pro for three months, using a Sony DCR-TRV17 miniDV camcorder for capture and record. Everything works great. Now I want to put it on an IntelliStation Z-Pro as a dedicated video workstation. Everything works fine *until* I try to connect to the Sony. Whenever I launch VV3 with the Sony powered up and connected the program starts to launch then hangs while building the user interface (the windows come up then freeze before being completely drawn and filled).

As long as the Sony is powered down, or disconnected, or VV3 is *not* set to DV all works as it should.

So VV3 and the Sony work fine on one IntelliStation but not the other. Both are running W2K Pro SP2, both are using the Matrox 450 video card, both have the same Adaptec FireWire/USB card. The "good" one has a 1.8Mhz P4 the other a 933Mhz P3. The "good" one has 512MB the other 256MB.

I swapped the cable to the other FireWire port, launched VV3 and told it to use the DV and voila! I could preview on the monitor connected to the Sony, I captured a few seconds of video, then I rendered a portion of the timeline so I could playback a cross-fade in RT on the monitor and BAM! VV3 locked up again. Now it won't recognize the DV again until I assign it 2 or 3 times, then it hangs as soon as it recognizes the device.

The easy workaround is to keep using the "good" machine, problem is I really need to get VV3 working with the Sony on this other system for dedicated captures and renders. I'm sure there'something simple going on, I mean it works on one system, so it shouldn't be that big of a problem getting it to work on another. At least I hope not! I never could get the Matrox 2500 working right on that machine so I'm betting on VV3 this time! (Besides, I like VV3 better than Premiere)

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

Sid

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 10/2/2002, 12:52 PM

what 1394 card are you using? what driver is being used by the 1394 card?

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/2/2002, 1:15 PM

I'm using the Adaptec AUA-3121 "Duo Connect" card, the drivers appear to be Microsoft (version 5.0.2183.1 dated 11/14/1999), a 1394BUS.SYS (version 5.00.2195.2104) and OHCI1394.SYS (version 5.00.2195.2924). Under the "Digital Signer" on the "good" system it specifies Microsoft Windows 2000 Publisher. On the "bad" system it says Not Digitally Signed. The "bad" driver doesn't show a date, either. But the version numbers are the same in both cases.

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/3/2002, 9:57 AM

Here's an update...

After perusing the Premiere forums I found a reference to a tech doc that led me to another tech doc that mentioned something about a Texas Instruments driver versus the Microsoft driver for DV. Apparently Premiere wants the Microsoft driver. Sure enough, the IntelliStation Z-Pro was set to the TI driver, so I reset it and BAM! Both Premiere and VV3 now talk to the Sony camera.

Except (there's always a gotcha) I can't record to the camera through VV3. Premiere works OK but VV3 doesn't. When I try to Print Video To DV Tape or do a monitor preview in VV3 I get a flashing screen with large block areas of video showing through. Audio sounds OK it's just the video that is affected.

Again, I/O works fine on the other computer (the IntelliStation M-Pro) and appears to work OK with Premiere on both now. But changing from the TI driver to the MS driver made a HUGE difference! Any thoughts on why I'm getting a flashing image during preview and record would be greatly appreciated! I'll keep working on this and continue updating: maybe this will lead to a solution for others.

Sid

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/3/2002, 5:04 PM

And the beat goes on and on and on...

Recording on the IntelliStation Z-Pro doesn't work in either Premiere or VV3 now. Capture works fine on both, but any previews to the monitor or attempts to record results in flashing white screens and large pixel blocks of black/video with either program. Odd thing is, I can record bars/tone and leading/trailing black all day long with no problem, it seems to be just the output from the timeline that won't work.

The fact that neither Premiere nor VV3 will work or preview correctly makes me suspect the Adaptec FireWire card, either the card itself or the drivers. I'm going to try moving the board to different PCI slots tomorrow (if the wheels don't fall off the wagon)and maybe even try another Adaptec FireWire card.

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/4/2002, 8:48 AM

OK, I've reached the point where the DV camera doesn't hang VV3 anymore (switching from the TI drivers to the MS drivers fixed that). I can capture just fine, but can't record or preview from either VV3 or Premiere: both give flashing screens and large-block pixelated images when exporting to DV tape. However, both record black leader, trailer and bars just fine. It's only the contents of the timeline that won't preview or record correctly.

I tried installing the FireWire card in every free slot, W2K always assigns it to the same IRQ. I just saw a repost from SonicEPM about monitor preview setup, I'm going to start over using that as my guidleine. If I can get the system to preview correctly I'm certain it will also record correctly.

At this point I'm very suspicious of my FireWire and DV camera drivers. After going through the SonicEPM setup list, I'll reformat my HD, re-install W2K and VV3 so there's nothing on the system except Vegas. If that doesn't work I guess I just won't be able to use this IntelliStation Z-Pro for a dedicated video workstation.

But I sure am going to try!

SonyEPM wrote on 10/4/2002, 8:53 AM

The large pixelated blocks thing is very common with DV output and can usually be fixed with a couple of reboots.

repeating tha mantra:

Defrag your hard drives often! This makes a big performance difference.

Turn off PIO mode for all drives.

Enable DMA for all IDE drives (Win2k, for some odd reason, turns DMA off be default.)

Keep video display card, SCSI card, 1394 card, and sound card on unique IRQs if at all possible. Search this forum or creativecow.net/Vegas for "ACPI" or "IRQ" for more info.

More DV setup info here (accurate!):

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/spottedeagle_douglas/dv_basics/index.html

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/4/2002, 10:22 AM

Thanks for the reply! It helps alot just knowing you aren't completely alone when tackling these gremlins.

Before going through your external monitor troubleshooting doc I:

1. Deleted all VV3 work files (pre-render audio & video)
2. Deleted all temp files anywhere I could find them (from all apps)
3. Created new directories for raw captures and pre-renders
4. Defragged
5. Re-specified all my VV3 startup options (DV NTSC, Best Quality, 48Khz audio, capture & pre-render directories, etc.)

Then I started with #2 of your "Setting up Vegas for external monitor previewing". Long story short, capture went OK (as it always did after I changed from the TI to MS DV camera drivers). It played through the preview window fine, then to my surprise played to the external monitor just fine as well! I saved the project, rebooted the system, launched VV3 again, checked the playback and everything still worked.

Crossed my fingers, used VidCap to cue the DV tape, then closed VidCap and began a Print Video to DV Tape session. Set the output to NTSC DV, SMPTE Bars & Tone, leading and trailing black, use device control and BAM! I was recording to tape with no apparent problems! Played the tape back, everything looks great!

So now I'm capturing a 20 min segment, then I'll add titles and cross-fades, goose the audio a bit, and print to video again. Once that's done I'll post again, but so far everything seems copacetic!

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/4/2002, 12:30 PM

One more time...

I was going to post about how wonderful everything was working at this point, but of course the wheels came off the wagon! I captured two 20-min clips, edited them and began recording the first one. The 30 secs of bars/tones recorded OK, the 10 secs of leading black recorded OK, and the first 30 secs or so of the timeline recorded OK.

Then there was a little "glitch", just a second or so. Then about a minute later another glitch .. then another .. then a cascade of them! Right back to where I was before! Of course, I hadn't allowed myself to get too hopeful but it was still hard to accept.

I'm going to power the system down, let it set a few mins, reboot & launch VV3 then immediately try to record to tape. I mean, I had recorded a 3-min clip earlier with no problems at all. Let's hope the system just needed to reboot. If that doesn't work then I'm starting from the top of the external monitor setup checklist and working through it carefully.

And if that doesn't work it's reformat/reload time!

SonyEPM wrote on 10/4/2002, 1:05 PM

is anything running in the background when printing to tape?

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/4/2002, 4:54 PM

There's no other applications open when I print to tape. It printed OK for the first 3 mins, then a single glitch, then at about 6 mins it started to stutter fairly often. I shut down and plugged the drive and camera into my "good" computer and VV3 printed to tape without a problem. It's definitely something about that computer that still isn't quite right.

I've DL'd the Douglas Spotted Eagle text from CreativeCow.net, as well as the David LaBorde tweaks. I'll give all that a try Monday. Thanks again for lending a sympathetic ear and some good advice!

Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/16/2002, 12:35 PM

Well, from my previous posts you can see I solved the camera hanging the system problem, so I'm going to start a new thread about the rendering to tape problem. Thanks for your help!