Comments

nlamartina wrote on 4/1/2001, 7:23 PM
Use the program that came with VV, "VIDEO CAPTURE". Odd
name for a print-to-tape tool, but that's one of its main
functions. Do it like this:

1. Load your rendered file in the program.
2. Enable the output to DV (in the VIDEO menu)
3. Play the file from the software and hit REC on your deck.

Really simple. Really nice results.

If you can't find the VIDEO CAPTURE program, it's at:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/step2.asp?DID=259

Be sure to read the manual too.

Regards,
Nick LaMartina
Caruso wrote on 4/1/2001, 8:53 PM
NLAMartina's instructions are correct. However, if the
renedered size of your project is greater than 4gigs, then
you won't be able to render it in one avi file.

If that is the case, then the method you tried can work, as
there is audio, it's just not coming through the firewire
(why is that, Sonic Foundry? could that capability be
enabled?).

I have several such projects, and have been using another
program to string the avi's together for playback.
However, since my ultimate destination is VHS for general
playback/distribution, I did exactly as you suggest,
playing my project from the timeline via playback to
external monitor, using my DV camcorder pass the video
through to the SVHS machine. I routed the sound via the
ministereo jacks on my computer directly to the SVHS deck's
RCA inputs. The results were as good as anything else I've
tried. In a 35 minute video, there were only two very
minor video glitches. Sound quality certainly exceeds the
requirements of any playback equipment this little
production will ever encounter, and, I got my project onto
tape in one piece. My DV camcorder locks out all analog
inputs when the 1394 cable is plugged in, or I'd route the
sound to the RCA in/out jacks on the camcorder to make a
permanent digital record of my projects.

Playing from the timeline is not a perfect solution, but
it's not a bad compromise, in my opinion. It is important,
of course, that the avi's you combine on the timeline have
been rendered already so that all FX are an integral part
of the avi. As you've probably already discovered,
unrendered FX are recompressed during playback to
external . . . and the output of these FX suffers greatly.
There is a discussion in the manual about pre-rendering an
unrendered project and then paying that back to external
monitor. I've played with that a little, but not enough to
comment on how it works.

It seems that, wherever my curiosity on this topic takes
me, I find folks wrestling just as we are with some way to
flawlessly output back to tape. Pinnacle's StudioDV
product is good for combining long strings of pre-rendered
avi's, but, I've found that, invaribly, I encounter a
glitch or two during output to tape, and, in some cases,
the glitches are followed by loss of sound sync (and yes,
I'm using the QDV.dll file version suggested as optimum for
avoiding loss of sound sync).

I'm confident a real solution is just around the corner.

Caruso