Is there a Sorenson 3 bug I should know about?

fherr wrote on 12/31/2002, 3:23 PM
I can render my 2-minute video to Quicktime format using Sorenson Video (2) without any problem, but when I try to do it using Sorenson 3 (for comparison purposes), the resulting .mov file opens in the Quicktime player with no video, just audio. Anyone else heard of this problem?

Thanks,
- Frank Herr

Comments

mfranco wrote on 1/2/2003, 10:10 AM
Hi, what version of Sorenson 3 are you using? There is the standard one that comes with quicktime and a professional version. You could also find an answer at this quicktime user group/list: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/quicktime-talk.

Good luck,
franco
fherr wrote on 1/3/2003, 3:46 PM
It's the standard Sorenson 3 that comes with VV3 (at least I thought it came with VV3 - maybe it came with QT). I found someone else who had the exact same problem, and he shed some more light on this bug: it seems to occur only on computers with an Intel on-board graphics adapter. Also, if you resize the Quicktime Player window slightly during playback, the video portion of the movie will appear and play right.

Though he got no response from Sorenson, I've tried emailing them as well to ask if there's a fix. Or at least if there's any more information about the bug. If I knew for certain that it would solve the problem, I'd pay for the Pro version of Sorenson 3, because when I could finally take a look at it, I liked the results much better than those I got with Sorenson 2. Specifially, the 3 movie had no compression noise on the blank wall behind my subject.

Thanks for your interest. If I don't hear back from Sorenson, I'll try that QT mailing list you suggest.

Cheers,
- Frank
fherr wrote on 1/6/2003, 9:20 PM
Update in case anyone's searching the archives in the future: I found a solution. Following up on suggestions from the QuickTime mailing list (thanks, franco!), I found a document on the Intel web site that says that certain video modes of my Intel 82815 Graphics Controller may or may not support DirectDraw hardware overlay support.

This in turn led me to check what refresh rate my monitor was set at, at which point I discovered that for some reason I was using a generic "Plug and Play Monitor" driver for my Viewsonic PS775 monitor. As soon as I re-installed the PS775 driver and set the refresh rate to 75 Hz (listed as supported at a resolution of 1024 x 768 in an Intel PDF, the problem was solved and I can now view the Sorenson 3-rendered .mov in QuickTime without error.

Obscure enough for ya? :-)