NEED HELP...corrupted capture problems!!

Zendorf wrote on 8/1/2003, 1:42 AM
I have had a very frustrating problem ever since using the Canon XM-2 and Vegas 4 that is related to the video capture. When capturing, I seem to get random coloured "squares" about 10 pixels in size, appearing and corrupting my captured footage. There seems no rhyme or reason for this problem as this corruption is not on the original footage. The squares pop up maybe every 10 seconds , sometimes every 30 secs or so...only for a frame each, sometimes there are a few on the screen, though usually 1 or two.
As I have usually done short films or music videos, it has no been too problematic, as I have been able to paint out the offending frames or just get creative with edits. But with a wedding video I just cannot get away with those tricks! Also, I once used a Sony VX-2000 with Vegas 3, and that is about the only time that I have never gotten any of these sort of problems , so not sure if it is a Canon related problem?
Although I know Vegas like the back of my hand and love using it, I may have to go back to Premiere (shudder at the thought) if I can't get to root of these problems. If I had a DV deck to feed into Vegas, maybe it would give me a cleaner capture?

If anyone can give me any insight it this, I would be most grateful!!!!!!

By the way I am using Vegas 4c on a win2000 system (but have had same problems on a Win98se system). The hard drive I am capturing to is a brand new 80G 7200rpm drive that is almost totally empty. On this particular job, the wedding was shot on a JVC
DY-D700WE and feeding it in using my Canon XM-2.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 8/1/2003, 1:58 AM
1 - I'm using XM2 with V4 - No problem.

2 - You say you are getting footage from a JVC via the XM2. What is the JVC cammy? Is it DV or analogue? If it is the latter are you using the XM2 as a convertor? If you aren't using it as a convertor, and therefore the JVC is DV, why don't you feed it directly to the firewire? You must have a very good reason - please share? If you are using the XM2 as a convertor this smacks of a DV flow problem - yeah?

3 - Try taking some pure XM2 footage and feed this into V4. If this works then, IMHO, it must be the JVC>XM2 procedure. Can you capture the JVC stuff to the XM2 THEN when captured, load it to V4.

I'm very interested in your feedback,

Grazie
Grazie wrote on 8/1/2003, 2:01 AM
Another thought! How are you using the XM2 AV>DV conversion procedure - if you are doing this - how are you going about it?
Zendorf wrote on 8/1/2003, 3:15 AM
Hey Grazie....thanks for the input! The reason I am using the XM-2 for capturing, rather than the JVC is that I only have access to the Xm-2...my only option currently. I seem to have had this problem (the artifacts) ever since using the XM-2 with Vegas, as the VX2000 didn't seem to give these artifacts. Of course, there are other issues that may be causing the problems...such as my drives (though have tried a few different ones...IDE and firewire) or OS .

The wierd thing is that lately, when rendering finished projects to AVI's (in DV format) and mpegs...I am getting the occasional artifact (as mentioned earlier...squares that pop up for a frame like an oversized pixel)...very occasionally, maybe 1 or 2 in a 3 minute piece. Maybe I should try a different capture program such as Scenalyser? The other strange thing is that I never get dropped frames...just artifacts
Grazie wrote on 8/1/2003, 4:06 AM
I'd really like you to shoot, on the XM2, some "clean" new footage on a spanking new tape and then capture this to V4. Have you done this?
Zendorf wrote on 8/1/2003, 5:35 AM
I should re-iterate here that I have not only had this problem with the XM-2 , as I just tried using a consumer Panansonic to feed in the same bit of footage....twice, and got the "digital blemishes" happening in different spots each time...so presumably the camera has nothing to do with the capture problems. To narrow down the problem further, I will try a third party capture program, such as Scenalyser. I have a feeling that video capture in v4 is at the heart of my woes.....?
Zendorf wrote on 8/2/2003, 7:21 AM
After downloading and purchasing Scenalyzer I am almost a happy man. It is capturing a hell of a lot more cleanly than Vegas was, with only about 5 little glitches (a frame each) over a whole 60 minute tape. Still don't know the cause, and I find it hard to believe that no one else has had a similar problem...as I have had this curse on two totally different systems as well as cameras! Something must have changed in the capture part of Vegas between versions 3 and 4?...hmmm
Grazie wrote on 8/2/2003, 9:32 AM
Which version & build of Vegas are you using? Just re-read your post - V4.0c.
John_Cline wrote on 8/2/2003, 10:03 AM
Normally, these gitches are data throughput problems. Make sure you are using the latest service pack (V4) for Win2k and make sure that DMA is turned on for your new drive. (You can check it by going to: Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE Controller > Primary (or Secondary) Controller) There was also an issue with earlier versions of Win2k that when it saw an ATA100 capable drive on one of the IDE channels it would default to PIO mode transfers for both drives on that channel. PIO mode is slooooow. You might also want to get the latest Win2k chipset drivers for your motherboard (available either from the motherboard manufacturer or directly from Intel, VIA, SIS or nVidia depending on what chipset your system uses.)

Also, turn off all background anti-virus programs and any other unnecessary programs that might be hogging CPU or PCI bus resources.

John
Zendorf wrote on 8/3/2003, 12:06 AM
Thanks for the tips John...they are all good ones! The only thing I haven't already done, from what you said, is to upgrade to the latest service pack of Win2000...I may have to try it, though I don't usually like to be on the bleeding edge when it comes to Microsoft (ouch). I am guessing my problem is due to a number of variables, as when I used to feed my footage in with a VX-2000 with V3 of Vegas, I never had this problem. Whereas, now in V4 I get the problem to varying degrees with various combos of cameras,pc's and drives(ATA and Firewire).

The wierd thing is that now that I have started using Scenalyzer, the footage is coming in fine. I did have some glitches on the first tape I ripped in (as stated above), but the next 3 have come in perfectly! Voodoo at work folks....all I can say is that if anyone else has had these problems, grab Scenalyzer...it will save a lot of heartache, and that batch preview feature is AWESOME. It will preview the whole tape in about 5 minutes, you can select the clips you want to rip in and presto..it does it! Saves lots of manual searching :)