There must be more too it then a congested soundcard. I use a humble system and I can play WinAmp while running a clip on VF. Sounds like something screwy in the codecs, or drivers. Try playing back something other then what you've captured, an mpg from the net somewhere (chienworks has an excellent site for that - and I thank him for it).

If that works then it might be a capture problem - in which case you'll want to check your options in the capture utillity, is your video recorded at SP or LP - I've never tested it but I've heard recording at LP can make editing troublesome.

If the mpgs fail as well then you know that VF somehow isn't integrating well into your system. You might try downloading a demo of a competing product to see if this is a VF problem or something with your system. Clear away any pirated or 'hacked' or possibly even freeware programs, especially games and anything that serves a multimedia function. Check to see if you have an extra soundcard mixer running in the background - there's a chance there's a microsoft one and one that came on a disc with your soundcard. Do you have a second soundcard for HD recording? Disable it and see if that helps.

That should keep you busy for a little while.

This might be wide of the mark: Have you updated VF2 with 2.0c build? Just a thought.

Chienworks, how do I make sure that there are no other system sounds? Like beeps?

Terry25, I do record at SP, my mpg's run fine, as do audio CDs, and I have only one soundcard. I've produced a couple of videos before with no problems during editing. I have had a hiccup here or there during Print to Tape, which I haven't yet solved, but I think that's a different issue.

One thing that is different is that it seems like this problem started around the time that I loaded SoundForge 5.0. Could it have something to do with additional codecs being loaded into my system that are now competing? Can I delete codecs or will that cause major problems?

How can I tell if I have an extra soundcard mixer running?

Thanks, thanks, thanks for any help. Joe

Joey: do you have anything like winamp, RealPlayer, Musicmatch, or something like that installed? They can quite easily get set to run in the background all the time. While they're active, they may be trying to use the soundcard. Ctrl-Alt-Del should show them if they are running.

I've got VF, Vegas, SoundForge, ACID, SIREN all installed on my computer and they all play together nicely.

Did anyone else notice this? Of 256 MB of RAM, only 96 MB are available? Is it me or does that seem way low? That's something like 65% being used. I also run WIN2000, and at startup, with DirectCD, MotherBoard Monitor, and 2 other system tray utilities running, I have about 425 of 512 MB available. If I open up VF, I drop down to 380MB or so. That's about 25% being used. I think finding what's eating up all that RAM will really help.

Something else I just remembered. This may help a bunch, too:

http://www.videoguys.com/Win2K_Tweaks.html

I've seen exactly the same error message under high load conditions, (using Vegas Video, Video Factory's big brother) meaning your system is about maxed out of resources and lots of stuff may be getting shuffled between RAM and the Swap/Paging file. Likely nothing to do with sound card or other software either.

Indulge me as I explain what happened to me and how I fixed it.

I was working on a large project with lots of filters applied, multiple video and audio tracks and I was able to play it back fine on the timeline, about 30 minutes into it I got the error you did. Things just came to a hault. I had just dropped in a fairly long audio file, so I yanked it. Got maybe a couple minutes further, crash again. So I try a different audio file. Same thing happens. I ask myself what's the odds of me dropping in two totally different audio files and both of them being corupt? Astronomical. I shut down, I try to play the two "bad" files in Media Player. They play fine. So fire up Vegas Video again, drop in more different audio files, still hanging.

I'm guessing during that little pause just before seeing the error message Vegas was reading/writing to its project file, so that's the next suspect. I save project under another name. Got further along, but in time hit the same problem and worse now the video and audio were badly out of synch. Way off. One audio track was playing a full five minutes ahead of where it was suppose to and at one point I could hear another audio track way out of synch playing over it, only faintly.

So how did I fix it?

Easier then I thought, maybe worth a try. I know the number of audio tracks are limited in Video Factory unlike they are in Vegas. I muted all audio tracks except one and closely watched and listened to see if the audio was in synch, if so, I moved on to check the next one. Luckly me I hit the bad audio track on the third try. Knowing which track was "bad" I first created a new audio track (I know you can't do that in VF) then copied the contents of the bad track to it, saving under a new project name. Solved the problem.

Sorry for be long winded but wanted to explain the why first. Maybe doing something similar will work assuming you somehow got a "bad" audio track. I would for sure save your project under another name, then see if removing the contents of your audio tracks one at a time either in total or event by event solves it. Good luck.

I think I may have found the culprit. Around the same time I loaded SF5.0, which I thought was causing the problem, I also bought a MAXTOR 80GB firewire connected external drive to capture video to a drive different than my work PC. I've done some prelim. tests and it looks like the problem may be the MAXTOR drive getting the data to my PC fast enough, but I'm not positive yet. Any suggestions? Chienworks, you use a MAXTOR don't you, or was that Grazie?

Thank you all for this advice. I will try cutting out the audio tracks to see if that makes a difference. Yes, my memory resources are limited because I'm using a PC set up for networking at my office (it's a laptop) and don't have (or want b/c I will screw it up) administrative rights to shut down all the stuff that runs for that (even when I'm not logged into the network).

Yup, I’ve got a Maxtor 60gb firewire running at 7200rpm. Check out the specified speed of your 80gb. In your spec. listings you don't say your Maxtor's speed.

My laptop is and has always been a standalone piece of kit. It does have the facilities for logging onto to a network but it has never been used for that purpose. You say yours is an ex-networked piece of kit? Maybe this is something else that’s in your way. I don’t do networks. However, using the firewire technology I’ve got a type of network – but via the Maxtor 1394 firewire PCMCIA card adaptor.

I use the Dell video qualified 4-pin firewire port solely for getting the video into the laptops platform. Then I use the Maxtor 1394 firewire PCMCIA card adaptor to solely access the Maxtor drive - read and write. I then use the Dell qualified 4-pin firewire port to get video projects out of the laptop.

My Maxtor is working great. If you have found a “problem” with it I would dearly like to know! I’m considering purchasing a further Maxtor – either a 80gb or a 120gb. But in both cases I will specify that they run at 7200rpm.

Regards

Grazie

I have also seen this problem: I'll be previewing the poject on the timeline, and all of a sudden it will hang, and then display the previously mentioned error message. At that point, however, I seem to have VF back again.

I have been simply restarting the preview again and proceeding with my work. (It's just a bad habbit I picked up back when I was running Win ME, which made me very, very used to minor crashes.) So far, it does not seem to have affected the end product.

BTW: I too am running a 80gig Maxtor Firewire external as my Capture and Work drive.

kcarroll

Dell Dimension 4100
1GHZ P3
512 MB memory
40gig System Drive
80gig Capture drive (Maxtor firewire)
Win 2000 Op Sys
Adaptec Duoconnect 1394 card

What speed are your Maxtor drives - 7200 0r 5400 rpm?

Grazie

I made sure I bought a 7200 rpm.

kcarroll

I also bought a 7200 rpm drive. I'm glad to know that the 'minor crashes' do not affect the end product, but mine crashes all the time. Do either of you know if there is any way to improve the configuration of the Maxtor and its working relationship with my PC? When I purchased the Maxtor I just plugged it into the 1394 firewire port that came installed on the back of my laptop (a Toshiba Tecra9000)and Win2000 detected the hardware and I was off and running. I never used the installation disk that came with the Maxtor drive. In fact I purchased a Maxtor 3000DV-80GB and last night I looked a the installation disk it came with and it only has an installation program for a 3000LE and a MAXTOOLS.exe program. Will the MAXTOOLS help?

Joey515

Hmmmm.... Have a look at the review link below and ascertain if you think you may have software which is required for firewire. Do you think the 3000LE is for USB 1.1 and 2.0 rather than firewire?

"If you need another reason to upgrade to USB 2.0, we've found it: Maxtor's Personal Storage 3000LE, one of the fastest external hard drives we've seen. Its 40GB capacity and USB 2.0 connection make it a roomy and speedy portable backup device. It's also both faster and cheaper (as well as 20GB smaller) than its sibling, the Personal Storage 3000DV FireWire (IEEE 1394) drive."

http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/review/0,12070,535079,00.html/

And again look at the Maxtor site for any clues.


Grazie

Joey - I would just like to reiterate... I don't use the same firewire port for capturing/editing attqached to the Maxtor firewire port.

That is, I use a PCMCIA firewire card adaptor for the Maxtor, which I use for capturing and editing AND a dedicated 1394 firewire 4 pin port to "bring" the video in and then on completion sending the "finshed" video out.

You sound like you bring video in and send video out AND have your Maxtor firewire drive attached to this as well. Is this the case? If it is, and I can not offer any precise technical comments on the suitability of doing this, my opinion is that you may be asking too much of a firewire port. But I don't know. What I DO know is that I have a 4 pin firewire port DEDICATED to video into the laptop and video out AND a DEDICATED PCMCIA firewire card accessing the Maxtor. And it works. Is this any help?

I know that in theory one can "daisey-chain" firewire devices together up to some incredible number on configurations. My laptop is a Dell and when I asked and researched the option of adding a purely data, ie external Maxtor drive to this 4 pin firewire port, the feedback I got was that the Dell 4 pin firewire port had been solely "qualified" for video in/out - and that only.

If you want to take my suggestion it is up to you, but I decided to clearly dedicate a PCMCIA firewire card for the Maxtor [this PCMCIA card is the one Maxtor supply, so I thought I was onto a wineer from the start!]

Grazie

Grazie:

I think you may have broken the code. In fact, the VF email support guy (Josh Dodge) wrote:

"As it turns out, there is a problem on certain configurations using a
firewire external drive as the source location for files. If possible,
transfer the files from the external drive to an internal IDE drive. Then
disconnect the firewire connection. Are you still getting the playback
error? This has to do with the way your motherboard is handling the massive
data throughput being passed over the PCI bus from 1_ the IEEE1394 bridge
where you are reading data from and 2_ the PCI audio interface"

I did in fact transfer all my files from the Maxtor to my internal drive and I no longer have the playback/mix audio problem. It sounds like your solution will allow me to continue using my Maxtor for external files, but I need to route the data flows a bit differently. What model of the Maxtor PCMCIA adaptor card do you use?

Cheers,Joe

Grazie:

I need some help understanding what your configuration is with your Maxtor. From what I understand you have:

1) the firewire port that is built into your laptop that is for just video in/out (not "purely data" - I don't understand this, why is this different than video?); and,

2) a Maxtor PCMCIA firewire adaptor card that you use to access and edit your video files that are stored on the external Maxtor drive.

What I don't understand is what you mean by "a dedicated 1394 firewire 4 pin port to "bring" the video in and then on completion sending the "finshed" video out".

I understand that you simply route the Maxtor through a PCMCIA card, but what I don't understand is the video into and out of the laptop. What is that firewire hooked into? Your DV camera, a TV, another device? I guess I'm not following you, but whatever you're doing sounds right. Can you clarify?

Thanks a gillion, billion, zillion. Joe

If this is the solution...BRILLIANT!

It is the Maxtor PCMCIA Type II 1394 Adapter card. Oh yeah, when I just removed it without going through the proper procedure, ie clicking on the Card Removal Icon, it just threw me a warning saying I should do it properly! That was in my haste to tell this...

On the card there is the www.maxtor.com link info. I think it cost me £45.00GBp. So over to you! PLease tell us if you get a result...

Best regards

Grazie

1) the firewire port that is built into your laptop that is for just video in/out (not "purely data" - I don't understand this, why is this different than video?);

Grazie: Correct- This port is purely for my video in/out - SO when I capture in VF I capture through this port AND direct it to be saved on the MAXTOR drive. For me this Drive F:

and,

"2) a Maxtor PCMCIA firewire adaptor card that you use to access and edit your video files that are stored on the external Maxtor drive. "

Grazie: Once I have video clips captured on the F: drive I then use VF to access these files for editing and video manipulation. Sometimes I keep my VF project files on my C: drive or on my F: drive. I've decided to keep both drives working as little as posssible. When I'm working in "anger" the red lights on bot drives barely go into hyper-drive. Which is a good thing!

"What I don't understand is what you mean by "a dedicated 1394 firewire 4 pin port to "bring" the video in and then on completion sending the "finshed" video out"."

Grazie: On my Dell Inspiron the firewire port that was built into it has been qualified [a Dell word] for video solutions - AND NOTHING ELSE! That's what they told me and they actually provided a seervice atement when I recieved my Inspron, to that effect. SOoooooo... I keep this port as Video In/Out.

"I understand that you simply route the Maxtor through a PCMCIA card, but what I don't understand is the video into and out of the laptop. What is that firewire hooked into? Your DV camera, a TV, another device? I guess I'm not following you, but whatever you're doing sounds right. Can you clarify?"

Grazie: That's correct [see above] the 4 pin firewire port is only used for connecting to a DV device. In my work I use an analogue cancorder and have its AV signal converted by an external Hollywood Dazzle Bridge box.

Please tell if you can't follow my logic and I will have another go!

Cheers

Grazie

Grazie:

Thanks for the clarification. I think I'm getting it. In a nutshell:

1) Your camcorder is connected to your Dell via the 1394 port that came installed with the computer (via the Hollywood Dazzle Bridge box). Through this port you capture video and send it to the Maxtor drive for storage via the PCMCIA 1394 Card adaptor?

What I've done, and which seems to work (for capturing at least), is to connect one 1394 port on the Maxtor to my camera, and the other 1394 port on the Maxtor to my PC. Then with VF I capture video right from the camera to the external drive.

2) When you edit the captured files on F: drive you must use the PCMCIA 1394 card adaptor since the Dell-installed 1394 is not "qualified" for this?

Cheers,
Joe

Absolutement!

Grazie

Joey 515

Okay, what have I/we learnt? Try to keep a “process” to one drive only. Keep, as you should, your programme files on drive C: Next, place captured files on another drive [for me that is the F:]. Then render the whole project to another drive [hopefully for me that will be drive G: when I buy one]. Presently I’m rendering the whole project to either the F: or C:. Then and only then do I Print to Tape – or create a VCD. I know, I know in theory, and for some in practice, you can “distribute” a project directly from the pre-rendered stage. However my basic engineering savvy has told me to allow motors, devices, appliances and works machinery not too have to work at full bore – even though they, theoretically, can! I want to get the job done and be happy and get on with the rest of my life.

Soooooo…. It seems as if your process works fine for capturing – good! But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by what you know that works. I understand that you capture directly to the Maxtor – right. Stay with me on this one. You have your programme files on the C: drive – n’est pas? Is that correct? Okay, I’ll assume that is true. Right, you now have to edit your Opus Major – a good video and it plays – where are you keeping it? Where are you keeping the VF project files? When I mean the VF project files I mean the files that are being created by VF as the structure of your completed movie? If you are keeping them on your C: okay. However if you are keeping them also on your F:, you not only have your raw unedited captured video “footage” but also your work within VF that will eventually be used by VF to, in my words, “knit together” your finished video, also on the same drive. Okay, if this is the case you have a lot of “information” all piled up ready for the “off” when the starter of the race sends away the horses.

Okay – here comes Joey telling VF to now:

1. Start the print to tape process [ this is a call on the C: drive to start the Print-To-Tape procedure]
2. This now picks up the information about the first scene [this is lying on the F: drive] select from the raw footage the DV that is wanted and at the same time ….
3. Pass this information from the F: drive to the Tape through firewire port.

Now, ostensibly this should work – but it does put an enormous demand on the processor, the drive/s and the cache buffers of all the devices concerned to get it all together at the right time. Don’t forget when we are playing around with this DV stuff we are “piping” [oh that’s an old MS-DOS term – my age is showing!] a lot of information, data and commands going backwards and forwards. Having WinMe has shown me to be realistic – not a bad thing as when things go as they should, I’m hysterical. [Oh I pity those poor souls who have their bolted down Win2000 and XP Oss systems and don’t have the joys of the surprise of having things work correctly on WinME [ please don’t pick me up on this one - I’m just having an ironical stab at myself!] ]

Hmmmm… do I think that all you need is a C: drive? Realistically, in my humble opinion, I don’t think so. But hey what do I know!

Best regards – and get on and make some “funky” movies!!!! Please tell us all if you have found Nirvana…

Oh yeah you promised a Gold Star!

Grazie