Having tested four machines, it sorta makes it less obvious, but are you sure you're not sharing resourcews? Do you have 1394 networking enabled? If so, disable it in your Network settings.
There are other things to check , but these seem to be the two most common factors in PTT failure.

Just had a PTT failure. Don't do much printing back to tape so I'm not sure if this was the first time on this box. (Using V7). Had recurrent droppage of print (blue screens). Some would last a split second, some would last several seconds. I had created a DVD from the same timeline with no problem. Basically had normal DV.avi clips and audio tracks but with serious color correcting.
Decided to see what would happen if I rendered to new track, then muted out the old tracks and tried a PTT. Worked fine. Don't know why though!

I've never had a problem printing to tape, either. I went straight from my timeline back to the camera (Canon GL2). I don't use the option much anymore, but it never failed me when i tried it.

Hope you can get it to work soon!

Perhaps some more specific information, like what you did and what happened, any messages etc.
Also what kind of video, what model of camcorder.
Can you capture video through the same setup?

Bob.

Or, perhaps more pointedly, can you use firewire out to preview on an external monitor?

I don't use the print to tape option anymore but when I did, I always got the blue screen problem Terry discussed above. I contacted tech support a few times but nothing ever fixed the problem so I just gave up.

I've had problems printing long videos to tape from the time line. I resorted to rendering to m2t files and selecting print from file instead of from timeline...and that worked.

The first thing to test is usually whether you can do the simplest PTT, and then gradually make it more complex. So it could go like this:

--Print a single short DV clip back to tape
--Print a single long DV clip back to tape
--Print an edited DV program back to tape
--repeat for HDV if you need to

Since some people do have success, it really does point to 24Peter being the common problem, perhaps in that he has a common hardware preference, or setup practice, or he just lives in a zone of bad luck.

I used to have problems whenever a networked printer would fire up, especially if 1394 networking was enabled.

Rob Mack

I've done PTT a handful of times in V7 and never had a problem; were you trying to use an external firewire drive perhaps? Or were you always using one of the internal drives? I typically use an external USB drive or an internal drive, and FW out to the cam of course.

Unfortunately, there are lots of possibilities...Consistently picking a brand of camera that doesn't play well with a particular 1394 controller, software setups that periodically (or immediately) interrupt the print, network controllers, maybe even particular types of media that are always on a timeline. Whatever it is, it sounds like it's something that is consistant across all 4 systems.

I'm assuming some other applications can successfully PTT for 24Peter, just not Vegas.

Rob Mack

Thanks Rob, for your vote of confidence and unending support. :-(

Since people want more info...
First computer (back in da day), Win 98SE, external firewire drive, Samsung min-dv camera
Then two XP computers (latest one with AMD X2 3800+ SP2), both with two internal HD's (one for programs/OS, the other for video files), Panasonic DVX 100 camera
Vista laptop, external WD USB drive for video files, Canon HV20 HDV camcorder.
No 1394 networking enabled on any machines
Print to tape essentially fails after the first few seconds, intermittent blue screens on the camera.
In each case, Vegas captures video beautifully from camera (don't think I've ever had a dropped frame.)
Sigh... anyone recommend other software that I can use to record HDV back to my HV20 with?

Sorry to be such a downer. It's not nice, but when you've got multiple machines and versions of Vegas then you have to look for a common factor.

It could easily be Vegas all around, but more likely Vegas + deck. A one-two punch. Or maybe Vegas + 1394 chip + deck... some combination that doesn't work right when all parts are put together.

Or it could be a practice that you're convinced you have to follow but really don't. I see that sometimes here at work with an editor who's convinced the things he learned 15 years ago in an NLE designed to work with analog sources are LAW and these things cause him trouble with new programs.

I have a few of these myself... I install Zonealarm and AVG on every windows system I have control of.. Might be harmless but it's one of those situations where I could be the common denominator of a problem.

Seems to me that the best course will be to download a trial of some other program that can print HDV to tape and see if it works better.

I apologize for being so negative.

Rob

I think it has to do with the camera. I have a panisonc hand held i tried to print back to tape on it, and it would not work. With my HDR-fx1 it works everytime small files, big files, rendered files etc.. I lokked in the panisonic hand book it it mentioned that this camera did not have something (Icannot remember what that was) and that this function would not work,so you might want to try seeing about the spec's on your cameras
Daryl

opp's sorry I mispelled a bunch