Problem with print-to-tape glitches

stevemcx wrote on 7/21/2002, 11:25 PM

I've been a happy VV user for some time now, and have managed to figure-out most of my questions, but there is still this one nagging issue... When I use the print-to-tape app to write to my Sony TRV-900 via Firewire, I get a few small glitches. They do not appear to be a tape problem, and I do not see them when I record footage with the camera. I have tried printing manually (without DV control) and full auto - no difference. I see about 4-5 glitches in a 1-hour tape. They are fleeting - you have to pay close attention to see them, and they rarely seem to affect the audio. It's as though the computer briefly interrupts the datastream at random points (although separated by several minutes). There is no such problem on my renders - my DVDs and VCDs look clean.

I'm running W2K (default ACPI setup)/ 512M RAM / Athlon 1800+ / 40 & 60GB UDMA100 drives (defragged). The system works well and is stable in other respects. At this point my "workaround" is to make 2 copies of anything important so I have full coverage if I need to reload it onto the computer.

Any help or ideas much appreciated!

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 7/22/2002, 8:21 AM

You might verify that supporting folders you are targeting reside on your media drive(s).

Vegas can default these to your system drive if you do not specify or remove a media drive.

File>Properties>Video - Prerenders Folder
File>Properties>Audio - Recordings Folder
Options>Preferences>General - Temporary files folder

HTH, MPH

Former user wrote on 7/22/2002, 9:03 AM

Outputting to tape is real time, as opposed to rendering for DVD or VCD. This means the computer has to function, uninterrupted for the length of the program. Any disturbance by the softtware or hardware can introduce a glitch.

You might try turning off any USB devices, Network devices or anything that might make a call to the computer for attention( anti-virus, norton utilities, Windows Housekeeping, etc) Also, www. videoguys.com has information dedicated to tweaking certain OS's for optimum video editing performance.

Dave T2

Caruso wrote on 7/27/2002, 6:58 AM

I've mentioned this in reply to similar posts. I was experiencing a problem similar to what you describe and tracked it to a pointer device (track ball) driver that was intermittently (and very briefly) freezing everything on my system. I narrowed the problem down to that driver because I could actually see the movement of my pointer stop during these brief "freezes". I removed the driver, deleted it from my system, let WinXP load its generic driver, and have experienced narry a glitch during print to tape since. Some of my stuff approaches two hours, never a glitch.

As others have aptly pointed out, some bit of software is jumping up and diverting your system's resources to cause these glitches. If you routinely perform end task for all background aps, then, I suspect it you'll discover a driver of some sort running some device (like a mouse) that is nearly essential in running Vegas (like a mouse).

As also pointed out previously, renders that don't involved an outside piece of real time equipment (VCR/Camcorder) probably escape the glitch maladies because the computer can compensate for the irregular flow of data . . . while the VCR/Camcorder cannot.

I'm no expert, but, I've had my frustration with these glitches. I found my cure, good luck in finding yours. Hope you'll write back and enlighten us on the solution that solves your problem.

Caruso

speedjet wrote on 7/30/2002, 11:56 AM

I was experiencing the same thing, removed trackball drivers, usb devices, stoped networking (Windows 2000 with ACPI) and using a defragmented dedicated Promise RAID0 80GB (2x40GB). And the glitch occurs every minute or so, but just using The Print-To-Tape function of VidCap, not form the manul back to tape of VV3c

Any idea? I wanted to use the batch print-to-tape due the automatic deck control (a Sony DSR30P which must be unlocked audio during powerup to work properly).

Regards,

Luis

Silver & Digital wrote on 7/31/2002, 7:33 PM

I have been having this problem since day 1, it is really annoying!!!

Most times it was solved by setting Vegas3.exe to high priority under the task manager. However this did not always work – however it ALWAYS helps considerably.

Thanks to the track-ball people, they got me investigating things for the times when I still was in glitch mode!

End result I have two drives I use for video work – Drive 1 (main video drive) is an IBM ATA100 IDE drive, 60 Gig (love this unit). Drive 2 is an ultra 160 SCSI, 20 Gig.

I have discovered that when I am printing to tape from the IDE drive all is fine, however when I print to tape from the SCSI drive, after a short amount of time Audio noise (buzzing) start to build up, then a glitch, this cycle is repeated about ever 45 sec or so.

With today technology and speed, SCSI is just not worth the headache!