Success with Print-To-Tape!

Grazie wrote on 8/22/2002, 5:09 AM
Well until further notice I seem to have driven the gremlins away.

I've done some further experiments. What I held onto during all this time was the fact that sometime back I had successfully PTTed a piece. The only difference between then and now was that then I was rendering a heavily edited - text, dissolves, overlays and so on. Recently - last 4 months - while I had been experimenting with VF PTT facility and getting "drop-out", this had been with brand new, recently captured footage, yes, via my Dazzle Hollywood Bridge. I then re-rendered the same footage, without any edits or splits or whatever - still drop-out. Soooo.. I took a recently captured fresh AVI file - it failed, drop-out - and then made some simple edits, ie only making some "S" key splits in the 4gb length. Rendered this [clip R1], and as a test sent it through Studio 7, and it worked. Retried same re-rendered clip, R1, through VF Print-To-Tape and it worked too, no dropout. I will continue on this approach until something else throws a spanner in the works!

There are presently 4 conclusions I draw from this:

1. My set-up is quite capable in handling the PTT procedure with a 4gb AVI via my Maxtor firewire drives etc etc , and yes I still have WinME
2. Re-rendering newly captured footage without any splits or edits does not solve the problem.
3. Applying splits or edits in the raw captured AVI, and then re-rendering, can only be making the timecodes more consistent, vital for sending to tape
4. The Dazzle will capture DV, but in my humble opinion, I need to be wary of the resultant AVI file potentially not being "timecode-consistent".

Okay Vfers - in rendering an edited AVI does this produce more precise/consistent timecodes? It must be making brand new ones, at least. I don't know enough about the timecode structure to be assured this is in actual fact what is happening.

Please respond - even if it is a "Grazie, go and look at this website!" response.

Thanks for all your patience,

Grazie

Comments

Simmer wrote on 8/22/2002, 11:39 AM
Grazie

I am running WinXP home on a disk formatted NTFS.
I am also experiencing this anomolly with drop outs (whole black scenes).
As I recall I mentioned in an earlier post (about a month or two ago) that it
seems to occur around transition points. I'm not sure about this however.
Since I'm running NTFS I don't believe it is a 2-Gig boundary issue in my
situation.

Is this similar to what you are seeing?
I've considered re-rendering to a smaller AVI with simple transistions as you've
done (S key splits only) to see if anything changes but have not had a chance to do
this yet.

My settup is similar to yours in that I'm using the Dazzle Hollywood Bridge.

I begin PTT, the first few minutes seem fine (and actually really good quality).
These first few minutes do have a few transitions, titles and stills.
After these few minutes I transition into another scene using disolve (actually
just overlap). The transition works fine. But then right after the transition,
nothing but black. Audio continues to play on however.
A few minutes later, video reappears.
This cycle continue on throughout the production.

Anyone have any clues?

I'll keep banging my head against the wall until I find some more info. :-)

-Mike
Grazie wrote on 8/22/2002, 6:39 PM
Have you actually made any cuts/splits, in what I would call the original "timecode" sequence, that Dazzle laid down? Or are you just sliding sections of captured footage together?

"I've considered re-rendering to a smaller AVI with simple transistions as you've
done (S key splits only) to see if anything changes but have not had a chance to do
this yet." - Do try this out as a test and see if it works. You do seem to be using unaltered Dazzle tracks, this I feel is my problem.

"After these few minutes I transition into another scene using disolve (actually
just overlap)." - Do you think you may be sliding one clip over another and at the back end of the second clip you've inadvertedly left a "black" space. If the music plays on then maybe you've separated the Video from the Audio and have moved the two tracks independantly of each other - Been there... done that too...!

G
Simmer wrote on 8/23/2002, 1:10 PM
Hi Grazie

Thanks for the suggestions.

My original captures have been altered! I've S-key split several things out
here and there in many of them. Mostly start/end pieces removed though.

What I'm going to do is...
1) PTT with each take by themselves to see if all is OK individually.
2) Combine 2 takes and then PTT.
3) Combine 3 takes and then PTT, etc.

Hopefully this will guide me toward which part of the entire process if
behaving badly.

Thanks again Grazie

-Mike
Grazie wrote on 8/24/2002, 6:36 AM
It's a pleasure. From what you are reporting, I wonder if the Dazzle is misbehaving at the start and finish of a capture? Hmmmmm...

Mike you say, "What I'm going to do is..." - any luck yet? Good or bad it is all worth reporting.

G
Simmer wrote on 8/26/2002, 12:49 PM
Oooo. I hope its not the Dazzle. :-<
But I must admit, that is a variable that must be addressed.

As to having been able to try my experiements out yet?
No. Had a busy weekend. Daughter's birthday party.

But hope to get to it SOON!

Let you know what I find out.

Thanks Grazie

-Mike
Grazie wrote on 8/26/2002, 2:23 PM
Family first!

Look forward to hearing from you.

G