Yet another 4 Gig Problem, but not THAT one

jonsteel wrote on 4/19/2001, 3:34 PM
I am using a Sony 520 DV Camera and I can only seem to be able to print movies to tape that are rendered as uncompressed. If I try to render with any compression the output gets audio echo, video garbage, and general unhappiness. This, however, does NOT happen if the video is rendered as uncompressed. But, as you all know if I use uncompressed I hit the 4gig mark at about 4 minutes, which gives me the nasty little message that "I am insane and need more disk space - so says The Bill". I am having a hard time believing that 4 Minutes of video should be my max.

So the questions are:
1) What am I doing wrong? (please limit your answers to the topic at hand - no comments on my personal life please)
2) Is there a setting I am missing on the camera?
3) What about the driver?
4) Do I need to import (err.... capture) the video with the same compression I will use for output? (If so...How?)

Machine specs:
Processor: AMD K6-2 500mhz
HDrive: 60gig (Mostly dedicated to only video - some audio used for the videos)
RAM: 256meg

PS - I do limit my apps running to only those doing the editing and the ones MS sees fit for me to run. There are no startup apps - nothing in the systray (besides time and audio control). No other "background" apps.

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 4/19/2001, 4:43 PM
This sounds like you are not using a 1394 DV card for
capture. Is that true? If you don't have a 1394 card your
should get one (Pyro, SIIG etc- less than $100 bucks).
VideoFactory and Sony DV cameras and 1394 cards play very
nicely together- any thing less defeates the whole point of
DV.

If I'm wrong and you are using a 1394 card, let us know and
we'll go from there.
jonsteel wrote on 4/19/2001, 5:41 PM
Sorry left that off...

In fact I AM using a SIIG 3 Port 11394 card.
SonyEPM wrote on 4/20/2001, 9:19 AM
If you want to go back out to DV, your only option is to
use the "NTSC DV" avi template. Don't customize any render
parameters- just use the stock template. You should get
very good results with those render settings. Use ANYTHING
else and you are going to have a non-compliant DV file.
jonsteel wrote on 4/20/2001, 12:37 PM
Ahh... But that IS the problem.

If I use the "NTSC DV" template to render with, I get garbage back out. If I use "Project Default Uncompressed" everything works great, but my video size is limited due to the lack of compression. It is the "Output" that is killing me. Everything going in looks great; it is the printing to tape that is the problem.
SonyEPM wrote on 4/20/2001, 1:59 PM
try this: capture a DV file thru 1394 with SF Vidcap. The
driver should say "Microsoft Camera and VCR". Try printing
that same file back to tape with vidcap- don't even open it
in any other app, just print it right back. If that doesn't
work, its probably a codec issue.

If you can't print what you just captured, see the
Troubleshooting OHCI doc on our website (VideoFactory
download page).

If you can print this file back right after capturing, I
think something must be wrong in your render settings.
jonsteel wrote on 4/25/2001, 1:39 PM
I have followed the directions, yet I continue to get garbage out. I tried the copy into VC then right back out and that did not work. I get video then *pop* garbage, then video again. Other symptoms include smooth running video, but the audio "peaks" out and pops. When printing to tape sometimes it sounds as if the camera "drags" - As if a command was sent to it to stop then start. I have installed DX8a as well as the new MS drivers. It does say MS DV & VCR on the VC screen. Help please!!!
DaveP wrote on 4/27/2001, 9:56 AM
I would suggest that you download and install the latest
verison of VC. www.sonicfoundry.com/download. This is the
latest update to the application (we are at version 2.0e).
There are several things that could possibly cause the
problems that you are experiencing. Make sure that you have
DMA enabled on your hard drive. If you a VIA chipset on
your motherboard update the drivers. Make sure that your
card is not sharing an IRQ with any other device on your
system. If you try those things and still are having
problems contact the technical support department.
SonyEPM wrote on 4/27/2001, 1:15 PM
Problem solved: The user turned DMA to ON for his IDE hard
drives and that fixed it.

Always turn IDE drive DMA to ON- no bad side effects but
Win2k for some odd reasons sets this to OFF.