Help please

Hi All,

As you know I am a beginner with HDV. I am using Prem Pro2 with a 3.0Gb Pentium 4 with 2.5Gb of RAM.

I am having problems exporting my edited video back to my camera (FX7) in HDV. I am using the export to tape option. There is no options screen for HDV, the program goes straight to transcoding. This process appears to complete OK and the camera completes the recording as expected.

When I play it back there are occasional hesitations, sometimes going to the blue screen and play back stops, other times it just continues.

If I start all over again with the export the same happens but in different places.

I am timecoding the tape prior to the recording by recording the whole new tape with the lens hood on. I am using Sony Premium mini DV tapes.

I have not experienced any dropped frames on filming and capture.

I would be grateful for any help and advice.

Thanks

Roger

You'll need to give more detailed settings for program and camera before anyone can help.

Is your camera software controlled or VCR mode no control?

What kind of drives are you using? Have you tried rendering then exporting out.

We need more details.

Hi Drew,

I don't think the drives are relevant here. The camera is connected directly to the computer via the firewire. I have rendered the sequence prior to exporting. The camera is set in VCR mode and operates with device control.

If exporting to tape in DV mode Prem Pro brings up a device control screen, but when connected in HDV mode it goes straight to transcribing.

Cheers

Roger

Roger,

I used to use a PC with DVMasterPro and Speed Razor back in my PC days. The system was sold as being able to do this that and the other whilst making coffee!! Needless to say it only performed half of the tasks it was heralded as capable of, including the coffee making unfortunately.....that being the reason I bought it!!

Anyway, Roger. Does the finished film play OK on the time line?

Do you have a View > External Monitor on your menu options?

If so connect the cam to the PC prep the film to play, pre record 30 seconds black and play direct from the timeline whilst recording to your camera. It saves all the faffing around with the tech settings which may not work that well with your configuration.

I'm not a 'tech head' when it comes to NLE. I just try to find a way for it to work. Getting the master is what its about.

Hope this helps.

Mark.

Roger,

Anyway, Roger. Does the finished film play OK on the time line?

Do you have a View > External Monitor on your menu options?

Thanks Mark,

I see where you are going, it plays OK on the timeline, BUT I don't seem to have a way of diverting it to an external monitor It actually plays OK most of the time after exporting to tape, I just get these occasional hesitations.

Roger

Roger

I think this could be your cause.

With Prem Pro you cannot encode out a m2t file to send back to your camera for later on.

If you have Aspect HD or Main Concept Pro plug in for Prem ou can though.

So what Prem does is to start rendering the m2t file, then once it has abit done (buffer) it kicks your camera into record mode and tries to send the m2t (HDV) file to it as it still encodes it out from the timeline.

If your computer is not fast enough it cannot keep up and then you will get gaps and all kinds of problems.

It's best to encode out a m2t (HDV) file from the timeline first then send that file once made to the camera.

Just another reason why I dumped Prem Pro.

If you are sendign it back as DV and having the problem, then it could be your graphics card. Sounds abit strange but it has happended to me trying out different cards.

Roger

the drive(as a component) actually matters. As Wagsy said, a pre rendered file is done in cache. So the computer does specific reads off the drive and often if the file is fragmented and the drive is slow, you get a hiccup which translates to dropouts.

If you are saying it plays fine off the timeline... set the external monitor to firewire and just hit record and play the timeline. The XHA1 guys also have problems with PP2.

Thanks for your help Guys,

I suspect this will turn out to be a slow hard-drive as my system is 3-4 years old. My hard drive is not fragmented, I have a defrag program running automatically whenever the screensaver starts up.

It is annoying to buy an expensive program like PP2 and then have to spend more "hard earned" on another program to do what the first should have done. However it may be the cheaper option.

I cannot find a way to make my camera an external monitor, so that option seems to be unavailable.

Perhaps I should have bought Edius

Anyone out there running Edius for HDV on a Pentium4 3.0 rather than a dual core as they recommend for HD work? Also is it capable of producing a m2t file for later uploading to the camera/VCR?

Maybe I shall have to start saving for a new computer Hmmm.... new housing, new PC, new program - just as well her indoors spends lots on u/w photography or it might have to be a new wife as well

Cheers

Roger

Im still only on a P4 3GIG

1 EDIUS can output a m2t file that can be sent back to the camera later on.

2 You can get realtime firewire out to a camera when editing in DV and HDV.

3 You can edit DV or HDV in a DV or HDV timline no probs.

4 It comes with it's own codec called Canopus HQ that converts the m2t into an avi format for easy editng and it can do it in real time as it comes in.

5 It's colour correctiion and slow mo is very good and in real time with HDV.

6 The rendered out m2t files are better and it does it faster than Prem Pro and or Aspect HD.

7 Rendering out flv, QT, wmv, mpeg2 or whatever is very easy.

8 If you get a card like a Quadro FX 560 or similar you can get component, svideo, VGA, DVI or composite out to a third monitor

If you tell them you have Prem Pro you can buy if for half price.

No I don't work for them.

Im still only on a P4 3GIG

 

No I don't work for them.

Hi Wagsy,

Thanks for that excellent summary. You may not work for Canopus, but if you ever leave the water you will make a damn fine salesman

Unfortunately the half price offer is only for Oz - still there are some in store UK offers, so I will have to consider carefully.

Cheers

Roger