Announcement

**CarterTG** · 23 October 1999, 03:42

Yep, <A HREF="http://www.egghead.com/">egghead.com</A> delivered mine too if anyone's keeping tabs. Originally placed it about 10 days ago. Had it been on backorder any longer, I might've been tempted to seriously look into the RT2000... but would hate to use Premiere after investing the time in getting comfortable with MSP 5.2.

I had some concerns about running into IRQ conflicts, but all seems well... A FastTrak66 RAID was installed right before the Raptor went in... now all 5 PCI slots on the ABIT BH6 mobo are filled.. no lockups yet!

Before the RAID, the two original drives were [C:] & [D:] 10.1gig 7.2kRPM UDMA33. [D:] served as the dedicated video capture drive for the Marvel G200. The Raptor's Drive Test utility reports the [D:] drive to read at 9.1megs/sec and write at 7.2megs/sec. I can't say I've had any problems with this for the Marvel. The FastTrak66 [E:] is hosting two IBM 13.5gig 7.2kRPM ATA66 EIDE. The utility reports 33megs/sec read and a 26megs/sec write... WOOOHOOO!!!

Things I'll check into after some rest... [list=1][*]if the G200 will still behave and serve as the analog capture board[*]that MediaStudio Pro works nicely with the Raptor and won't complain if it's asked to convert MJPEG to DV[/list=a]

-

------------------
Carter
------
Abit BH6 v1.02 ATX motherboard
Celeron 433mhz
128mb PC100 SDRAM
[C:] IBM 10.1gig 7200rpm UDMA33
[D:] IBM 10.1gig 7200rpm UDMA33
[E:] FastTrak66 RAIDed 2x13.5 7200rpm UDMA66
[F:] 24x CD-ROM
[G:] SanDisk USB CompactFlash reader
Matrox Marvel G200 TV AGP
Canopus DVRaptor PCI
SBLive Value PCI
DLink Ethernet PCI
v.90 modem PCI
Win98, MSP 5.2
Canon L2
Canon XL1

**Jerry Jones** · 23 October 1999, 07:42

Congratulations guys.

And it's lucky you're using MediaStudio Pro
instead of Premiere.

On the Canopus DV Raptor User Forum, they
have discovered a new bug in Premiere that
forces re-rendering of all transitions if
clips are repositioned in the timeline.

With MediaStudio's 'Smart Render' operating
distinctly... MediaStudio users are not
experiencing this bug! Yayyyy!

Ditto on the Canopus DV Raptor. Mine is
trouble free and video editing is actually
enjoyable again.

I might mention that not only does Ulead
MediaStudio Pro function better with the
Raptor... so do the plug-ins available for
MediaStudio Pro.

a) http://www.vizone.com/product/vizfxm...xmspscreen.htm
ViZFX by Intergraph Computer Systems

b) http://www.borisae.com/partners/ulead.html
BorisFX by Artel Software

c) http://www.synergy1.com/
HollywoodFX by Synergy International

d) http://shell.aros.net/~cayman/
Power CG by Cayman Graphics

e) http://www.pixelan.com/uleadmsprodetails.html
Video SpiceRack PRO by Pixelan Software

**BrianP** · 23 October 1999, 08:00

I also received my Raptor from Egghead the other day. They must have sent out a big batch.

I will be posting my full comments after a weekend of testing, but so far the performance has exceeded my Marvel-200 in every category. Installation was a snap. I'm very happy with this hardware.

**Keith Wiebe** · 23 October 1999, 20:35

I ran into a snag with my Sony Digital 8 camcorder. When capturing using hi-8 tapes apparently some small glitches that aren't noticable upon playback are causing some grief when they are converted to the digital format. The corrupted frames I reported on to start this thread are repeatable places on the tape. There was lots of handheld moving shots so probably the tape was jittered when recorded and that produced some small inconsistencies in the recording. The owners manual does state that some "fluctuations" may appear when playing back analog tapes through the fire wire! I wonder what they mean by flucuate? The raptor may be not the thing to use when playing back ananlog tapes throug the Sony!
I'll keep everyone posted.

**Jerry Jones** · 23 October 1999, 22:51

Keith,

As I understand it, you're taking
analog tapes (which can be played from
your D8 camcorder) and you're sending
their content out the Firewire, right?

If so... try an experiment. Find an
analog 8 camcorder and play the footage
FIRST through the analog INPUTS of your
D8 camcorder. Then export the footage via
Firewire. I'm extremely curious to know
if there's a difference.

**Patrick** · 24 October 1999, 00:52

I know I'm setting myself up for possible abuse from the MiniDV "camp" at this site , but friends of mine with Digital8 camcorders have noticed something rather disconcerting that may apply to Keith's problem.

It appears that the built in TBC (Time Base Corrector) of D8 camcorders may only work with digital footage and NOT with analog footage during playback. The result is that in some situations, the analog footage exhibits a slight shake or shimmer. This is most evident with vertical objects such as fence posts, telephone poles, etc. This may be the "fluctuations" that the Sony user's manual refers to. If this is indeed the case, I'm a little disappointed that Sony makes NO mention that the D8's time base corrector ONLY works with a digital signal.

It is my understanding that the TBC in consumer camcorders and VCRs only functions while the unit is in playback mode. If the problem Keith has is a time base related error, this would lead me to believe that a test such as the one that Jerry is suggesting would do no good (unless the analog playback device had a TBC). This is because the D8 camcorder that the signal would be passing through would not actually be making use of it's TBC. It is still worthwhile trying, although now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not 100% sure that an analog signal can be converted to a digital signal in "real" time when it just passes through a D8 camcorder. Anyway, I think a better test might be to play back analog footage using a D8 camcorder, have the converted analog to digital signal go through the firewire into a second digital camcorder (D8 or DV), and have this second digital camcorder record the footage. Then play back this newly recorded digital signal, which would now be time base corrected, through the firewire into the Raptor. I'd be interested to hear if the previous problems that Keith reported would be eliminated or not.

So Keith... beg, borrow, or steal another digital camcorder and tell us what happens!

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 24 October 1999).]

**Jerry Jones** · 24 October 1999, 11:55

This is a fascinating issue for me as
well.

Let me tell you about a related experience.

Before I installed my Raptor, I had the
Rainbow Runner.

In my attempt to capture a news "package"
recorded on home VHS tape, I noticed the
Rainbow Runner began dropping frames at
the exact same spot... every time.

I then had a local duplication house dub
the VHS tape over to MiniDV.

Problem solved. I took the MiniDV tape
and captured via the DV Raptor with
no troubles.

I think this has to do not only with Time
Base Correction, but also with frame
synchronization.

As a former news reporter, I remember
getting VHS footage and if I attempted
to dub this VHS footage to 3/4 or Beta
and then edit it into a larger piece with
all BetacamSP and then play it over the
air... even with time base correction...
the video would break up wildly.

The solution: Take the VHS tape and
play it through a frame synchronizer.

The resulting footage could be edited into
my packages without breakup on air.

I really want my original suggestion to
be attempted... if you can... Keith.

In other words, dub your analog Hi8 to
VHS and then feed the VHS through the
analog inputs of the digital camcorder.

My question: Does the D8 camcorder
record timecode when analog video is
input in this fashion? My guess is yes.

On the other hand, when you play an
analog tape from the D8 camcorder... the
digital signal output via Firewire... to
the best of my understanding does **not**
feature timecode.

Until you prove me wrong, Keith, I'm
betting the analog footage can be edited
successfully---without frame corruption
or audio clicks---if you first input
through the analog inputs of the D8
camcorder.

Then again... Patrick might be correct.
A time base corrector might be needed in
any event. This is a question that I
find very interesting.

**Jerry Jones** · 24 October 1999, 11:59

P.S. I'm told you **cannot** input
through the D8 camcorder and get real time
output via Firewire.

You can, however, input analog... record
to tape... and then output via Firewire.

**Keith Wiebe** · 24 October 1999, 16:13

I just ran an experiment. I ran the problem hi-8 tape into VHS, back out to digital 8 and back into the computer and no more corrupted frames. If one does run into problems the best way to solve them is to record into the digital format first. I should have kept my Canon ES3000 to play back my hi-8 tapes when I run into problems.

**DrMordrid** · 24 October 1999, 20:34

Only ritual abuse Patrick :-)

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 25 October 1999).]

**Patrick** · 24 October 1999, 21:42

Yes Keith, that makes sense alright. Ordinarily I would be happy to hear that a theory of mine had been proven correct, but I certainly have mixed feelings about this. It appears that the re-recording of the analog signal into a digital format has allowed the TBC of the D8 camcorder to correct the time base error that was plaguing the original analog recording. If Sony was really on the ball, they could have designed the D8's TBC circuitry to correct the playback of both digital AND analog recorded tape.

If anyone is in the same position as Keith, I would suggest finding a friend with a D8 or a DV camcorder and do the conversion with the method I explained in my last post. This method would retain the original quality as much as possible. The second best method would be to play back the original analog tapes (with an analog camcorder or VCR) through the S-video connector directly into a D8 or DV camcorder.

I realize that Keith was just doing a test, and it worked well (as a test), but it would be a terrible way to deal with all older analog footage. It's better than nothing, but...

**Patrick** · 24 October 1999, 21:51

Hey Doc, you've got to give me some credit for not being afraid to criticize the digital format that I've been promoting somewhat here.

I still think Digital8 is great, it's just that once again Sony has given the masses a little less than they could have.

**Jerry Jones** · 25 October 1999, 00:19

Patrick,

I don't think Keith did what you
suggested:

>I think a better test might be
>to play back analog footage using
>a D8 camcorder, have the converted
>analog to digital signal go through
>the firewire into a second digital >camcorder (D8 or DV), and have this
>second digital camcorder record the
>footage.

What Keith did was what I suggested,
namely, dub the 8 tape over VHS and then
he fed the VHS through the analog inputs
of his D8 camcorder and recorded
digitally onto the tape in the D8
camcorder.

He then output that via Firewire.

**Jerry Jones** · 25 October 1999, 00:20

P.S. Keith, I've tried to replicate
the audio clicking using music
as you suggested. No dice. Ain't
happening here.

Announcement

Got my Canopus Raptor from Egghead!

Got my Canopus Raptor from Egghead!

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