DC30 V1.41 Driver Issues

[Pooh]

Hello Peeps

I was weondering if anyone else has come across the following issue with version 1.41 drivers for DC30 series boards.

What happens is as follows. If I capture a file ( source is either VHS recorder or Sony Hi8 camcorder) the capture process goes fine. When I import the captured files into Premier 5.1c the early frames anywhere from the first frame to the first 25 frames are all black. This also happens with the subsequent clips if I have made a long capture with AVI_O.

If I try to view these files in the Premier timeline in filmstrip mode I get a totally black series of frames that lays itself out very slowly.

Another thing that I have noticed is that when I zoom into the timeline, again in filmstrip mode some of the frames appear to be half black and half with the image in it.

I de-installed 1.41 and re-installed the earlier driver version and this problem dissapeared.

I would much rather run with 1.41 as it fixed a few of the bugs in the earlier version. At this time the earlier version seems to work more reliabiliy.

Comments would be appreciated.

Pooh

Spec PIII-600, 320Mb Ram, Maxtor 36Gb, DC30+, etc etc

[This message has been edited by Pooh (edited 02 January 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Hi Pooh,

Hey, boot's on the other foot now, I've gotta start asking lots of questions of my own

How do the Pinnacle driver release numbers tie up with those displayed in the system properties (or Pinnacle hardware test app) ?

I started taking a look at your problem, but the driver revs on my machine are 4.4.1.17 ,not 1.x. I drove on over to Pinnacles site to have a look there, but no clues are given. Are you using the "official" 1.41, or the 1.41a beta's ?

[Pooh]

Hello this_idiot.

The info displayed by miro hardware test utility shows the following info

driver 4.3.2.21
miroavi cache 4.3.1.1
mirovideo Expert 4.3.1.0
miro instant video 1.1.20 (premier 5.0.

These are the drivers that came on the installation Cd when I bought the card in June last year.

As far as the 1.41 drivers were concerned they were the "official" drivers and not the beta.

Hope this helps

Pooh

[This_Idiot]

Hi Pooh,

OK, my readings are :

4.4.1.17
4.3.1.1
4.3.2.2
1.2.21 (Premiere 5.x)

Looking at your details and the info from the Pinnacle site, it looks like your current (old) drivers are the 1.32 whereas I am using the 1.41. I got this by replacing the leading 4 by 1, and then leaving out the period between the next two groups (so 4.4.1.17 becomes 1.41, 4.3.2.21 becomes 1.32 which according to Pinnacle was the driver release prior to 1.41). Glad we got that sorted out.

Back to your original question then. Yes, I'm using the 1.41 drivers, and I am not having the same problem with black frames that you describe. I wonder if this is something to do with the version of Premiere that you are using ? I'm using 5.1 (RT).

BTW, do you have any problems trying to view clips using MediaPlayer ?

[Pooh]

When I applied the latest Premier patch it took me from 5.1a to 5.1c which is also the RT.

Media Player, Hmmmm. To be honest I can't remember. What I think I will do is unstall Premier and then reinstal just applying 5.1a update. Reinstall the DC30+ with the 1.41 drivers and then see what happens.

I'll repost when done

Pooh

[This message has been edited by Pooh (edited 02 January 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Hi Pooh,

Good luck. I think that all 5.1 are "RT", at least mine is labelled as being "RT version" and is V5.1a. I haven't messed about with upgrades yet since it would kinda kill the whole point of a review !

The MediaPlayer problem I was talking about is that trying to play back any clip captured on the DC30 via Mplayer results in horrific jerkiness in the playback, whatever the capture and/or playback resolutions. I never got this with any of the Matrox cards, so I am anxious to get to the bottom of it in case there is an easy workaround.

[Pooh]

I used to be able to get silky smooth playback using Media player6.4. As you say however it is now very jumpy.

The jumpy playback has shown up after yet another reinstall on Win98.

I am sure that there was a patch/fix for media player that allowed it to play back these files smoothly.

The old version of media player ( mine is mplayer.exe in c:\windows 156Kb dated 11/5/98) will play back the miro captured avi's fine if you select MiroAVIcache as the device. Once this has been selected then chose your miro file and away you go.

Pooh

[This message has been edited by Pooh (edited 02 January 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Damn Pooh, I just D/L MP6.4

BTW, I had this problem with a DC10 on a completely different system and tried several versions of MP. I'd really like to know the answer.

[Pooh]

Hello Peeps, Update time.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on here but here goes.

I unstalled the 1.41 drivers and installed the 1.32 drivers and the problem went way. Unfortunately some of the reliability associated with the 1.32 drivers came back, (jittery frames after drops, etc ).

I decided to go back to the 1.41 drivers and on doing so captured a clip 688X560. When that was imported into premier all looked fine. I then chose a small segment of the original clip ( 15 secs ) and exported that out as a new movie preserving all the original settings. I then imported that movie back into premier and ...... Black frames at the very start of the clip which when displayed on the time line gave a very slow update.

What's confusing me is this. I had an idea of adjusting my timeline windows options. Initally it was set to display in flimstrip mode with the largest image size. I changed the image size to the medium one and low and behold the problem went away.

Has anyone else seen this happen or have any other feedback ??

Thanks


Pooh

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[This message has been edited by Pooh (edited 17 January 2000).]