framedrops w/Promise Fastrack?

[funsoul]

Hello all,

Had major problems with my pc so ended up reformatting the c: drive and rebuilding.

For some odd reason, I'm now getting approximately 8 drops per minute. Before the misadventure, was getting an average of about 1.5/minute. I've made all the tweaks in the matrox faq. The capture drive benchmarks at a smooth 34meg/sec.

Please help! Not sure what I'm missing and don't know where else to look for answers

My system:
pIII 500
asus p3bf6
256meg ram
promise fastrack66
3 45g maxtors (raid0)

Have tried with virtualdub (finally starting to learn it) and avi-io with the same results. Test captures were made at 704x480 and then at 352x480, 29.97fps, uncompressed, 44.1KHz.

Thanks in advance,
-funsoul

[Dr Mordrid]

1. install the latest drivers, if you haven't already.

2. install the FastCheck utility program, but opt for it NOT to run automatically at startup. It's only necessary for #3 and for RAID0/1 arrays.

3. run FastCheck and on the Options page turn OFF the S.M.A.R.T. feature.

The S.M.A.R.T. feature checks the drive(s) every few seconds for failure. Nice for a critical storage drive, but this usually causes a dropped frame if done during captures.

Leave the CACHE feature turned ON.

4. Check the drives part # and see if it has an "H" as the second to last character. IF so it's an ATA100.

Maxtor made a running change last summer and most ATA66 models are now ATA100, even if not labled so. Maxtor ATA100's have Write Verification turned on by default. Write Verification too can cause drops by halving the throughput of the drive.

After 10 powerup cycles WV is supposed to turn itself off, but if it doesn't Maxtor has a utility program for turning it off manually. Get the utility here;

http://www.maxtor.com/products/diamo...res/21008.html

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 25 March 2001).]

[funsoul]

Hi!

Thanks for the tips Dr. Mordrid! Made all the changes you suggested but am still getting the dropped frames.

Am also now getting weird effects using avi-io (it crashes) and virtualdub (when I start the capture the capture display stops...ie- it's just a still image of the frame where the capture started). *groan*

Anything else you can think of?

Thanks in advance,
-funsoul

[funsoul]

Ohhhh Noooooo!!!!

Something seems wrong with the RAID now

Matrox benchmark says about 23meg/s. Sandra says about 6meg/s

HELP!!!!

[Dr Mordrid]

They are measuring different things.

The Matrox benchmark, one that is also NOT known for its accuracy, is measuring sustained sequential writes.

The SANDRA benchmark posted on the bar graph is measuring a composite of sequential, random and cached reads and writes.

As such the comparison is invalid.

What you want to check in SANDRA is contained in the scroll box below the bar graph. Look at the number for sequential writes.

Also, you might want to check out the post I just made about CACHEMAN.

You might also want to make the changes to your OS listed on Matrox's Win9x optimization page for video editing;

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/fa.../video4.cfm#33

The changes on this page for VCACHE would be handled by the CACHEMAN program noted earlier.

Dr. Mordrid




[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 25 March 2001).]

[funsoul]

Hi again Dr. Mordrid,

First off...thanks for all your help!

OK...something's really wrong here. The bar at the top of the Sandra benchmark used to be excellent. Now it says that it's just slightly better than a UDMA33 10g drive

The readings in the lower box are:
Buffered Read 223MB/s
Sequential Read 8MB/s <<<<---hideous!
Random Read 1061 KB/s
Buffered Write 199MB/s
Sequential Write 33MB/s
Random Write 18MB/s
Average Access Time 52ms (estimated)

I've already made all the system tweaks listed in the matrox faq.

Thanks once again,
-funsoul

[Dr Mordrid]

Sequential reads always are low in SANDRA. I wrote them about that bug some time ago.

As far as random reads go that is inconsequential unless you're running an insurance co. database It also folds into the other read issue.

The IMPORTANT number is the sequential writes being 33 mb/s. That shows things are OK there as it matches pretty well with what the Matrox benchmark is giving you (it usually reads low).

Just for the helluvit have you tried reformatting the array or reinstalling your capture drivers?

Dr. Mordrid

[funsoul]

Hi again

OK...uninstalled all the Matrox stuff using their pd_unin utility. Reinstalled w9x_541, 9xvt152e and the yuy-enabler and tried capturing.

Did the first capture using avi-io, yuy, 704x480, 29.97fps, uncompressed. Used to cap with these settings with no problems. Still getting the massive framedrops.

Second test was with PC-VCR remote, mjpeg, 30fps, 44.1KHz and got 0 frames dropped.

UGH! Does this mean that the problem sits with the RAID setup? What should I do from here?

Please help....your guidance is most appreciated!
-funsoul

[funsoul]

WooHoo!! Hmmmm

It appears as if one of the maxtors had a loose jumper. The framedrop issue is back to it's previous state of around 1.5/minute. Is there any way to get it to zero?

In what may be typical, there is now a new problem, though Audio's not doing it for me. The audio in the PC-VCR test capture is great, in avi-io and virtualdub nada.

I've seen posts on this issue but if you feel there's a quick, easy answer...please post it if that's ok.

Thanks again...apologies for my newbisms
-funsoul

[funsoul]

oh my

Thought I had everything working but was woefully incorrect.

After dropping massive frames began testing all components individually. Reformatted, re-installed win98se, flashed motherboard and promise BIOS, etc.. The hardrives on the RAID are in factory condition so thought that somehow the fastrack66 had died. As they're all ata100 drives, I rationalized the purchase of the fastrack100 enough to buy it.

After fresh install and continuing problems...I finally contacted Promise tech support (the guy was really nice btw and the phone only rang a couple times). We went through the basic stuff then he told me that the card hates sharing IRQ's with anything. After telling him that it used to work beautifully sharing with the matrox, he said that I should see a hige increase in throughput off the RAID. He made some suggestions (which I followed).

Came home and installed only the o/s, matrox, primary h/d and the RAID. Fdisk'd and booted. The promise was sharing an IRQ so restarted and assigned it to 10 (which nothing else was using). Formatted the array and ran benchmarking.

UGH!!! It's still not working!!!! Looks slightly better than an udma33 but not as good as a single 66.

I feel like I must be missing something so obvious it's taken as a given! I used to cap at 704x480, 29.97fps, uncompressed, 44.1KHz and get minimal framedrops (does anyone really get zero?).

If any of you could suggest what to check or try next, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks
-afrustratedfunsoul

[Technoid]

I could Capture that resolution on a single IBM DTLA on an I815 mainboard despite having a SB Live in the system without dropped frames...

[funsoul]

Wow!

Even in fullframes(uncompressed) mode??? For how long a period of time? At around a gig per minute, it eats up space like crazy. Most of my captures are in the 60-120 minute range.

What kind of sustained throughput do you get from your ibm???

Any ideas on what I could do to fix my RAID?

[Technoid]

Since i live in PAL zone i only capture 25 frames per second so i might have a lover datarate (Doc had an argument about that a while ago but i don't remember if they ever agread).
But when i first had gotten My IBM i tryed to do crazy things like trying to max out the 24+ MB datarate capabilites.
Full rez RGB did'nt make it drop frames and after 5 minutes i got bored and concluded that it was fast enough for me.
I'l boot upp my capture rig and do a bench to confirm.

[Technoid]

Now i Can't capture RGB at all!
AVI_IO wants to compress it with cinepak and dropps frames like mad.
With pure YUY2 it doesent drop frames at all.
Now the damn Screensaver kicked in and BSOD!
Time to get it configurd properly!

[kleinbull]

I've been thinking about this too, because I just got my WD 15Gb hard drive back on the Hot Rod ATA 66 bus, and I can capture at 704x480 in both AVI_IO/Huffy and PC-VCR with AVI-IO showing 0-1 buffers, or happy I guess.

But, I still get dropped frames no matter what resolution or program I use. With AVI-IO I can hide this by allowing full frame replace, but with PC-VCR, I only get what looks like an H-sync or v-sync drop as a picture.

Then, isn't it the card that's causing the drops and not the transfer rate? I've wondered about the Philips tuner and it's high "Q" ability or ability to hold and maximize the carrier signal, but maybe that's not the case if recording from line in or S-video.

Just a thought

J.Klein