MSP: How can both the speed and direction of an A/V clip be changed?

[Patrick]

In MSP, whenever I take a clip and try to reverse it AND also change the speed with which it plays back, the program chokes and tells me that I've performed an illegal operation. Of course, at that point MSP shuts down and I have to reload everything again. Is this "normal"?

The method I've used to get around this problem is to create (render) an avi file of the reversed clip, insert it back into the time line, and then change the speed of it. This works, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary steps. Is there any other way to do it?

[Grigory]

Patric,

I'm afraid you have to wait for MSPRO version update that is able to only "perform a legal operation"

Do you know any program that is able to do that now?

I'll keep in mind the bug you have found.

Grigory.

[Patrick]

Grigory, I've had the opportunity in the past to edit video with a Mac based Media 100. It's proprietary editing software was great and I don't recall any combination of commands freezing up the program.

I take it then that this is a "bug" with MSP, and that it isn't something that I've simply configured incorrectly.

I can see now that after a few more months of using MSP, I'll be able to add my own contributions to the MSP "wish list" that we had at this forum a while back.

[DrMordrid]

I just tried this and it worked just fine. I changed the speed first then reversed it.

Maybe you need to check your setups or reinstall MSPro 5.2.

Dr. Mordrid

[Rick6612]

Hi Patrick,

I once tried to make a video clip go backwards and slow motion. MSP let me select these options without any complaints. But, as soon as I tried to render the video, MSP crashed and burned.

I have never tried it again since then, assuming that if it crashed once, it will crash again. I am guessing this is either a bug in MSP itself, or maybe it's something that the Matrox MJPEG codec can't handle properly.

Rick

[Patrick]

Doc, I'd be interested to hear whether you slowed the clip down or speeded it up when you reversed it. I was trying to speed the clip up when I was having the problem. After reading your post I thought I'd try it again, but I instead slowed the clip down. Sure enough, it worked fine. However, this obviously doesn't solve the original problem.

Hmmm.... it's interesting to note that Rick isn't able to slow the clip down and reverse it without MSP crashing, but I can. There must be a huge number of variables involved here.

[DrMordrid]

This is getting interesting ;-)

I just captured a fresh 5 minute clip at 704x480x30fps w/44.1khz stereo off cable with the G400 Marvel to test this again.

First it was loaded it into Va of MSPro 5.2 full and the speed set to 50%. Then I reversed it.

The cutlist preview played perfectly.

Rendering it to an .avi file completed without incident.

It played back in ActiveMovie perfectly.

On subsequent tries setting the speed to 150% and 200% also produced the proper results. No crashes or errors, just a lot of people sounding and looking like chipmunks on acid ;-)

The problem is not the Matrox MJPeg codec or MSPro per se. There has to be an installation or setup issue that is tripping up the horse. Almost any of the multimedia drivers or software in the chain of events could be responsible.

If your versions of Windows has it installed you might want to run c:\windows\drwatson.exe from your startup folder when the system boots.

With DrWatson running if/when you get a crash a very detailed report of the incident is generated, displayed and saved as a binary file. You also have the option to save it as plain text. As in 500k of text.

A DrWatson report would be very helpful in figuring this out.

As a point of reference; I've done this combination of effects dozens of times with the RRS/Mystique220, Marvel G200 and Marvel G400 using various versions of MSPro and on multiple hardware systems (Bx and MVP-3, K6, K6-2, PII and Celeron) under Win95/OSR2, Win98 and WinNT4 SP's 4 and 5 without problems.

Dr. Mordrid

[Patrick]

Doc, I do have the DrMordrid, I mean the DrWatson program installed on my computer. I executed the program, and when MSP crashes, DrWatson starts to record the settings, but then the computer freezes up solid while DrWatson is still recording. After rebooting, I am not able to find any sign of these (incomplete) records.

Is there something I could do to help DrWatson finish his job?

[Rick6612]

Hi Patrick,

I guess I should point out that it was quite some time ago that I tried to do this, and I never tried it again since then assuming that it would never work. If I can remember, I will try it again tonight and see what happens.

Rick

[DrMordrid]

Did you look in the C:\Windows\drwatson directory? They will have a .wlg extension.

Dr. Mordrid

[Patrick]

Yes Doc, I looked in there and the only file to be seen is of the system "snapshot" that I had taken manually (prior to the crash).

DrWatson almost finishes doing his thing when MSP crashes, but he freezes when the whole computer locks up about 2 seconds after the initial crash. So when I reboot, there is nothing new in the DrWatson folder.

It'll be interesting to hear if Rick still has problems, and if he does, maybe he can access his DrWatson files.

[Rick6612]

Hi Patrick & Doc,

I just tried it again. If I do reverse and slow motion, it seems to work. If I do reverse and fast motion, I get an Invalid Page Fault.

I didn't try Dr. Watson yet. I'll try that after I send this in case it locks up my machine like Patrick said it did on his machine.

Rick

[Rick6612]

Hi Again,

Well, I tried it while Dr. Watson was running, but I'm not sure it did anything. I guess I've never played around with Dr. Watson much before this, so I'm not really sure if I did the right thing or not.

Anyway, I got this much from the Details of the "Illegal Operation" message:

VEDITOR caused an invalid page fault in
module VEDITOR.EXE at 0177:00542226.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=00542226 EFLGS=00210202
EBX=7f56a914 SS=017f ESP=00d6eb90 EBP=00d6ec2c
ECX=3fa7f494 DS=017f ESI=036501f8 FS=1a37
EDX=00000000 ES=017f EDI=06268000 GS=1af6
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f3 ab 13 c9 f3 66 ab b8 01 00 00 00 e9 65 fd ff
Stack dump:
06190028 00000004 06ddaa2c bff713ee 00000177 bff7a2d4 00006191 00d6ebec 000a8c50 00056394 06190020 bff7a391 00b40000 061e63b4 00020001 0000ac44

Rick

[Patrick]

Hi Rick,

Just for the heck of it, I've posted my version of what you've posted, just in case it makes any sense to someone.

VEDITOR caused an invalid page fault in
module VEDITOR.EXE at 0177:00542226.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0177 EIP=00542226 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=7fdbd9d4 SS=017f ESP=00d6eb90 EBP=00d6ec2c
ECX=3fec91d9 DS=017f ESI=02e501f8 FS=216f
EDX=00000000 ES=017f EDI=0dcbd000 GS=445e
Bytes at CS:EIP:
f3 ab 13 c9 f3 66 ab b8 01 00 00 00 e9 65 fd ff
Stack dump:
0dc663bc 00000004 0ec8e1b8 bff713ee 00000177 bff7a2d4 0000dc67 00d6ebec 000528bc 00056394 0dc663b4 bff7a391 00b40000 0dcbc748 00020001 0000ac44

Of course, what you and I have posted is NOT what DrWatson records.

When I don't have DrWatson running, I can shut down the computer properly when MSP crashes. However, with DrWatson running, the computer locks up tight as I explained in an earlier post.

A program that's supposed to help solve problems isn't much good when it seems to add to them!

[DrMordrid]

It sure would be nice to get a DW report as it usually (later on in the report) lists what DLL or system files involved. Oh well....

You might try this: DON'T run DW before MSP. Run it AFTER the crash but before you do anything with the error dialog. Never can tell, it might catch something even if it's not running during the crash.

Another thought is to run (for Win98) the System File Checker program (c:\Windows\system\sfc.exe) and see if anything is missing or modified. Before running the check go to it's Settings page and check off both the Changed and Deleted boxes at the bottom. From SFC you can also review the log of all changes to system files and print it out.

Otherwise my only other idea is uninstalling MSP, the video and capture drivers and refreshing your Windows installation. Then start over by reinstalling Dx, MP, display, video tools and MSP in that order.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 09-29-1999).]