Video has no colour ie Black and White Only

leeparvin · Post by **leeparvin** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:19 pm

Win2K
VideoStudio 10
IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
JVC Camcorder
DirectX9

Ive downloaded the latest version of VideoStudio, but when I capture the video (using DV, or any other codec/format), the image captured is always black and white. It should be colour!

Researching the MS Knowledge bases, Im wondering is it to do with the Fixed/Variable data rates???????? ie its not picking up RGB data, and hence Black and White?

Ive checked the :-
1.) Firewire is working OK, since Device Managers says the device is working properly, and the DM also shows the Microsoft DV Camera and VCR
2.) DirectX9 is working OK, since checked it using Start->Run->dxdiag

Therefore that only leaves VideoStudio - I think???

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Lee Parvin

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:02 pm

I doubt very much whether it has anything to do with variable vs constant bitrate.

Normally, the black and white problem arises EITHER where you are trying to capture, say, an NTSC video using PAL equipment which cannot properly deal with NTSC video, or vice versa.

OR when you are trying to capture from an analogue video camera or VCR using an S-video plug at the device end which feeds into a RCA-composite plug at the computer end. (Using a composite yellow plug at both ends usually corrects it, though video quality may not be as good as you might otherwise have achieved using S-video.)

Do either of these situations match what you have been trying to do?

If not, can you tell us exactly what you have been trying to do: capturing from what? In what format? What the connection is? Any capture devices involved? Having an idea of your computer specifications would also be useful.

leeparvin · Post by **leeparvin** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:32 pm

Hi Ken

Many thanks for your quick reply.

However, I have now finally fixed the problem (after 7 hours of perserverence and frustration!!).

The answer was to turn down the Hardware Acceleration of the graphics card. (Control Panel->Display->Settings->Advanced->Troubleshoot->Hardware Acceleration)

Basically the graphics card panicked when running the avi etc, and therefore removed all RGB data from the video stream, and hence produced the video in Black and White only!!!

So, again many thanks for your help. Now I need to go and buy a better graphics card for my PC.

Cheers

Lee Parvin

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:38 pm

Not knowing what your graphics card is or, indeed, what any of your system spec's are or what you are capturing from which device in what format, I doubt that your findings are entirely correct.

The graphics card has virtually no involvement in "capturing" DV-AVI. That process is merely a copy/paste operation from the cam to the PC via firewire.

Before you rush out and buy another card, how did you connect your camcorder (analog/digital?) to your PC. What format did you try to capture?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:02 am

One of the reasons I asked him to explain exactly what he was doing was that I was not sure that he was in fact trying to capture DV via firewire, even though he mentioned both.

leeparvin · Post by **leeparvin** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:03 am

Hiya Heinz

The capture settings are :-
Source : JVC - MSDV (my JVC camcorder)
Format : DV

The camcorder is connected through firewire (VIA card)/ firewire cable.

The PC is about 3 years old. 1GB RAM / 1.6 GHtz processor

The Video card is a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX400 32 MB.

Like I mentioned before, by adjusting the Hardware Acceleration, the video rendering changed ie from B&W to colour. The Hardware Acceleration level, which changed things, was the level that disabled all DirectDraw and Direct3D accelerations. ie disabled DirectX accelerated applications.

To prove the point, I ran a standalone AVI file, and by altering the Hardware Acceleration, it effected the AVI rendering ie B&W / Color

Ill be honest, this does seem a little strange to me, as I ran dxdiag.exe, and it confirmed that the DirectX acceleration/rendering test all worked OK, ie Start->Run->dxdiag->Display->Test DirectDraw / Test Direct 3D.

Anyway, I hope you find this information usefull, as someone else might have the same problem in the future.

Cheers

Lee

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:54 am

No, I don't find it useful, I find it disturbing.

Just googled for JVC MSDV and came up with a lot of negative feedback, see http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q ... arch&meta=

Not sure what the problem is but I have problems accepting the video card. Is the captured DV-AVI actually B&W or does it only show it B&W?

What OS are you running?

leeparvin · Post by **leeparvin** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:55 am

Hi Heinz

O/S = Win2K SP4

I agree with you, there some bad feedbacks about JVC MSDV.

As I have mentioned, I ran some independent test, which are :-

1. Load explorer
2. Open a standalone .avi file eg Test.AVI (which is colour, tested on another PC)
3. Wndows Media Players loads (this is the aplication associated with .avi files).
4. The first frame of the .avi is displayed. This is in colour, and therefore correct.
5. I press Play
6.. The .avi starts to play *** This has now changed the avi to Black and White ***

Because of these tests, I believe the problem lies with the rendering subsystem and not VideoStudio.

When I capture the video from the camcorder (Firewire/DV Cable etc), VideoStudio preforms a Copy/Paste to transfer data from the camcorder to the PC's buffer etc. VideoStudio then calls the API's, to render the buffer data, to display the data in the preview window.

This is where it fails!!! The API's have rendered the data into Black and White, and not color. As far a VideoStudio is concerned, it has done the job correctly!!!!

If its not the VideoCard? then why does the avi file work correctly when the DirectX9 acceleration is turned off??

Cheers

Lee