VS11+ randomly stops during capture

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:52 pm

Help! I upgraded to VS11+ recently and I thought it worked well however now as I have time to attack my project I find that during capture the program stops capturing at what appears to be a random moment in time. Here are the details:
System Sony Viao 590G with upgraded video card, maxed out memory, upgraded power supply, and multiple 500GB drives. I am running Windows XP SP3 all current updates in place. I have 120 GB available on the drive I am trying to capture to.

I need to capture my old VHS and 8mm tapes to video. I have a ADStech Pyro AV 550 revE converter box connected via Firewire. Video studio recognizes that capture device as a digital video source. I would like to capture in DV format type-1. I have set the capture time to 1 hour so I can break the 2 hour tapes into 2 files that can each be output to a standard DVD for archiving. I had originally captured the entire 2 hour tape to a single file however the time to split in videostudio to 2 files far exceeds just recording 2 separate files.

Capture starts and proceeds normally but ceases after 1-12 minutes at some random point that differs with each atempt each time. The apture just ceases and the program appers ready to go again - not froizen nor are any error messages displayed.

What could be the issue here?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:15 pm

Hi

When you say the program stops, do you mean the program stops or capture is terminated.???????
You then press the capture button to start capture.

OK

If you capture to Dv-Avi and intend to save the video file to DVD then the Avi needs re-coding to Mpeg.
It will take the same time to render two separate 60 minute Avi¡¦s as it would to split a 2 hour, and render each section.

Have you tried capturing direct to DVD format. No more rendering.

Using a bit rate of 4000 will allow 2 hours of video to a standard DVD
6000 allowing about 90 minutes.
8000 for an hour

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:23 pm

Thanks for the fast reply.

By stopping, I mean the capture simply ceases - just as if you had hit the stop capture button. VS is still running and I could restart capture just by clicking the start capture button.

My intent with the capture of my VHS and 8mm tapes is two fold - 1) edit to family movie, and 2) archive the tapes to DVD for preservation. I had tried to capture direct to DVD format, however there were issues that I can't recall at the moment - might have been 2 hours capture = 100+ GB, mignt have been something else........

Post by **Ron P.** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:35 pm

Have you applied the update patch? The IVI capture plug-in with VS11 without the patch will not capture analog video. The patch fixes most of that.

http://www.ulead.com/tech/vs/vs_ftp.htm

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:01 pm

Hi

I do not own VS 11 but feel there is some problems with capture.

Do a search on the forum for ¡¥VS 11 capture¡¦

If you intend to capture to DV-Avi
You can download WinDV from windv.mourek.cz
This will capture to your hard drive.
Import the files to VS for editing and converting to DVD format

Capturing to DVD format (mpeg2) should be about 4 Gb per hour

Capture to DV-Avi format at 13 Gb per hour----best quality.

Capture to AVI (uncompressed) at 65 GB per hour (that¡¦s a lot¡Xfar to much)

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:29 pm

Hello,

I installed the v11+ patch - that did not correct the problem. I also tried using the Adobe elements v2.0 that was supplied with the ADSTech pyro to capture with much better results so the pyro550 appears to be working correctly. I will install V11+ on my laptop and try that route to see what happens.

I had previously captured all the video to DVD (mpeg2) format only to find it was very unsatisfactory when you burn a DVD. The images were pixelized where motion was occuring and were just not anywhere near as sharp as the recorded image (even compared to the old VHS tapes when played direct to TV).

Any additonal help greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Todd

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:10 pm

Because you device is an A/D converter under "Preferences" there are options for controlling the cam, you want to more or less go into a manual mode. Under preferences I would uncheck the option "Stop the tape" after capturing and anything related to automatic control.

Then when you click on the Capture Icon a box will pop-up waiting for you to hit the OK button to capture. This is so you can position the tape and all from the analog source feeding the A/D converter.
Make sure "Split by scene" and any splitting is off.
If you can disable where VS tries to control the cam may work because there is no cam to control.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:32 pm

Can we just confirm something. When you say you installed the 'update patch' on the link given by Ron/vidoman, did you apply the one dated 6 November (at the bottom of the list of three on that page); or the one at the top dates 5 December? It is the bottom one which is supposed to correct the analogue-to-digital DV via firewire problem. To date, the only device which we know that patch does not work for is playing an analogue tape in a Digital 8 camera connected via firewire. However, I acknowledge we only received one indication from a user that it also fixed the problem for external DV/firewire capture boxes like yours -- though I am pretty sure that user had a Canopus box and not a Pyro.

There is probably little point in installing VS11+ on your laptop, particularly without the correct patch, as the problem was across the board on a wide variety of computers using either XP or Vista. The only viable option to date is to use a third party program to capture (as you have already done with Elements) and then import the captured files into VS for editing. Personally, I use WinDV which has already been referred to.

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:51 pm

Hello,

I installed only the 12/5/07 hot fix 01 as I thought I had installed the other pack previously. Just to check I will go back and install the others tonight when I get home.

I'll save the laptop as a backup option. I have had issues with incompatible codecs when I have recorded with one software and edit in VS. Editing actually proceeds fine, the problem comes when I try to burn a DVD and get an unsupported codec message. At this point, I ll go ahead and try several other programs as you suggest. The elements 2.0 is not particularily friendly nor does it allow much in the way of setting capture options compared to VS.

Thanks again

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:27 pm

If you have installed the other two patches already, then if you click on the ? button in the top right of the VS screen, and then About, you should have version number 11.5.0157.2.

The Hot Fix was only meant to cover the single situation relating to installation described in the notes to it.

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:03 pm

I have now installed both patches and the hot fix. My version number matches the one you reference. I still have the same random stopping issues.

Where are the options to change the DV settings to "manual" equivalent? I cant find those anywhere in VS11+. I don't even see a place to specify AVI compressed versus uncompressed..... The options gear button only allows to capture to library or pick DV-1 vs DV-2. There is also only one capture plug in choice = IVI complaint and only device control option that seems to be allowed to be chosen = MS1394 device control. I did see the "stop DV tape when capturing stops" under preferences and unchecked that option. I don't see anything else that might help. Am I missing something here? The only other thing I do see is a check box to enforce split by scene which I am not using.

I will go back and try setting the compatibility switches on the AVPyro to various other combinations. There seems to be little clarity on how they really play into the function of how they function. The present setting 1-4 all down seemed to work fine when the 550 is connected to my laptop via 4 pin firewire. We will see tonight.

By the way - a couple of other easy questions 1) how do you get rid of the Ulead explorer folder that auto opens when you boot up, and 2) what is the wasy way to split a 2 hour recording into 2 1 hour recordings in a speedy manor? Attempting to crop to 1 hour and save seems to take the greater portion of a 24 hour day.

Thanks again!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:42 pm

Well, if it's not working even with the 6 November patch, then we might have to add the Pyro to the Digital 8 camera as devices which still cannot capture analogue material via firewire in VS11/11.5. And the only option is to capture using a third party program like WinDV which uses the same codec as VS. Or you could continue capturing in Elements and editing in VS.

When VS detects a Firewire device attached, by default it sets itself to capture DV (which more correctly is DV/AVI -- the compressed version of AVI used by mini DV cameras but also used in devices like yours.) Uncompressed AVI is simply called by VS 'AVI'. But if you have a firewire device attached, even if you manually choose 'AVI' as the capture format, it usually resets itself back to 'DV'. The Type 1 or 2 Encoder options under the Options button are the only ones available in DV mode, and normally we suggest people capture using Type 1 as VS seems more 'comfortable' with that (though curiously, VS seems to install with Type 2 set as the default).

The 'manual mode' etech was referring to was, I think, only the 'stop DV tape...' option in Preferences which you found. And there is only one capture plug-in used by VS11/11.5 -- the IVI (InterVideo) capture component you have seen. Corel in their wisdom changed the variety of plug-ins that worked in previous versions to this single one -- though to be fair, I think they had to change the original ones anyway since they were for the most part based on the DirectShow format which apparently doesn't work with Vista...

As to your other questions, I am really not sure to what you are referring when you say 'Ulead explorer folder'. I have never had any folder open automatically on booting-up the computer. Or do you mean the splash screen for VS which comes up before the main program starts? If that is the case, then untick the box in File > Preferences > General > Show Start-up Screen.

As for splitting a 2 hour video into two one hour segments, I am not aware of any shortcuts. I would place the full clip in the library pane first, so you have an icon of it there. Then I would drag that icon to the timeline, cut the video at the one hour point. Then I would highlight the second half and delete it from the timeline. Then I would go to File > Clip > Save Trimmed Video to save the first half of the clip as a new video. If you have, say, DV video and want the new clips also to be DV, then make sure SmartRender is enabled. The new DV file of the first half should render quite quickly -- probably no more than 5 minutes for the one hour of video (though that time will vary according to how powerful your computer is). A new icon of that file will appear in Library pane.

Then empty the timeline of the first half, and drag the original file icon back into the timeline. Repeat the above, but this time, delete the first half and then use Save Trimmed Video to create a new file of the second half. A second icon will appear in the library pane.

Using SmartRender, an operation like this should take no more than 15 or 20 minutes in all.

SmartRender only works, by the way, if you are creating a new file in exactly the same format and with the same properties as the original, so you can use it for DV > DV or mpeg > mpeg.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:26 am

Sorry I didn't post the exact settings, I wasn't at the computer before.
This is how I've been capturing using "PassThrough" from a JVC DV Cam.

Under "Preferences -> Capture Tab"
Check ON "Press OK to capture"
Check OFF "Stop DV Tape when capturing stops"
Check OFF " Show Dropped Frames"
Check OFF "Show Recover DBT xxxxxx"

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:07 pm

Hi backert1

A few things to check, just clutching at straws, but worth checking.

Does the digital timer on the capture window indicates 0-00-00-00?
(I said I was clutching at straws, and I realise you say random stops)

When you capture, the program terminates capture, does the captured file get saved to the capture folder?.
If yes
A thumbnail will be placed in the library and timeline.
If No
Check your hard drive, has any Quotas been set. These limit your hard drive usage for individual users. From My Computer-Right click the drive containing the working folder, select ¡¥Quota tab¡¦
Are the Quotas selected?

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:43 pm

Hi - I'll respond to the last few posts within this one.

First of all, thanks again for the continued suggestions, this has been a very frustrating process but things are looking much more positive.

Etech - I now have settings the same as yours unfortunately this did not help.

Trevor - there are several odd things that show up during a "freeze".
I do have literally hundreds of GB available on the drive I'm saving to and no quotas so that should not be a problem. There are two timers that show on the capture screen. One is located near the left center of the screen and is the running timer for the present recording (same place where you set the max length of the recording if you desire). That one never stops running even during a "freeze". The second timer is located at the bottom of the video monitor window. When the video in the window freezes that timer stops. When the video randomly restarts (can be in the middle of a scene) that timer restarts. I never really have understood what that timer actually represents as sometimes it begins at 00:00:00:00 and other times it has some time already logged which doesn't seem to correspond the the total of all recorded clips in the active library capture folder, or the total recording time of a particular session, or anything else that I can figure. In any case when the prescribed recording time runs out, a thumbnail and video of random length is placed in the capture folder.

Now for the good news. I have made several full recordings of 8mm tape through the Pyro box successfully. The key seems to be in how the 4 dip switches are set on the back of the pyro box. There is only little mention of the functionality of these switches in the documentation and only a little bit more online. In my most recent conversation with ADS tech support, I was told that the documentation is neither accurate nor complete. There are many more valid combinations of settings that may address compatability issues depending on; 1) the specific computer hardware it is connected to, 2) the specific OS and its configuration, and 3) the specific input device connected to the box iteself. I have found that when using my 8mm sony connected in combination with my Sony Vaio desktop running XPSP3 via a 6 wire 1394 firewire - the setting that works is 1-up, 2-up, 3-dn, 4-dn. If I am using my sony 8mm in combination with my Dell 820 laptop runnning XPSP2 via a 4 wire mini 1394, the only setting that work propery are 1-dn, 2-dn, 3-dn, 4-dn. This confirms the "try various combinations of the switches until you find one that works" advice from ADS. So I think (cross fingers and try more recording) that things are a go.

Ken- I was able to code and burn a 13GB DV file to a DVD with no issues. The updates and patch appear to have fixed the multiple error issues that prevented burning previously. All I have left to try there is to add motion back to the menu. I will also retry splitting a 2 hour recording from VHS this weekend. If that works then, I will be cautiously happy.

All - I hope that my experience with the Pyro box can help others who have reported issues trying to use a pyro box to capture analog 8mm sources to a DV format. In the next few days I will go back and confirm that this also works for VHS tapes as another analog source.

Thanks again!