video freezing ib preview window

[Guest]

Hello
Just like some other users, I have video freezing in preview window after a few seconds of capture, when using eithe
- video for local playback, 2,1Mbps, PAL
- video for local playback, 1,5 Mbps, PAL
- High Quality Video - PAL

Just to test, I also used the "Best Quality for Playback on my Computer" setting. No capture problem there but the system override the PAL video format I selected and captures in NTSC, which is not very helpful in Belgium

After much searching, I came across Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 830363 describing the problem and recommending to wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains a hotfix

QUESTION: I cannot use WMM2 and wonder if any information can be given as to WHEN the hotfix can be expected

JVC GR-DVX10 (PAL) camcorder; IEEE1394; 68GHz storage; 512MB RAM; Windows XP Home (5.1 - DirectX9.0b); Windows Movie Maker 2.0. Option/Advanced: video format : PAL selected

Many thanks for any assistance

Xavier

 

[Guest]

JVC GR-DVX10 (PAL) camcorder; IEEE1394; 68GHz storage; 512MB RAM; Windows XP Home (5.1 - DirectX9.0b); Windows Movie Maker 2.0. Option/Advanced: video format : PAL selected
Possibilities

(1) Well, the specs on your machine sound great....except there's no mention of your video-dedicated memory..
If you're doing video editing, although "more is better", you should have at least 64mb of video-dedicated ram (which may{?} require the purchase of a video card), particularly to allow for video overlaying, of which a video preview window is a great example
(2) Maybe you already have the suped-up video card, but the setting to allow for overlay hasn't been selected. Of course, going into "Display Properties>Advanced" should allow you to tweek that setting.
(3) Eh...someone smarter will likely chime in. :-

 

[CW]

I had similar problems recently, both freezing and jerky
preview and playback, totally resolved thanks to John
Kelly's advice re DMA settings on the disk that's being
used for capture.
Try this - go to Control Panel, System, System
Properties, Hardware, Device Manager, click on the +
beside IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then Primary IDE
channel, Advanced Settings, the the panel will show
Device 0 (main drive, presumably C and also Device 1
(any second hard drive you've got). Look at the Transfer
Mode and the Current Transfer Mode that are shown. The
Mode should be DMA and the value in Current should be 5
or more.
I found that these settings were way off in my machine
and the correction has transformed it. May not be the
cause in your case, but worth a look...
CW

-----Original Message-----
Hello,
Just like some other users, I have video freezing in

preview window after a few seconds of capture, when using
either

- video for local playback, 2,1Mbps, PAL;
- video for local playback, 1,5 Mbps, PAL;
- High Quality Video - PAL.

Just to test, I also used the "Best Quality for Playback

on my Computer" setting. No capture problem there but the
system override the PAL video format I selected and
captures in NTSC, which is not very helpful in Belgium.

After much searching, I came across Microsoft Knowledge

Base Article - 830363 describing the problem and
recommending to wait for the next Windows XP service pack
that contains a hotfix.

QUESTION: I cannot use WMM2 and wonder if any

information can be given as to WHEN the hotfix can be
expected ?

JVC GR-DVX10 (PAL) camcorder; IEEE1394; 68GHz storage;

512MB RAM; Windows XP Home (5.1 - DirectX9.0b); Windows
Movie Maker 2.0. Option/Advanced: video format : PAL
selected.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Thanks CW,

I checked my 3 main computers and found:

One computer (newest one - started with XP) shows it using DMA Mode 5 for
the Primary IDE Channel and Mode 2 for the secondary.

Another (oldest of the 3 computers - upgraded to XP from Me) doesn't show an
Advanced Settings tab.... so I can't check it that way.... video capture and
editing works fine.

My laptop (started with XP) shows it using DMA Mode 5 for the Primary IDE
Channel Device 0 and Mode 2 for the Device 1.

I can toggle between PIO Only and DMA if available, but the DMA mode is
determined by my computer and isn't selectable.... at least not in that
dialog box.... Is it selectable someplace else? Would someone need to go
further?

So, it seems that, for the average user, verifying that "DMA if available"
is the right selection... when the selection option is presented.... as I
currently have it worded on the Setup > Hardware page of
ww.papajohn.org --- and as the page says, Windows 2000 had DMA disabled, so
people who moved from Windows 2000 to XP Pro should be checking the
settings.

If the website page could be better worded (the opening 3 paragraphs of the
section about the Hard Drive).... I'd appreciate any suggestions.


PapaJohn

 

[CW]

PapaJohn -
Your setups sound very close to what I had. DMA mode 2 on
drive 0 (C) and PIO on drive 1 (D). My machine had come
with one drive and I had added the second (it was the D
in my previous (Win 98) machine and had some Pinnacle
stuff on it (used to use that prior to getting this XP
box last summer, and finding MM2). I just bunged it into
the slot when the new XP box arrived, knew nothing about
tweaking the DMA settings. I guess they follow a default.
I do feel it could be quite a significant issue as I have
seen widespread recommendation that for DV work one
should definitely use a second drive. Therefore many
people will be adding them to their systems, and,
potentially, will run into the DMA settings issue
(without knowing about it). Trouble is, there is an
effect on not only the second drive, but because C & D
are (usually) on the same cable the performance of both
is dragged down to the slower of the two.
On your newest computer presumably the secondary IDE
channel is your CD, so I guess we can leave that out of
this discussion?
On the oldest, well if it ain't bust don't fix it, so we
needn't talk about that one either...
The laptop is the interesting one as that has almost
exactly what I had. Like you I had mode 2 showing in that
dialog box and could not modify it from there. Went into
the BIOS, found that Device 1 was set to "Off". (How did
it manage to work at all like that??!!) Changed this to
Auto, saved and booted. Back to the dialogue box, NOW I
got DMA mode 5 for both drives 0 and 1.
This totally resolved my performance problems - not that
they had been anything like as bad as some poor souls
seem to suffer, but I did have freezing/jerkiness on two
or three long/complex projects. And of course, they were
the valuable/important ones! Also, the time to "import
files" after capturing has been drastically reduced now.
PapaJohn I must stress that I am far far from an expert
on these things and can only go on what worked for me,
(it was JK who sent me up the right track on this) so
much as I am flattered at yr request for input to yr
website I think it would really be best for an
appropriate MS/hardware person or suchlike to
cfm/explain/advise on how this subject might best be
explained...I would hate to get something wrong or miss
anything. Your site is such a fount of knowledge and a
lot of people rely upon it, so I'd feel a lot happier if
my suggestions were properly validated!!
Anyway, hope my contribution helps a little bit.
Best rgds
CW

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the added notes CW.

As Movie Maker 2 is intended for those new to non-linear digital video
editing, it's used by many who are also novices with computers....

It's enough to be sending them off to renaming codecs and making the DMA
switch at the Control Panel level..... I think I'll stop short of guiding
them into any BIOS settings, and just link them to other sites if they want
to do that.

My laptop runs the Media Center edition of XP, while my two desktops use the
Home Edition... MM2 is working fine, so I won't risk making any changes that
might do something adverse to the other software on the system.

I followed your steps to check how they worked on each of the 3 computers,
what info I'd see, and think about any changes to the words on the site....
it was when I saw DMA numbers less then 5, I wondered about how to notch
them up.... not that I wanted to.


PapaJohn

 

[John Kelly]

You have to be trying to wind someone up...aren't you? Well perhaps
not...Movie Maker is a LINEAR editing environment and I think you are right
about guiding people on hard drive issues.

With respect to 2000 disabling DMA...you must have had one hell of a slow
machine then. As you seem happy to not want to change your really slow drive
I won't bother publishing the almost off-topic technical directions, why
anyone would be happy having a drive running at less than half speed beats
me...LOL Non-Linear !!!!

 

[Guest]

Many thanks to all for your contributions.
-CW : I have followed your clear instructions : Current Transfer Mode = Ultra DMA Mode 5, so this should be OK.
-Corry : I have an Intel 82845 G Graphics Controller, with 2,66 GHz CPU and one (72 GB) of my two drives is fully dedicated to video capture. I am still low on a learning curve so please could you be more specific as to how I should check the setting for allowing for overlay? Thank you !
Having said that, I didnot have a similar problem with the previous version of WMM nor do I have a similar one with Premiere 6.5.
Furthermore, as mentioned in my first message, Microsoft HAS confirmed (KB Article 830363) that this IS a problem in the Microsoft product.
Microsoft recommends (if one is not severely affected by this problem - my case since I can use different products) to wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains their hotfix.

My question was (and remains): Does anyone (Microsoft?) has any idea WHEN this Service Pack including this hotfix can be expected ?
Many thanks. Xavier

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there Xavier,

I suppose the answer is "How long is a piece of string?"

Microsoft, will announce it by way of the auto update system available from
Internet Explorer.

You can try the following...it may work (Come on MVP's)

1) Start Internet Explorer and navigate to the page on Microsoft site
containing the info you have already found.
2) Click Favourites and select "Add to Favourites"
3) Select Option "Make Available Offline"
4) Click OK and the page will download.
5) Select "Organise Favourites"
6) Select the page just downloaded.
7) Select Properties
8) Select the "Download" Tab
9) Select "When this page changes send e-mail to...." and enter your own
e-mail details
10) Click OK and go and have a rest somewhere...that what I am going to do


The above method means you will not have to keep checking for an update,
your own system will tell you when Microsoft change the page. I hope this
helps a little

PapaJohn;

 

[Guest]

I'm having the same problem. After reading all these messages, in fact, I'm not sure whether you guys have found any solution as I don't really understand it. Can you tell me what's the steps of doing it? Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi John

I guess I asked for your short reply but the long one is one of the most useful, pratical ones I , as a layman, have received in a long time !I will put it immediately into practice. Many thanks. Take care. Xavier/Belgium.

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

Pleased I could help

 

[John Kelly]

Hi Again Xavier,

I have just noticed a little snippet missing from the list of things to
do. After you have set it all up you need to go back to step 7. The reason
is....and this depends on how you use your computer. You need to tell it
WHEN to look and see if the page has changed. So, take a look at the
Schedule tab and if like me you never turn the machines off, the first
option will not be to much use to you The second option where you enter a
time etc. is quite useful and you can enter as many times as you like. There
is a third option which seems to be (now) only available after you start a
scheduled update of the page(s).....if you select your page during the
update (you will see where I mean) and then click Set-up you will find
perhaps the most useful option...."Check when you log-in to your machine"
and that may be the best to go for...I always found the rigid time schedule
to be impractical (When I had my old dial-up connection) and I was always
forgetting to tell it to do a manual update as well. So the "do it when you
log on" option is possibly the best to go for.

I use these methods quite a lot, it keeps me in touch with things as
they occur. Its also more handy in most circumstances where you would have
to subscribe and give someone an email address...this way is anonymous in
almost all ways.

Also, please note that this scheduling of tasks within Internet Explorer
has nothing to do with scheduling Windows from the Control Panel. They are
not related. But....that's quite useful too...Did you
know......................Sorry that's it for today )

Here Endeth the Lesson (Windows 101) )

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

 

[Alan]

John; can you please clarify. You wrote

You have to be trying to wind someone up...aren't you? Well perhaps
not...Movie Maker is a LINEAR editing environment and I think you are right
about guiding people on hard drive issues.
[] LOL Non-Linear !!!!

I always assumed Windows Movie Maker was non-linear. As defined at:
http://www.isd.uga.edu/digitalvideo/glossary.htm#N
"non-linear:
Random-access editing of video and audio on a computer, enabling edits to be
processed and reprocessed at any point in the timeline, at any time.
Traditional videotape editors are linear because they require editing video
sequentially, from beginning to end. "

In that you can drag, drop, cut, move and alter any part of the timeline, I
would have certainly thought of MM2 as non-linear.

 

[Alan]

from
Internet Explorer.

You can try the following...it may work (Come on MVP's) []
The above method means you will not have to keep checking for an update,
your own system will tell you when Microsoft change the page. I hope this
helps a little

Your own system will tell you when the design or text of the Windows Update
front page changes, but as I do not believe that the "Save Pages Offline"
schedular can run Javascript/ActiveX (as it will need to), I would not rely
on it. I expect that's why the MVPs did not post this technique.

PapaJohn;
Best Wishes.....John Kelly

I don't remember PJ posting this at all, but the way you wrote this makes it
look like it was a joint effort.

Quite.

 

[John Kelly]

GO AWAY YOU TROLL, LEST I CAST A SPELL ON THEE11

or would you prefer it in English...IDIOT Do you really think I am not
aware...I reply so that I can gather further material to send Microsoft...by
the way, where is the full message you implied that you refered too...you
know the pretend message from Mr. Brown...you and papajohn can do all you
like, I will remain.

Have a REAL nice day...FOOL

 

[John Kelly]

I could reply to you until the cows come home, but why should I...I mean, go
on tell me why your adversarial ways need a response other than one of this
type...go away child....

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there again,

Thanks for giving us your IP address 81.77.27.62 now that we know your
I.S.P. and which cable modem port you use user-6940.l3.c1.dsl.pol.co.uk it
makes dealing with you all that easier...and P L E A S E don't complain that
the info is secret...its in your news messages....

Still have not received any info about the message you pretend is from
Mr. Brown, Why is that ??? I wonder.

Have a Good Day, won't you