Problem with new system

[Brian Ellis]

OK, I now have the new system installed and workin, but I still have similar problems playing DVDs.

The system now consists of:
P4/1.6 with 512 Mb 100 Mhz RAM
Shuttle m/b w. Intel Brookdale chipset
Boot disk 10 Gb UDMA IDE1 Master partitioned in C: (FAT32) for win98 OS 1 Gb, E: (NTFS) for W2k (dual boot) 2 Gb and F: (NTFS) for W2k apps
Apps disk 5 Gb IDE1 Slave for w98 apps and odd partitions
Promise Raid 0 2x60 Gb Maxtor
Pioneer DVR AO3 burner IDE2 Master
Sony DVCAM drive*
Swann Via chipset IEEE-1394 card*
Matrox G-550 4x AGP graphics card*
RealTek network card
Canopus ADVC-100*

* These 4 items received yesterday.

I installed all the new items under the W2k (SP2) part of the system (I'll probably scrap the W98SE part once everything is 100% OK, as there is nothing to justify it now).

The DVCAM drive is wonderful. It looks and feels much more robust than the mini-DV drive in the camcorder and I can download (at last!) and save DV directly from the cassettes without any further use of the camera, which has only analogue output. I'm glad I was able to locate this bargain.

I had misgivings about the Canopus ADVC-100. While importing an analogue input to DV, the screen view was not good. However, the resultant file played back OK in Media Player, so it's probably OK (haven't yet tried it in the other direction).

However, I still have a problem. I cannot play DVDs, VCDs or SVCDs. I can do everything else and this happens in a number of softwares, including media player. It makes no difference where the DVD signal is coming from or going to. In some apps, I get the error message F6F00018. In others, it just says that it cannot render the video or the video is incompatible. I have investigated the F6F00018 message and various places suggest that the graphics overlay is being used elsewhere (where ), that the graphics system is under-resourced (I tried reducing down to 800 x 600 x 256 colours at 60 Hz, but no difference or that the graphics drivers do not support an overlay. Sandra came up with TIP T2213: The video hardware does not support overlay in hardware... Get an updated video driver (I'm using 5.72.21.0).
Oh! MPG files play fine from either CD-R or HDD files in WMP, yet that uses an overlay, I believe

Please, does anyone have a clue why I have this problem and what can I do to overcome it?
Otherwise, everything else looks good. I burnt a short edited DV to XSVCD and that was fine on a stand-alone DVD player, as a test. I also saved it back on a mini-DV. Need a little practice and polishing to get max out of the system, but it looks dazzlingly good.

[wkulecz]

Tell us more about the DVCAM drive! How much? Where?

What DVD playback software are you using? Many older versions of PowerDVD and WinDVD don't support W2K.

Can't speak to the G550 but the G450 has video overlay and works great with the latest PowerDVD and WinDVD.

DV never looks very good played back on the computer when using the MS DV codec. But its the output back to tape that counts and your unrendered sections will be same as they were coming in. Current MS DV codec is not too bad when rendering, but it still doesn't do a good job of rendering to the screen probably because of a CPU time-quality trade-off.

Have you installed DirectX 8.1? Its a very good idea to go to "windows update" and get all the security patches and WHQL certified drivers.

--wally.

[Brian Ellis]

Wally

Thanks!

The Sony DVCAM drive is a mini-DV/DVCAM drive that simply sits in a bay in the computer (same size as a CD-ROM drive), takes its power from the same kind of connector as any other drive and has, on the back a DV output (and video outputs). When you press the button, a whole fat drawer pops out and a lid flips up, allowing you to slip in/take out the cassette. When you push the lid down, the drawer closes. Compared with the drives in cameras, it looks and feels robust and gives the impression that it's built to last. The price?, aye there's the rub! The list price in the UK is, I believe, over £1,500 and over $2k in the States, as it's professional stuff. I found this one, a demo model, little used but nearly 3 years old and with a 3 month guarantee, chez a UK pro dealer for £600, which is less than what I would have had to pay for a cheapo DV I/O camera, to use as a tape deck. The standard I/O controls within MS Pro work with it (other than the drawer button, there's nothing on the front). Greatest thing since sliced bread, even if it's blown my budget sky-high!

I'm using the PowerDVD (v. 3.0) and PCFriendly DVD that came bundled with the DVD burner. I assume they are recent. Nowhere in the doc does it mention the word Windows, let alone a version #. Surely I can't be the first to try DVR-AO3 with W2k??? Unfortunately, the PowerDVD website is very unreliable (maybe like their software?) and as often as not the support pages are inaccessible. Even worse, they will not respond to e-mails and their web page form simply does not work for me.

I'm not bothered about what DV looks like on the puter screen as long as the end result is OK!

I have the DirectX v. 8.0 with the DV upgrade.

[Brian Ellis]

Wally

Thought a photo will help. You can see the cassette in the pop-up.

[dchip]

Pretty cool tape drive. Talk about a simplifier.... When you say on the back it has a DV output, are you saying it has a firewire connector back there, that you then connect to your Swann? I would guess so. I really like that looks of that thing. I have never liked hooking up my camera to the computer and then working the heck out of it paying, fast forwarding and rewinding. So, have you put this drive through the paces? Is it fully IEEE-1394? All the camer-- oops, I mean tape controls work from within your DV software apps?

[zeb7]

I think the problem is with the Matrox drivers not with PowerDVD
First thing , is everything ok in device manager ? ( no yellow or red dots over the icons )
next goto controlpanel/display/settings/ (where the resolution and colours settings are)
and click advanced/performance/ and set the slidebar to max (because lower settings disable the overlay)
If their is other tabs relating to the Matrox options here try enabling bus mastering
reboot and check sandra for overlay support.

if that's not worked , go in to the Bios and slow some AGP settings
AGP aperture size shouldn't need to be over 64mb
(personally my G400 is not stable enough at 4x )
you may want to try 2x also
Check in the Manual if video bios/ram cache's need to be disabled or enabled on G550

and Failing that , re-install the Matrox driver or an older driver ?
keep checking with sandra until overlay is restored

>MPG files play fine from either CD-R or HDD files in WMP, yet that uses an overlay, I believe
yes , but WMP will also dropback to raw display modes when overlay is not available.
Let Sandra be you guide with this problem.

I hope it not a obscure conflict with another card in the system

[Brian Ellis]

Dchip

Yup! Your interpretation of my DV connection is exactly on the ball. It is seen by all the systems I have installed exactly as if it were a camera, with full control from the software.

Zeb7

Thanks for the help. I haven't yet had a chance to try your ideas out. All the devices are OK, according to Device Manager, with the exception of a question mark on a PCI-to-PCI bridge, which has always been there, even with W98, where I used to be able play DVDs. The AGP aperture size is set to 64 (default). I have the caches disabled (I thought that 32 Mb of on-board working faster than the main RAM would be better.
There are no IRQ conflicts: only the network and IEEE-1394 cards share an IRQ and both permit it and neither are used during DVD playback, anyway.

I have an urgent job on hand, for today, so I may not be able to play around just yet, but I'll continue this thread when I can.