(PYRO) Ulead VideoStudio 4.0. 15 day trial

Only played with VS4 for 30 mins but here is a quick summary for any curious Pyro users.

VS4 is still Basic editing, However now it has Mpeg2 & VCD support

Also you can capture still pictures live (As it should)

I predict this is the beginning of something good at a competitive price.

More info tommorow night

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 04 November 1999).]

I haven't had much time to edit today but I have found a couple more functions in VS v4(I can't really compare this with the full version as it is limited to 30 second clips).

Audio extraction as a wave or MP3 is a useful new feature. Playback to camera is also flawless.

There are many more options for the capture and make movie format.

I hope there are more new transition effects on the full version.

I would have liked to see a menu to change colour,lighten darken etc. and special effects to put it on par with Videowave 2 which is a similar entry level programme.

All in all it's a big improvement on Ulead VS v 3.0

Anybody else tried it?

It's lonely talking to myself, I just hope we don't start arguing!

TOP SECRET

The VS v4 trial version has given me most of it's new codec's. I am now able to render approximately 50% quicker on some of the options.
I wonder what will happen when the demo times out?

I am still interested in getting a TV/DVD card but the All-in-Wonder 128 32mb has not had a good review on the ATI site. I was hoping to have Videowave 2 with this card to give me more editing options for Mpeg but it's taking a heck of a long time to be released.

Any one have any comments on my aging question of using these 2 cards together.

I have downloaded the trial version (took an age though) - tried first time and cannot get a preview in the window - tried tinkering to no avail - back to V3 and a lovely preview window.

What I want to know is - when is the BEOS version coming out - no limits on file sizes.

Adam

PS. You are not alone

Hi Adam

Changing the subject

Re one of your previous posts
Did you buy a All-in-wonder 128?

The BEOS sounds a good option, Good old ADS are thinking ahead.

I am considering an extra Hard drive(17gb at present)as I need a huge drive to edit comfortably 40gb preferably when they come down in price.

I have copied VHS tape back to my Dig 8 camcorder, firewire to the Pyro,Edited and back to camcorder(DV In enabled)and played on TV.

I am impressed with having no loss of quality and even a slight improvement.

I have also played the VHS source file saved as mpeg1 on my sons TN2 ultra TV out on his 20" TV and it looks good.

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 07 November 1999).]

Just a warning to anyone else who plans to download the trial copy - it's 23MB - so allow enough time for the download.

My interest is in finding out whether video studio is o.k. as I'm considering the Pyro card (I currently use media studio with a Matrox Mystique/RR combo).

And John - Don't feel lonely just 'cause no-one has commented - you've probably brought it to lots of other peoples attention who are busily downloading it as we speak... or er write.

Cheers
Deanf

Hi,
Yes it does take ages to download, and I did so after visiting this page for the first time. So far it thankfully does all that version 3 does (capture and edit). I was hoping to find a magic cure for my panasonic nv 33 which although widgeted to dv-in just won't. I have gone back to format C:, win98 SE, all new drivers wherever they can be found, the only time I could record back to tape was after adding the one second delay to the ulead32.ini file. Jubilation was short lived, it has not written or previewed back to the camera since. Even with rebooting and changing the delay tactics. Do I perhaps need to remove the card and start again? or try yet a different PCI slot. It seems a pity to twiddle when it is so close to working.
I found this site only 2 days ago and was sad but relieved to find others had similar problems with panasonic (and all sorts of other products that would be wonders according to the advertising stuff).
Has anyone solved this write-back-to-PAL- panasonic problem, I would love to hear how to do this. The manufacturers just say update to new drivers, or assure me that their products work just fine. I've been battling this since mid September when the widget and pyro boards arrived. I'm sure it can be made to work, hopefully before I get really old. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Hazel

Set up:

PII 300, 64 mgs, 4 + 13 gig drives, AGP video, cdrw, SB live this might be a problem? ext serial modem, USB mouse/ keyboard to try and win back IRQs

Further point -

have downloaded the V4 and it is working - well sort of -.

I have used the Pyro DV card to capture and everything I assume is in sync since it is just a digital data stream - so why is that no matter format I output my movie to do I get lip-sync problems - even in the 30 second clip limit of V4 - any ideas?

Hi Adam

I have advised you to use scandisk and defrag previously. Scandisk from C:\ works even better.

I have only suffered lip synch problems once when copying a 1 hour mpeg1 file to a different size, Defragging the drive worked for me but it needs doing often.

I had a problem recently when I was getting an out of diskspace error, Dos Scandisk solved that.

Hazel

If I am repeating what you have done my apologies. Sometimes you think you have checked everything and you have missed the vital bit, maybe a correct & firm cable connection.

Check everything in the pyro_addendum.pdf manual on the PYRO CD.

Just for info my downloaded files from ADS are:

DVconnect 833kb
VS3_Update_Update 3295kb

Check your file sizes are the same, if not I suggest you download again from http://www.adstech.com/downloads/pyro.html

As your Panasonic camcorder has worked once it should work again.

Good luck

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 09 November 1999).]

John, I assume that you have had no lipsync problems with v3 or v4 - I am defragging my drive as I write (other system). A question comes to mind though:

When you capture using an analogue card (mine is a DC30) you can determine whether you have dropped frames - is there any way of checking that there have been no frames dropped in the transfer via DV. My matrox card says that my drive can sustain 4.29Mb/sec so it seems capable but maybe that is a possible cause for the lip-sync (clutching at straws here).

Back to you
Adam

Adam

I don't have an analogue card, only DV at the moment. (All in wonder sometime)

All I know about dropped frames (luckily) is that I have seen reference to it in my new version of Windows media player version 6.4.05.0809
File- Properties - Video Renderer - Properties (I have only ever seen 0). This probably only gives you playback details but is the only info I have relating to your question.

Is your computer set as network server, Windows manages virtual memory etc, nothing running in the background like First Aid or Norton Utilities?

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 09 November 1999).]

John,

I have done the defrag and done a recapture - when I play back the capture straight after the capture , although the playback is jerky (I have a Celeron 366) there does not seem to be a lip-sync problem (I am back to V3 now to test this). When I set the playback to full screen, the system renders the capture and this is out of sync. No matter what output options I do, I still get a lip-sync problem. I don't think it is due to a lack of RAM as I have 384MB (it was cheaper when I bought it!). I think I may fire an email to Ulead to see what they can suggest because I am stumped at this time - it is a shame as I thought a DV card would make my job easier for transferring - all i get is frustration at the moment.

I am assuming that since the initial playback is in sync then maybe it is the Ulead software - but if you are getting good results then I don't know. I have now changed my details to a network server and disabled the virtual memory - here's to the next round of tests!!

What data rate are you capturing at?

If you are using a Matrox card, then you need to keep the rate as low as possible, because playback is not cached (perhaps not at all), and this can cause the sort of problem you are having.

One other comment - I know it's not supposed to be like this but it is the norm, rather than the exception, to have problems using editing software other than that supplied with the card.

Bob C

Adam

Sorry to hear about your continued probs
For info I capture at 720 x 576 25fps, DV PAL

Does the captured video have lip synch problems after a reboot or if played in media player?

How long are the captured clips?

Your quoted system should run ulead OK but it sounds like a lack of system power, whats running in the background(ctrl,alt,delete)
,check autoexec, config.sys etc

Regards

John Price

Thanks John,
Those drivers are the same size. I have just read on the datavision forum that there are a couple of new file updates to MSDV.SYS and QDV.DLL from the pyro people which may appear on the ADS page soon, I will try those.
Somewhere I read that panasonics prefer to write out to to brand new blank tape ? sounds expensive for generous editing.
cheers
Hazel

Thanks John,
Those drivers are the same size. I have just read on the datavision forum that there are a couple of new file updates to MSDV.SYS and QDV.DLL from the pyro people which may appear on the ADS page soon, I will try those.
Somewhere I read that panasonics prefer to write out to to brand new blank tape ? sounds expensive for generous editing.
cheers
Hazel

John,Bob
Thanks for the advice - to no avail. My system is home built and is thus:
Supermicro P6SBA M/b with 384Mb RAM
Celeron 366 (on a 66Mhz bus - not yet overclocked)
Matrox Mystique / Rainbow Runner combo (not being used for capture at the moment)
Soundblaster Live (the full card)
1 primary h/d (Maxtor 17gig)
1 primary slave h/d (IBM 20gig)
1 Philips DVD rom and 1 Mitsumi CDRW (secondary Primary and slave).

Now, according to the Pyro card box, it says that a P233 is ok - I would've thought that a Celeron 366 would be fast enough. I only used the matrox hard disk benchmark to see if the drives were up to spec (admittedly I would've expected a lot more performance from them than the rated 4.29Mb / sec). Is there any text regarding improving hard disks (maybe removing the DVd or the soundblaster card) cos I am at a loss. I have not been capturing using the matrox card - just the Pyro for now -

John,
I assume that you have had no problems at all with any syncing problems (my audio is ahead of the video) - what is your system spec?

Thanks,
Frustrated of South Wales!

Adam we are of similar spec

Supermicro P6SBA M/b(good) with 128Mb (100) RAM
Celeron a 400
S3 virge 4mb (for now)
Soundblaster PCI64 (ok)
1 primary h/d (Maxtor Diamond 17GB)10GB/7GB (good)
1 Panasonic DVD rom and 1 Mitsumi CDRW firmare revision 1.10 (ok)(secondary Primary and slave).

My system works fine honestly.
Was your Windows 98SE a clean install?
Do you have the problem on both drives?

Mr Happy
Mid Wales

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 12 November 1999).]

Mr Happy,
We may be similar speceed machines but I would bet that if you download the disk benchmark prog from this site and run it you dont get a write speed of around 5.5Mb/sec with a CPU utilization of 95-98%!!! I kid you not. Its a wonder my system captured anything at all. I am now going through Bob's FAQ sheet to try and sort it out.

Computers are fun aren't they !!?!

Adam

Adam

My write speed is 13.12Mb/sec
CPU utilisation 5.53%

I have sent you a fuller print out.

If you are getting disk speeds in the 4-5 MBytes per second it is almost definitely a situation where DMA is not enables and you are in PROGRAM IO MODE. I had an exact situation. There are a number of reasons for this, one it is possible that DMA has just not been selected, sometimes it is that the Drives you have are infact ultra66 drives and the motherboard you have does not support ultra66 drives, so you need to go in and run a utility that matrox provides on their web site to switch the drives down to ultra33 mode.

A the end of the day, I found that despite the additional cost it was well worth the investiment of about £60 in a Promise Ultra66 controller. This allowed for the full implimentation of the ultra66 or ultra33 drives, added an intelligent controller that seems to reduce CPU utilization and allows you to add 4 drives to your system.
John Ferrick

DVDOCTOR,

PrimMast = Maxtor 17gig UDMA33
PrimSlav = IBM Deskstar UDMA66 (reduced to UDMA33 with the IBM utility from ibm.com)

Bootup shows Maxtor as PIO4, IBM = 4, DVd = 4
Mitsumi CDRW = 3.

So how do you switch off the PIO - i have been through the BIOS and cannot see an option (or I have missed it)

Awaiting your reply
Adam

Adam

My Maxtor is PIO 4 (I think I set it to 3 on my old 200mmx because of probs with my mitsumi CDRW.

The standard menu is the one you require (AMIBOIS v2.5) if you want to change the setting

John

When you sort it out send me a pic of Trecco bay

John,

I would like to say a big thank you to you (and also to Hazel for her suggestions - luckily I didn't need them for now). I have got the darn thing to work fine but to be honest I don't know how - the sequence of events:

1. Tried to set the Bus Mastering from the BIOS (even though it says not to with W98) - h/d speed was around 1.6Mb/sec @98% CPU
2. Switched that off , then set the primary drive manually , having to guess the cylinders etc (and it was a guess) and logically the drive shouldn't have booted up - it did but I was now up to 3.6Mb/sec @ 96% (i had set the prim drive to PIO=0 to see if that would switch it off as DVDoctor suggested)
3. I set the drive back to auto, rebooted and reran the disk test - and lo and behold 10.54Mb @ 2.3%CPU - not quite your speeds but I think it might be due to the drives being ATA66 as opposed to pure ATA33. I recaptured and still audio drift.
4. Thanks to your SBLIve info (don't record at 44.1Khz basically) I saved at 48Khz and rendered an MPEG1 video and wow! - everything in sync and it is now Mr Happy from South Wales.

Thanks again to you and the rest of the forum - without whose help I would probably turned to drink (well I did last night anyway!). John, let me know what part of trecco bay you want and pic shall be on its way.

Cheers
Adam

Adam

Glad to hear everythings working better.
Just a thought, recheck the pyro_addendum.pdf manual and ADS web page for anything you may have missed ie. system.ini cache setting per amount of RAM.(You've probably read these pages a thousand times already but things look differently when the pressures off).

Re: the Trecco bay pic, why not a 5 second video file of the waves on the beach in synch (pun intended)using Ulead Video studio 4 trial version as this was the first post on this thread.

Adios Amigo

[This message has been edited by johnpr98 (edited 14 November 1999).]

Bravo for patience Adam, Enjoy.

Hazel