Video out firewire constantly drops out with canopus ADVC100

[sammyfarr]

Hi All,

Im running 7.3.1cs2 on a MACPRO with an ADVC100 and find that the video being sent out of the canopus constantly freezes. Unchecking and re-checking the "video out firewire" setting fixes it, but its damn annoying. Ive put up with this problem ever since going to PT7.1 and the macpro a few months ago.

i'ts happening in 2 studio's with the exact same setup here and between the 2 of us we cant figure it out!

Has anyone else had to fix this or have any ideas on what to do?

Cheers

sam

[Ale]

Hi
Unfortunately I did not find a fix for this. I have this problem on three machines.

I have created a key command in the apple system wich enables me to toggle "Video out firewire"
on and off.

When video stops working I just press those key commands an everything is good. It takes 2 seconds
For me this bug is no problem anymore !!!!!


Ale

[DigiTechSupt]

Sam,

Here are a few things to consider.

1 - Are video and audio data segregated on different busses? Try to keep video on an internal drive and audio on FW or vice versa.
2 - Where is Canopus connected? You may want to try moving it to the rear FW port if you currently have it connected to the front port.
3 - Do you have any PCIe cards installed besides your HD cards? If so, please describe..
4 - If you are not making progress troubleshooting the issue, simplify the configuration by removing all peripherals except Canopus and run a session with only a single video track playing from the internal drive. Do the freezes still happen?

best regards,

[sammyfarr]

Hey digi,

I have 4 internal drives in my system. Programs, video and audio all run off seperate drives. I have an external USB drive that is connectected to a rear port and i only use this drive for backup so it's turned off when im running protools. I have found that when the video freezes another workaround is to delete a part of the video region and then undo. I have no other PCIe cards installed.

This is happening several times a day on 2 identical systems: Macpro 2.6, OSX 10.4.9 (the issue was there in 10.4.8) 96io, sync io, 4g ram, ADVC100, USB2 drive.

Preferences/databases have been trashed but made no difference.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions or if you need more info.

Cheers

Sam

[Ale]

Hi Digi
All of my sytems the canopus is the only devive at the front port of my g5s
They have all 2 internal drives. One is video the other one is audio. This problem is on all of my three systems.

1 HD 7.3.1 cs2 on 10.4.9 G5 Dual 2300
1 HD 7.2.1.cs2 on 10.4.8 G5 Dual 2300
1 LE 7.3.1 cs2 on 10.4.8 G5 Dual 2700

But with the key command I created it is not a real problem anymore


Ale

[sammyfarr]

Hi Ale,

Sorry, i forgot to say thanks for your key command idea!

i just find it so annoying when i finally get a clients attention and ask them to have a listen, i press play and it's almost guranteed the video won't play back! it would be way less embarrasing if it just played first go.

Another thing i have noticed is that sometimes if i start playback from before the beginning of the video region, the video won't play. I have to tab to the beginning of the video region to make sure it play's. not a real problem, but sometimes i'm supplied quicktimes that have no black at the beginning and it's nice to start playback from a clean black frame.

I have also had a play with the quicktime preferences in protools but they didn't seem to make any difference.

Iv'e got 10 people viewing a 45 minute program this evening - fingers crossed i dont have to keep re-starting playback!!

Cheers

Sam

[DigiTechSupt]

you didn't say where Canopus was connected. For a Mac Pro, I would recommend the rear FW port. G5, front FW port.

These are standard DV25 quicktimes? Are you working in PAL? Is the Canopus set to PAL?

Do you ever have this issue when playing video out via Quicktime Player?

regards,

[drenkrom]

This issue is part of my everyday routine, too. It happens on all 6 of our PTHD setups, with computer models ranging from G5 dual 1.8 to G5 dual 2.1 and PT HD2 to PT HD Accel3 with Sync IOs and 192 IOs. I've switched the FW port from front to back without any effect whatsoever. The video files used are straight NTSC DV25, but I've used a couple of varieties of Quicktime files and the issue remains. The actual action that produces the issue can't be pinpointed, as there is no pattern at all: it just ends up happening once every 30 minutes or so, whatever you do.

This started when we switched from 6.9 to 7.3, with the hardware staying exactly the same. The cure is either to switch "Video out to firewire" off and on, to cut into the video region and undo or to snap back to the begining of the audio region, which is cool when working on a 15-second ad, but kind of a pain when working on a 2 hour documentary. Also, it happens with our ADVC110s and the remaining ADVC100s we have.

So I understand this only happens with Canopus interfaces?

[mix109]

One of the reasons that may case this problem with the Canopus IMHO
is bad memory.
That had happen to me on (2) G5 1.8 Dual,and eventhough the AHT(Apple Hardware Test) passed as OK the memory check
i still had the same situation like yours.Changing the DIMMS did the job.
Also a good idea would be -if there is a free PCI Slot- to use a Firewire PCI card thus havin an extra Firewire Bus.

[BoudewijnB]

Hi there,

are you all running Quicktime 7.1.5?