Re: video freezing ib preview window

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: CW (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 03/10/04 

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:25:22 -0800

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

>-----Original Message-----
>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" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
>news:a6c701c4069c$e3c156a0$a101280a@phx.gbl...
>> 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.
>> >
>> >Many thanks for any assistance.
>> >
>> >Xavier
>> >.
>> >
>
>
>.
>

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