The Electronic Mailbox - Digital Origin Top 10 Tech Tips

Digital Origin Top 10 Technical Issues and Answers List For Windows Users These GREAT tech tips were given to us from Digital Origin's excellent tech support staff.

1) If you are dropping or skipping frames during capture/playback....

Dropped frames are typically an indication of insufficient sustained hard drive throughput. Check the data rate as reported by the MotoDV/IntroDV capture window. It should report at least 5.5 MB per second to ensure reliable DV capture. If sustained data rate is at or below 5.5MB per second, check that DMA is enabled for your hard drive.

Right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop
Click on Properties
Click on Device Manager tab
Click plus button by Disk drives
Right click on your hard drive (Generic IDE Disk Type)
Click on Settings
Check the DMA box
Restart Computer

If the sustained data rate is 5.5MB or above, check for applications running in the background. Use the Windows task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) to end extraneous memory resident programs (leave Systray and Explorer running…!). If you continue to encounter dropped frames/late interrupts, the problem may be related to system resource issues (see item 4).

2) If you receive messages that MotoDV or IntroDV could not initialize FireWire Device...

Verify that the Digital Origin driver is loaded:

Right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop
Click on Properties
Click on Device Manager
Click plus button by 1394 Bus Controller
Driver should be “Digital Origin 1394 Host Adapter”

3) If it does not list the “Digital Origin 1394 Host Adapter” driver ...

Click the driver that has been loaded
Click the remove button below
Restart the computer
When New Hardware is found, check - Search for the best driver,
Click next, check CD-ROM, make sure Digital Origin CD is in the CD drive,
Install the Digital Origin 1394 Host Adapter driver.
Verify that the driver is loaded properly by following the preceding instructions.

4) If you receive messages about interrupt sharing conflicts including "I/O Stream Error", "RadDVFW" errors, "device not installed" errors, general protection faults (GPFs) and "dropped frames due to late interrupts" when attempting to capture through IntroDV or MotoDV....

The error conditions above are normally associated with IRQ conflicts. With a few exceptions, Digital Origin's PCI FireWire card will usually function well sharing IRQ assignments with passive PCI cards such as modems, video adapters, and sound controllers. Avoid configurations in which the FireWire card is sharing IRQ assignments with other active I/O devices such as SCSI controllers, Universal Serial Bus (USB) controllers, and network interface cards (NIC). The FireWire card performs best when occupying an IRQ value of 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, or 15, by itself with no additional devices. To determine if you may have an IRQ conflict, view your computer's resource assignments.

Right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon from the desktop
Choose "Properties" (keyboard shortcut: hold windows key down and press Pause or Break).
Click on the "Device Manager" tab at the top of the "System Properties" window.
Double-click on the listing for "Computer".
Scroll down the IRQ assignments until you see the Digital Origin FireWire card.
Determine whether the FireWire card is sharing an IRQ with another PCI device. ("IRQ holder for PCI Steering" and "ACPI" listings refer to resource designations and may be ignored.)

In order to isolate the Digital Origin PCI FireWire card on an IRQ by itself, it may be necessary to move the FireWire card to different PCI slots.

Power down the computer.
Remove the FireWire card, and if possible, remove other PCI cards which are not essential to run Windows.
Power up the computer in this new configuration to clear the Windows PCI slot assignments.
Power down again.
Insert the FireWire card into a different PCI slot.
Power up again and verify that the FireWire card is on an IRQ by itself. If not, repeat all previous steps. NOTE: Windows may launch the "Find new hardware wizard" to reinstall the "PCI FireWire" card. Please refer to the Windows installation section to complete the driver install, then restart Windows.
Verify that you can control and capture from the attached DV device with IntroDV and PhotoDV.
Once you are successfully capturing clips, shutdown the computer and reinstall, one at a time, any additional PCI cards removed during step 2. Verify that IntroDV and PhotoDV control and capture from the attached DV device after reinstalling each PCI card.
Tip: Some systems are strict about which slots contain active PCI cards. Start by putting the FireWire card in one of the higher slots (closer to the power supply). Try putting SCSI, Ethernet, sound or DVD cards in slots below the FireWire card. If you have enough open slots, leave slots empty between the cards.

5) If you encounter the interrupt sharing conflict described above but continue to encounter IRQ conflicts after adding your PCI cards back in the computer...

In this case, it is possible that your system is running out of available IRQs and “Plug and Play” forces the BIOS to share IRQs. The instructions below describe typical BIOS configuration steps. See you computer BIOS documentation to verify BIOS setup steps for your system.

Begin by going into the BIOS and selecting "PCI/PNP Configuration.
Navigate down to the "Resources Controlled By: and change from "Auto" to "Manual".
Highlight the IRQ 10 or whatever IRQ the conflicting board the conflicting device is on and change it from "PCI/ISA" to "ISA Legacy" ONLY.
Save changes and exit the BIOS program.
Restart the system and test with DV Tester to ensure the Digital Origin FireWire card is working properly.

6) If you are experiencing general protection fault errors (GPFs) coupled with illegal operation messages when launching MotoDV, IntroDV, or working with projects in EditDV...

This is most likely an early or incompatible driver for the video card. A quick suggestion is to try turning down or off the acceleration under SystemProperties\Performance\Graphics. This may remedy the situation assuming there are no corrupted software issues or IRQ problems. It is recommended that you check with your computer vendor for updated drivers and/or flash ROM for the video card.

7) If previewing video on your computer monitor is choppy or skips....

This is normal operation on a typical RGB computer monitor. Playback quality depends upon the performance of your system. Choppy playback does not necessarily indicate a problem with the footage on disk. If possible, attach a TV monitor to your camcorder and enable the LiveDV feature (or Playback to Camera option in IntroDV). This allows full screen, full motion playback of your clips at full quality. If unable to attach a TV monitor, disable the LiveDV feature (or Playback to Camera option in IntroDV). This will cause the computer to favor playback on the computer screen (in the Story Player or Program window). If playback is still poor on the computer screen, you can lower the SoftDV image quality settings to attain smoother playback. Go to the DV Options configuration utility and alter the following settings:

Set Playback image quality to Intermediate,
Scrub Quality to “Full”,
Pause Image Quality to “Full”,
Set “play either every 2 frames”.

8) If you are experiencing audio problems including random pops, noise or synchronization…

In December of 1999, a problem was verified with QuickTime 4.0 Sound Components that can cause audio to drift out of synch on longer projects. This problem appears to be resolved in QuickTime 4.1, which should be available in the January 2000 timeframe. Another possible issue is that you are mixing audio sample rates. Typically, this can occur when you add CD music with a sample rate of 44.1kHz to your movie while your camera footage is recorded at 48kHz or 32kHz. This can have strange effects on both synchronization and audio noise. It is recommended that you resample audio to the same sample rate prior to importing audio. EditDV 2.0 now includes Sound Forge XP which offers high quality resampling of audio. If possible, work with audio in WAV format but avoid MP3. Some audio problems, in particular, clicks, pops and whines, can be traced to low quality sound cards on low-end PCs. See the compatibility section of the Digital Origin website for recommendations on third-party sound cards. Please be aware that using the LiveDV playback feature of EditDV/IntroDV will not always provide a reliable preview of audio synchronization. If you routinely preview your project over the FireWire using an external monitor while audio is playing from speakers attached to the computer, you will typically encounter audio delay. Please note, this does not indicate a problem with the project or media but is typically a cosmetic limitation to the LiveDV preview feature. Try using the CTRL - spacebar key combination for viewing extended LiveDV previews.

9) If you encounter DLL error 3026 or receive unexpected messages about missing components while rendering effects or simply using EditDV or IntroDV…

Check for outdated versions of QuickTime. (Tip: this is easier to do before you install a newer version of QuickTime.) Look in the control panels folder for "QuickTime 32". If this is present, then you have an older version of QuickTime installed. We have found that the QuickTime 32 uninstall routine does not completely uninstall all QuickTime components. To ensure that you fully remove outdated QuickTime files, open the Add/Remove Programs control panel, click on "QuickTime 32 for Windows" (This is what QT 2 versions were called on Windows OS). Click on the Remove button. Verify it is removed by doing a search for "QuickTime" or QTW*.* in the find files or folders dialog. Delete all QuickTime folders and QTW files that are found. Empty the recycle bin. This is the best way to remove earlier versions of QuickTime. You must then reinstall the QuickTime version provided on the Digital Origin CD-ROM. In the future, be sure to check the Digital Origin web site for compatibility information before updating to new versions of QuickTime.

10) If you want to convert audio on a CD to a wav file for importing into a project…

You need to download a CD Ripper. These applications will extract digital audio files from standard music CDs. Check the www.mp3.com web page for free downloadable utilities that can rip audio from music CDs.

OK, I've read the Top 10 tips, now show me the rest of the Desk Top Video Handbook Tech Support materials!!

The Electronic Mailbox 800 323-2325 Instant Product Locator.

For sales inquires please email our Sales Team: sales@videoguys.com
For customer service please email our Customer Service Team: custserv@videoguys.com
If you find any problems on this site please send email to: videoguy@videoguys.com

Copyright 1995,96,97,98,99 TEM Trading Corp. The information on this site is provided and maintained by The Electronic Mailbox. Prices are updated regularly, but subject to change without notice. Reproduction of articles for eductational/non commercial use is encouraged. Any use of our content or graphics for commercial use must be approved by The Electronic Mailbox. The Electronic Mailbox 10-12 Charles Street Glen Cove, NY 11542

Digital Origin Top 10 Technical Issues and Answers List For Windows Users