Buffer settings question

[Philip]

What would be the affect of having your buffers RAM amount set too high in version 4.5?. I have 2gb of RAM in my laptop and have the buffers set to 512.

Everything seems fine while working but the last 2 times I have had to playback an onsite edit from the laptop (the last one in an editing competition) I got flashes of blue screen output periodically.

I thought I found the problem after the first incident because I had not put my video hardware acceleration back to maximum after doing some screen captures with Camtasia.

This last time (Tuesday night) everything was set correctly in my video overlay properties and I got some blue flashes (about 1 - 1.5 seconds) during playback of my video.

Each time I was playing back out the firewire port to the camera and then the projector was plugged into the camera. I have recreated the whole setup here at the studio and can't duplicate the problem so I can troubleshoot it. I am even playing back to the cam and have my own projector plugged into the camera. I am a little baffled by what would cause this. I can say it didn't happen till after I installed Camtasia. I know that plays with overlay on the video card but the on a fresh reboot with all virus software turned off I still got the flashes to blue.

Would buffers too big cause this? Could it be something related to the new directdraw and direct3d options in the hardware settings.

This has me concerned for my next live playback.

Thanks,

[GrassValley_BH]

Are you playing live DV out from the FireWire port, or are you sending output out a different way?

[Philip]

Are you playing live DV out from the FireWire port, or are you sending output out a different way?

I had finished project and was playing SD DV out the firewire port. I am obviously in OHCI mode since it is from a laptop. I have my cam plugged into the FW Port as an DV/AV passthrough convertor and then a projector plugged into the camera to view the video.

[GrassValley_BH]

Then it should be all good, but intermittent blue screens are probably some kind of timing issue in the FireWire stream, or a physical connection issue.

Another variable is whether the laptop was on AC power or not, as power-saving modes may briefly interrupt processing.

[SRsupport]

The power saver thing can really cause trouble
Good call
Maximum performance, no save modes
No screen saver
No virus scan running

Sr

[Philip]

Then it should be all good, but intermittent blue screens are probably some kind of timing issue in the FireWire stream, or a physical connection issue.

Another variable is whether the laptop was on AC power or not, as power-saving modes may briefly interrupt processing.

I just checked the power settings on my Dell Inspriron 9400. It was set for maximum performance. Everything stays on all the time. I had the virus scanner turned off as well. I never have screen savers turned on either. I was plugged into electricity.

....but intermittent blue screens are probably some kind of timing issue in the FireWire stream, or a physical connection issue.

When I had this problem before in early September I discovered that my graphic card hardware acceleration was not all the way up and everytime I placed the cursor over the playback monitor window in Edius it would cause the problem. I put the hardware acceleration back to full and it solved that problem...or at least seemed to placing the cursor over the play back window.

Does Directdraw or Direct3D9 overlay make a difference? What should my laptop be set on. It has the ATI Radeon X1400 graphics card installed (standard graphics card...not the upgrade).

It's driving me nuts now cause I can't duplicate the problem. I have played my project back about 6-8 times now perfectly.

[SRsupport]

What about fragmented disks?

[Philip]

What about fragmented disks?

Good thought....however in this instance I had pretty much wiped the external disc clean except for the few "undelete" system files that were on it. It was a eSata enclosure running on a eSATA express card in the side of the computer. It would have to be reallllllyyyy fragmented to cause the issue.

If a drive was fragmented wouldn't the behaviour in the NLE be one of dropping frames (causing Edius to stop completely) or stuttering playback. It drops to a blue screen and all audio and everything drops out. Unfortunately I was not keeping an eye on the laptop screen to see if the screen was blipping as well.

I tried a number of times again to duplicate it and can't manage to make it re-occur.

[GrassValley_BH]

Does the same project work better/worse when on the local drive?

It's possible that the 1394 and eSATA buses are somehow competing for bandwidth or otherwise interrupting each other.

[Philip]

Does the same project work better/worse when on the local drive?

It's possible that the 1394 and eSATA buses are somehow competing for bandwidth or otherwise interrupting each other.

Sitting here at home, where I can't duplicate the problem, it is all setup just like Tuesday night where I had the problem. External eSata drive with firewire out to camera. When I had the problem before the project was on the internal drive. I'm baffled on this one. I can't fix what I can't duplicate but I can't trust it for a live presentation in front of 300 guests either.

I have a sneaky feeling it has something to do with Camtasia. When I had the problem before it was right after using Camtasia to capture some screen shots for a tutorial. At that time I forgot to restore the hardware acceleration on the video card to full acceleration. This time I had used Camtasia to capture some video from the screen for my project the night before my edit. I purposefully went back into my settings to fix the acceleration knowing about the possible problem.

Both times were after using Camtasia the day before. I am pondering getting a second laptop HD and just load video editing software on it and using it for my same day productions. If it is a firewire port problem though it will be a fruitless investment and I will still be screwed upon playback.

I'm baffled and don't know what to do till I can recreate the problem. If I could make it happen again I could start trouble shooting. I used to work in tech support in another life and know the process but I need the problem first. :-)

[GrassValley_BH]

Yup... First need to duplicate the problem. If Camtasia is messing with overlay settings, then I would definitely point a finger in that direction.

I'm guessing that was the only time you had problems FireWire-wise?