DV Storm / Rex

[Lorinda Norton]

I read advice from C.H. and went to the Canopus forum for help; sorry, but I hated it! Even though it's getting HUGE, I like this "kennel" best and hope no one minds the extra thread.

The motherboard compatibility table on the Canopus site doesn't list ours anywhere. We're thinking of using the DV Storm but are getting tired of compatibility issues. Does anyone know of a problem w/DFI, AD70-SR?

Bringing things back "home" I read of audio syncing problems with the XL1s and Storm. Any problems, of any kind, out there? We use Premiere 6 on Win98 (only OS that supports my partner's audio needs).

I'm out here and have problem too! I have shot 25 hours on XL1 for mega-documentary and bought a storm to cut it. If I capture an hour tape from XL1 via DV in - the audio lags by 6 or so frames. Tried Canopus UK and ini.file suggestions didin't work. If I go S-video or composite out of XL1 to Storm then it's fine.
Heard on a Canopus forum that Storm was designed for use with SONY cameras?! I used a DVCAM PD150 recorded tape as an experiment into Storm and it was fine!

yours pulling hair out and looking for a fix !

Craig Pancrack, Middlesbrough, England.

Turn key System: Windows 2000 Pro, Pentium 4 1.7, 512 RAM,75gb hd,StormSE Plus with DSR11 DVCAM deck ( and that didn't help either!)

[Ken Tanaka]

For what it's worth...

I am a Mac/Final Cut Pro user and I don't know anything about DVStorm. But Craig's remark about the audio lagging by 6 frames during Firewire captures clicked a light bulb in my head.

Apple's Final Cut Pro site's device qualification page (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/qualification.html) notes:

"Requires FireWire Basic. When the Canon XL1 is editing to tape, it will come in up to 6 frames early, then duplicate that first frame up to 15 frames. "

FCP compensates for this but perhaps DVStorm needs some spec adjustment.

Just a thought.

[Chris Hurd]

See this Canopus Hardware Compatibility link:

http://206.111.152.200/ProductIssues/Motherboards/Motherboards.php

At the bottom of the page, you can input DFI to search for compatibility issues. The return is: AK74 no, but AK75 & AK76 are okay. No mention of AD-70SR.

My own urgent sugestion regarding any PC-based NLE including Canopus products is to build the system around the card. So instead of dropping Storm into an existing computer, consider an entirely separate workstation built around Storm for NLE only. I have a Canopus DVRex RT built for me by DVLine, using dual AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz CPU's on a Tyan Tiger motherboard. Works great! Hope this helps,

[Lorinda Norton]

Wow. I may be reading too much between the lines, but it sounds like Storm must be pretty powerful if you built a system around it. Funny you would mention that; my partner, for different reasons, was wondering if we should build separately for video. This may tip the scale. Thank you.

[Chris Hurd]

It's not so much that Storm is so powerful (it is) but that non-linear editing on the PC platform is still a mix of equal parts voodoo and rocket science, even with Canopus products which are renowned as being the best in the business for platform stability.

My NLE system is for editing video and producing DVD's... that's all it does. You would not want to do word processing, web surfing or play MicroSoft Flight Simulator on that system. So I have a separate PC for all that other stuff while my NLE system is for video editing.

It's a matter of how delicate this stuff is moreso than how powerful it is. Canopus products are more robust than its competitors but like all PC-based NLE's, they are both delicate and powerful all at the same time. Separate machines is a smart way to go! Hope this helps,

Thanks for responding all of yer - my storm system was purpose built around the storm card for video only and i like it very much. Kills Pinnacle equivalents and my mate's G4 mac / media100 ( which cost about 6 times as much 3 years ago)...Word processing, internet etc were added by me due to not being able to buy a separate pc, my specialist system builder advised me not to do this to eliminate all risks and potential infections. However, I bought a Symantec Norton Ghost programme with it which has customised all settings back to day one when it was bought should there any calamities. A cool investment for piece of mind and one that will keep me making money so that i can buy an office/net pc sooner rather than later!

Secondly, i cracked the XL1 audio sync problem today - yeehaw ! - In Storm Edit, open batch capture box and click SEAMLESS CAPTURE - type in 10 mins as duration and multiply six times - the result is one hour captured perfectly when assembled on the timeline - no jumps, no frame duplication, smooth and IN SYNC - yours gone to the pub!!!!

Craig Pancrack

[Bill Ravens]

After reading about chronic audio sync problems with PC systems, I will offer the following info. There are two avi file types currently available, type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is the most popular because of its compatibility with M$ vfw drivers. What does this have to do with audio sync probs? Well, it turns out that native DV has audio/video information interleaved in the stored stream(in effect, locked audio). When a native DV stream is put in an AVI wrapper by strictly adding header information, you get a type 1 avi file. vfw can't read the info in this format, so the audio and video info is split out into seperate data streams. This is a type 2 avi file. Almost all current PC NLE's on the market, with a few exceptions, use type 2 avi files. The BIG drawback to type 2 is that the audio and video is no longer synced...ie, it's unlocked. As a result, very long video clips will lose sync because of the drop frame format of 29.97 NTSC video. It's a BIG problem. Type 1 DV video uses directx and is the prefered type to avoid audio sync probs. M$ has announced that it will no longer support vfw apps. Why do the major NLE manufacturers persist in using type 2 avi files?

cutting your files into 10 min captures will fix the problem....

as far as why do mfg stil use avi2 formats, its because they are able to achive a higher quaility and faster rendring codec using them..hence the canopus codec

[Bill Ravens]

thanx, John. I'm wrestling with this issue, but making some headway.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I have a Canopus DVStorm NLE system.

I tried capturing a 30-minute film from MiniDV to my RAID today, but Storm Video stopped capturing after the file reached 4 GB.

I know there's some simple workaround for this, but by golly, I can't figure it out. And I'm embarrassed to admit I've never captured video data larger than 4 GB; all of my projects to date have been editing together smaller clips.

My OS is Win2K, and my RAID uses the NTFS file system (although the partition of my main drive where the OS resides uses FAT 32).

Thanks for your help.

[Adrian Douglas]

You've probably solved your own problem there. Try converting you system drive to NTFS as well and all should be apples.

Open the Command Prompt box through Start > Accessories > Command Prompt.

Then type in the following command.

convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs

you'll have to reboot for conversion to happen.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

Are you serious? You think the fact that my OS resides on a FAT32 drive is the issue (despite the fact that I'm capturing to an NTFS drive)?

I don't want to be hasty converting the drive's file system.... Are there reasons why I *shouldn't* perform this conversion? Will I lose any other functionality? (What's the worst that can happen?)

I really don't see why this would be the problem, but if I have nothing to lose by taking it from FAT32 to NTFS, I don't see why I shouldn't try it.

[James Rulison]

FAT32? You must have upgraded from Windows 98 or something to Windows 2000. NTFS supports larger partitions, and better security. I don't know if converting a FAT32 drive with a live OS would be a good thing. You might have to boot form a floppy with the tools and then do it.

Then again I question that fixing the problem. What I would think might really be the problem is something lurking around from Windows 98/ME which only supports a Max file size of 4 GB.

Sorry to add this, but I did find this on MS's site.

Table 13.6 FAT32 Size Limits

Description Limit
Maximum file size 4 GB minus 1 byte (232 bytes minus 1 byte)


Best,
James

[James Rulison]

Here is what I found on NTFS:

Table 13.5 NTFS Size Limits

Description Limit
Maximum file size Theory: 16 exabytes minus 1 KB (264 bytes minus 1 KB)
Implementation: 16 terabytes minus 64 KB (244 bytes minus 64 KB)

Best,
James