DV RACK HDV power pack with GY-HD100U

[Aaron Clement]

I purchased the GY-HD100U and followed the third party link where I found DV RACK. I have no doubt that its a wonderfull product, but be aware that the product does not support the GY-HD100U using HDV 720/24p mode. My conversion with serious magics follows with my reply below. I'm waiting for an answer to at least add recording capability for this mode. Funny it seems that I cannot find any post anywhere that warns of this problem. Let's see if my post can remain.

--

Aaron.



Hello,

Another request, Would it be possible to at least add the capability to capture JVC's mpeg2 data stream to disk. I understand that using JVC's format for the other features would probabily require more effort, but it seems that recording the data stream to disk would not. If so, I could at least get something out of the product which claimed the following:

Here's the link: http://seriousmagic.com/jvcpromo.php

"Combine your JVC GY-HD100U with Serious Magic's DV Rack and its HDV PowerPak to turn your laptop into an entire ProHD-compatible field production toolset."

I gotta say something smells here. Why claim HDV and GY-HD100 and ProHD when in fact the product does not support these features. And yes I'm a little P*ss*ed that I wasted my money on this product when I could have purchased something that actually does what it claims it can do.

Aaron Clement

--- dvracksupport <dvracksupport@seriousmagic.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Personally, I agree, but here is the reply:
>
> We are actively looking into supporting this format
> in our DV Rack
> product. We do not currently have any plans for
> implementation. I have
> added you to the growing list of customers
> requesting this feature. As
> always, I stand ready to answer any other questions
> or concerns you
> might have.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ryan Thomas
> Serious Magician
>
> You can contact us at support@seriousmagic.com or by
> calling
> 916-985-8050 x2 between 9am and 6pm PST.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vegas_r_bust@yahoo.com
> [mailto:vegas_r_bust@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 5:41 PM
> To: dvracksupport@seriousmagic.com
> Subject: DV Rack feature request
>
>
> Email - vegas_r_bust@yahoo.com -
>
> Question - Support for GY-HD100U HDV -
>
>
>
>
>

[Tim Dashwood]

It seems odd to me that the DVRack doesn't automatically support HDV m2t stream capture regardless of frame rate and pulldown. This seems especially weird when you consider that free download apps like Apple's DVHSCap were designed and released years before JVC released the HD100 and it can capture the 720P60 stream, regardless of frame rate.

Maybe Serious doesn't want to officially support the format until they figure out how to read the 24 frame TC?

[Michael Maier]

I tried the demo once and it also didn't work with 24p HDV. Although I don't remember about 25p or 30p HDV. Does it work with those for you?
It was a while ago and I thought they would have fixed it by now.

[Heath Vinyard]

They told me that they have not officially tested on this yet, but they have been informed that users in the field are able to use it and it does work.

[Barry Green]

I've done it, so this is weird to be hearing. I mean, back last August/September when we did the mini35 shoot with the HD100, we used HDV Rack exclusively. That's what all the footage was captured with.

I won't say it was 100% problem-free, because there was an issue where occasionally it would spray a hundred little one-frame clips all over the hard disk, but -- other than that, it worked just fine. And everything we shot was 24p.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Aaron, I just tried it and it worked for me, it alwasy worked. I got an m2t that I can play back and convert using HDVxDV.

DVRack + HDPowepack and latest updates.

--
Paolo

[Aaron Clement]

Hi Paolo,

I have no trouble when the camera is set in the DV mode. In the HDV mode I just get a blank screen. When i try to record, recording starts and then just stops in a few seconds. What camera setting are you using with DV RACK?
Could it be my video card or maybe my DV RACK version. Here's my about DV RACK info:

Version: 1.1.1452.0 HD
Processor Name: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
System Memory: 896 MB
Operating System: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (5.0.2195)
DirectX Version: 9.0c
Internet Explorer Version: 6.0.2800.1106
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 6150
Display Driver Version: 6.14.10.8133
Display Driver Date: 9/17/2005
Display Adapter Memory: 256 MB
Display Adapter Free Memory: 220 MB
Display Bit Depth: 32
Current Device: JVC Camcorder
Current Project: H:\Scene1Act1\Scene1Act1\Scene1Act1.dvr

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

[Barry Green]

Did you buy and install the HDV Power Pack?

DV Rack by itself only works with DV. If you want to work in HD, you need the optional HDV Power Pack.

[Aaron Clement]

"Version: 1.1.1452.0 HD"

Yes I did, I think thats why the version number is followed by HD and not DV.

--

Aaron

[Javier Velez]

Aaron,

I originally bought DV Rack after reading an article posted here by Charles Pappert about the HD100 with the Mini35, where Barry succesfully recorder to a laptop on HDV. I originally installed the software to a cheap Acer 1.5 Pentium M with only 512 MB of ram and shared video memory, in order to avoid "borrowing" my wife's new Dell XPS laptop (a 4k$ + monster). As it turned out it recorded all the test footage flawlesly.

I then decided to record on both MiniDV and the laptop to compare the test footage on the Vegas timeline. I captured the tape through Connect HD as AVI medium setting, and recored through DV Rack as AVIs, both 24p. I then checked the file information from DV Rack on the Vegas Explorer: 1280x720x32 24p. Needless to say I was excited. Last I dropped both files on the timeline and compared with WFM and Vectorscope to the frame; both files seemed identical. BTW, I used a 50ft firewire cable I bought from B&H when I ordered DV Rack, and dropped them a line to informed them it worked fine.

Here are some suggestions that may help you get your DV Rack Power Pack to work:

1. Download the latets drivers for your video card
2. Unsistall/reinstall DV Rack.
3. Update DV Rack with current version.
4. Register if necessary.
5. Install HDV Power Pack.
6. Test your firewire cable/PCMCIA card (if any) to ensure they are are working properly (maybe by capturing some footage).
7. Look into the "Improving Quality While Recording" section on the help menu and play a bit with the settings, but from what I saw on your system specs, your computer runs circles around my cheap laptop.

An additional note: I originally installed DV Rack to a D partition on my laptop. When I tried to install HDV PP, it tried to install it to the C drive and gave me an error and will delete the original DV Rack installation. It actually happened on both my laptop, and later on on my PC. Here's what I did to correct it:
1. Go to add/remove software.
2. Uninstall HDV PP.
3. Delete the Serious Magic folder on the D drive.
4. Reinstall everything on the C drive.
That should take care of it.

If none of this helps, it may be a system specific issue on your PC, of which I've had my share in the last 10 years or so. You may try to turn off some background applications on system boot, by going to start/run and type msconfig. Go to the startup tab and see which things you can turn off that may be interfering with DV Rack.

I have had a bad experience with Athlon processors and Music/Video apps in the video/sound synch (hopefully this statement won't start a war). Great for gaming, but not so reliable for pro-work, since most of the major players test to Intel specs first. Even when it comes to benchmarking (the articles I've read) always give props to Intel for pro work. And again, that is just one guy's humble experience.

Hope this helps you because it is a great product.

Good luck,
Javier
www.jvelez.com

[Aaron Clement]

Thanks Javier,

I un-installed DV rack and deleted all serious magic directories from both the C and D drives: rebooted; just to be safe.

Reinstalled DV rack using default setting of C drive. Once installed, I rebooted; just to be safe.

Once system was back up, I updated DV RACK because of activiation issues. I activated DV RACK; rebooted; just to be safe.

Once system was back up; I put the JVC GY-HD100U in DV mode and successfully collected data to disk using various frame rates and line reslolutions.

Shut DV RACK down and installed the HDV power pack; rebooted; just to be safe.

Once system was backup up. I checked for updates and none were found. I then activated the HDV power pack. Rebooted; just to be safe.

While the system was off, I set the camera in HDV mode.

Once system was backup up, got blank screen again. Tried to record with same results. Starts recording then stops after a few seconds.

Just to note that each time I changed camera settings I rebooted the computer; just to be safe.

Running out of options at this point. Guess I'll have to wait until Serious decides to deal with the Issue.

Any other suggestions are surely appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Aaron Clement

Hi Paolo,

I have no trouble when the camera is set in the DV mode. In the HDV mode I just get a blank screen. When i try to record, recording starts and then just stops in a few seconds. What camera setting are you using with DV RACK?

Aaron, I don't know what to say. I have the same exact version of DVRack, on HP Laptop with ATI Mobility Radeon (512MB) and it works fine. I never use the camera in DV mode and I tested today at 24fps. Last Sat. and Sun. I used the same machine with 3 different HD100 in HD at 30fps and we recorded clips from all cameras.

--
Paolo

[Aaron Clement]

Thanks Paolo,

I'm starting to suspect that my graphics chip set may be the prob. I'm using the embedded video that came with the asus A8N-VM CSM board. Think i'll borrow a PCI Express video card and give that a Try.

---

Aaron

[Aaron Clement]

Well it seems that DV RACK with HDV does not like my computer hardware configuration running windows 2000. I download and installed a demo copy of Windows XP x64 from the microsoft website. To my delight, DV Rack with HDV runs great!! I can now capture HDV-24P video from the JVC GY-HD100!! Let the fun begin!!!

Aaron

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Aaron Clement

I download and installed a demo copy of Windows XP x64 from the microsoft website. To my delight, DV Rack with HDV runs great!! I can now capture HDV-24P video from the JVC GY-HD100!! Let the fun begin!!!
Aaron

Great. That is, in fact, one of the best reasons to upgrade your OS pretty constantly. Even with one version there are just too many combinations of hardware parts for a software company to test. Add a cople of differet OS versions and you have a compatibility hardware. I think that XP is about 5 years old so that makes 2000 pretty much dead except for things like file server where they don't need the "bleeding edge".
Glad you solved your problem, DVRack is truly a useful app.