I/O error when playing DV-avi files

[Trond Saetre]

Thank you.

I will try that, and report back.

[Trond Saetre]

After doing a lot of testing of the harddrive and the rest of my system in cooperation with Seagate factory, the problem is either one of two things:

1. Windows XP
2. The harddrive.

As of now, we think the most likely problem is the windows XP on my computer.
The harddrive is now back in the computer shop where I bought it for further testing, and will be sent back to the factory if it turns out to be bad.

I will update this info when the problem is solved, in case others get the same problem later.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Trond Saetre

The problem is:

When I try to play those avi files from the new harddrive, with win media player 10, or any other program, I get a I/O error message.

When I check the system information... all I/O are OK, and there seems not to be any conflicts at all.

To play mpeg or wma files is no problem.

Trond,

I just came across this thread. Whatever the problem source is, it likely has to do with data throughput rate. Why, because DV-AVI files are uncompressed whereas MPG and WMV files are compressed. Maybe the cache buffer on the Seagate is bad. I have the same issue but only when trying to playback AVI over my wireless in home network. MPG and WMV files are ok because the¥ don't require as much bandwidth.

That also explains why copying the AVI files back to your original drive allowed them to pla¥ ok. That drive and its interface are maintaining the higher throughput rate required. Just as if I first copy an AVI to the computer I am using on my network it will playback. But not if I leave the file on the other computer and try tp play it.

When you get the drive back, do a data transfer rate test on it as well as your original drive. This should reveal a problem somewhere. I think Jack Smith has a good idea about using an 80 pin vs 40 pin cable. I recall that when I put a WD 250gb drive in my pc, it required and 80 pin cable.

Good luck,

-gb-

[Trond Saetre]

Greg:

Thank you for your comments.

Will do the data test.

Yes I know about the 80/40 pin cables... I have only 80 pin.

[Trond Saetre]

The problem was the chipset driver of the motherboard. (Abit BG7)
(the Intel application accelerator)

After updating this, everything is now fine.

[Rob Lohman]

Greg: that is incorrect. DV is **NOT** uncompressed! DV uses a lossy 5:1
compression algorithm based on DCT (like JPEG).

Even if it where uncompressed this would not matter. You should never get
I/O errors unless something is seriously wrong. In the case of uncompressed
the drive can either cope or not. In case of the latter it will drop frames or
everything will just slow down, no I/O errors.

Of course you are correct that WMV/MPEG files (usually) are more compressed
and thus require less bandwidth. I can't play DV AVI over my wireless
network either, but I can play (and capture) on my 100 mbit UTP wired
network just fine.


Trond: glad you got it solved. It indeed sounded much like the drivers where
to blame. I assume you do see the DMA settings now?

[Trond Saetre]

Rob:

Everything works fine now. And that's good.

About the DMA thing:
No, I still do not see anything about DMA in the Device Manager.
I also asked the technician in the computer shop about this... and he could not give me an answer why I don't see anything.

Thanks for all your help. Appreciate!

[Jan Stauffacher]

@Trond

How did you find out it was the chipset and how did you update the drivers?

I encounter the same problem on my new WD 200GB drive with random frames turned gray and/or showing multicolored big blocks (while playback of captured avis on my old drive is working well).

I'm using:
- Sony dcr-hc19e
- Win2k
- SGT 100gig drive with 2 partitions, 1 bootable
- WD 200gig drive (new) with 2 partitions, 100gig each (formated and defragmented)
- Firewire capture
- WinDV or Vegas5 to capture
- Any media player to playback

drives are IDE (bootable master, new 200gb slave) on cable 1 (80pin)
additional 2 opticals on IDE cable 2 (80pin)

- checked DMA: both ok
- removed opticals: no results
- switched drives on IDE cable: no results

I really hope it is some kind of chipset thing as I run out of ideas to test. Unfortunately i'm a newb to this kinda updates, so help would be really appreciated!

[Trond Saetre]

Jan:

I had a local computer store (where I bought the harddrive) fix it for me. They found out that it was the chipset driver that needed an update. And they also updated it for me.

[Jan Stauffacher]

Wow Trond you're quick! amazing! ;)

Hm, I bought the drive and my whole system at a large retail store ('MediaMarkt') without that high level of support. Anyone know how to do a chipset update? I only found the driver update option for the CPU in the device manager.

[Trond Saetre]

just thought of one thing:

I don't know the Sony computers, but have you tried to search the web site for your motherboard manufacturer? Maybe you find something there.
(I did not find anything for mine, but it's worth a try)

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Rob Lohman

Greg: that is incorrect. DV is **NOT** uncompressed! DV uses a lossy 5:1
compression algorithm based on DCT (like JPEG).

Even if it where uncompressed this would not matter. You should never get
I/O errors unless something is seriously wrong. In the case of uncompressed
the drive can either cope or not. In case of the latter it will drop frames or
everything will just slow down, no I/O errors.

Of course you are correct that WMV/MPEG files (usually) are more compressed
and thus require less bandwidth. I can't play DV AVI over my wireless
network either, but I can play (and capture) on my 100 mbit UTP wired
network just fine.

Rob,

I think you mis-understood what I meant by uncompressed. Of course I am aware of the 5:1 compression of dv files, but that compression occurs while being written to tape. What I was saying is that AVI doesn't add much in the way of its own compression, as opposed to the WMV or MPG formats. That's why you and I aren't able to play dv-avi over the wireless connection. It just requires too much bandwidth. Also, I am pretty certain that I got I/O error messages in one of the apps I was using on my mac to pull avi files over the wireless network. I agree that it should result in poor playback and not give error messages, but that's what I got.

Anyway, Trond has solved his problem so we all learned something here about motherboard chipsets causing issues.

regards,

=gb=

[Rob Lohman]

Sorry Greg, sometimes reading / writing on a forum is hard :)

Anyways, let's call it more or less compressed then. Does that sound good?

[Jack Smith]

Sounds good Rob. As I use to do uncompressed captures which are close to 30Mb/sec versus DV codec under 4Mb/sec We should still refer to DV as compressed.eg.cameras capturing to dvd are still compressed but certainly different than DV.Minor point in this thread as Trond's problem appears corrected.