[Butch Mcdonald]

Sorry for the delay on this issue… just got back from Holidays.
I will do more testing today and post details soon.
Cheers

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

When I use DV it’s from a 422 controllable deck with SDI out, everything plays normally except anything that is rendered plays fields in the wrong order.
The only reason we use AJA’s dv preset is to have the system running a bit faster and save on space, but at the moment we will just use 8bit SDI until we can work out what’s happening.
It’s a weird one… I’ll try to do more testing and see what I can find.
Cheers
Butch

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

I am having the same issues as described… jittery renders.
All media is going to an array with plenty of space (defraged & error checked)
After experimenting I came to the conclusion that there seemed to be some field issues. It appears that the renders were playing back or rendering in a different field order. My project was XENA preset 720×576 Pal DV. I think Pal DV & NTSC are always lower field first and everthing else is upper field first. So my next step was to setup a new project with Xena’s 720×576 Pal preset which would be upper field first. I repeated all my tests and everything seemed fine. So in conclusion I think I have either missed a setting somewhere or something is going on inside Xena or premier(Cs3) that’s not quite right. If anyone can shed any more light on this issue it would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Butch

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

Identical problems found in other identical system.
Solution at this point is to upgrade to Prem 3.
If AJA fix TC offset window bug then all should be good with prem2.
Will keep you posted
Cheers
Butch

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

Thanks Jeff and Ramona for your input, much appreciated.
One of the reasons I chose AJA was because of it’s support I heard so much about.
It’s all true, they are on to it as we speak and are setting up a replica system to see what’s happening.
Will post results as soon as I get them.
Cheers

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

Ramona,
Thanks for your reply, and your story with Xena and Digi Beta.(also thanks Tim for your reply)
Today I did a complete system rebuild and made sure everything (drivers/software) was up to date and all requirements for the XENA install were followed meticulously.
I have now tested XENA with 3 different decks and have achieved a lot more insight to my problem.
Here goes… I’ll try to be brief
System: Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2.
RAM: 1.50 GB
Computer: HP XW8000 Workstation
CPU: Xeon 2.8GHz
1.5 Tb Array
Separate Internal Audio Drive
Xena 2K Machina: 3.1.1.0
Premiere Pro2

Problem: Can’t accurately capture and master.
I chose settings I thought may be causing my problems (listed below) and tried all sorts of combos.
PremPro Preferences: Capture – Use device control timecode
Media – In out points show media offset
PremPro Project Settings – AJA Capture Options – timecode input
AJA Device control-TC Source, Offset, Embedded SDI TC in/out capture

When capturing I found that there were only a couple of settings that affected anything, the main one was AJA Capture Options-timecode input. Basically anything you batch capture displays the correct codes in the bin/project window but always gives a 1 frame delay in the source window. When laying it down to a timeline and creating an EDL, the list supports the 1 frame delay. I tried to add an offset but this only affected the bins timecode data, it always showed the 1 frame delay everywhere else. (Batch only works with 422 TC input, if you use embedded it captures all tape motion for the clips duration as soon as you hit go)
Crash capturing can only be done using embedded as the TC input. This gives correct codes everywhere, the only problem is that when you make media offline then batch, which you have to do with 422 TC as the input, you get a lovely 1 frame delay again.
When insert mastering the GUI seems to have a locked duration, unchangeable, the deck seems to pre roll and do its stuff correctly but as the duration on the GUI is locked to 1 frame that’s all it does 50% of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t do it all. Assemble just seems to go back and crash in anywhere, irrelevant of TC ins/outs etc.
So there you have it Ramona… I would be interested to know if you or anyone can suggest anything now I have explained my issues clearer.
Cheers
Butch

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

Correct me if I’m wrong Tim,but I thought the reason behind inserting timecode data into the vertical interval (VITC) was implemented to get frame accuracy when reading below play speed. The longitudinal timecode (LTC)is an audio track it can only be accurate at play speed. Any speed below that and the time code reader interpolates possibly giving incorrect readings.
Cheers

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

I have done alot more testing with 422 control via Xena and I believe I may have found the problem.
In short Xena seems to have problems with VITC.
When crash capturing it is advised that you need to select embedded LTC(I always thought that VITC was embedded and LTC was an audio track) or you will not get any timecode data (ins & outs)from the source tape. I found this to be correct but what astonished me was that when I crashed captured (with 422control code selected) and got no codes… and then made file offline… the media in out timecodes appeared.
I then turned VITC off and set the timcode reader to LTC only on my digi beta decks… I then made sure capture settings were looking at LTC only, then presto, everything batched fine. In conclusion it seems that crash capturing has to be done using VITC/LTC embedded to get code data but batch capturing (according to my 2 seperate digi decks I used for tests)can only be achieved with LTC only on deck and 422 control timecode on XENA.
This problem I have is annoying to say the least, I should be able to have my Deck set with VITC ON and the reader set to auto and then crash capture or batch capture with accuracy and ease. I purchased Xena because of it’s great reputation, but I’m a bit put off by the lack of 422 functionality which is a function I rely heavily on.
As I am new to Xena I hope I have just missed a setting or something, but if anyone could tell me an easier way to do it, it would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Butch

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

Motherboard just died, so I guess if it was slowly dying it may have had something to do with my probs… will replace and advise… Thanks for reading

Helping others gives you good cowma.

[Butch Mcdonald]

here’s a link that may help
https://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329502.html

Helping others gives you good cowma.