anybody! -conflict with dazzle 150?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Diane
  • Start date Start date
D

Diane

I am having a conflict with MM2.1 and Pinnacle 8
Hi Diane,

The new Tools > Options > Compatibility tab in MM2.1 is supposed to help you
resolve that.

Uncheck the Pinnacle filters in the list. That should take them out of the
picture when using MM2.1 without disabling them for use by Pinnacle Studio
8.
Click to expand...
I tried your suggestion and disabled all listing of
Pinnacle. Did no help. Then one by one I disabled the
other non Pinnacle things listed there. Did not help.

Anything else I can do?

Diane
 
Diane,

You may have two different issues.

Your Dazzle 150 device captures analog to MPEG-2 files and doesn't work with
Movie Maker. I'm using Pinnacle 8 Quickstart also and have no conflicts with
it. But I'm using a Dazzle 80 that works with Movie Maker, not an MPEG-2
capture device.

You'll need to convert your captured files from MPEG-2 to AVI for use in
Movie Maker.

As a side note, I've been testing the unchecking of my Divx decoder in the
Compatibility list of MM2.1 and don't see it making a difference on
performance if I have it checked or unchecked. I can import and play Divx
files either way.

Your problem with the older projects might not be related to Pinnacle, and
the unchecking might not be effective. Go to the Problem Solving >
Acceleration and Codecs page of my site and try the manual renaming of any
problem codecs.... maybe it's something other than Pinnacle.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
 
Hello there,

You may be one of those growing number of people for who the latest version
(2.1) of MM and its advanced Tab is of no use. Assuming that you are here is my
standard reply.....
Hello there,

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
on other issues.

Option 1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
1.51.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

Option 2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0c, Media Player 9 (10 if you
prefer), and Service Pack 2(SP2).

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player

4) Reboot yet again and install Service Pack 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
and replacing it with an Etch-o-Sketch toy.

The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.

The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
the Microsoft update!!!

So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
------------------------

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
"Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
converting between the various formats together with links to the software
needed.

Image Size
----------------
There is a lot of very bad advice being given out on Aspect Ratios in relation
to still images. The short version of the advice you actually need is this.

16:9
-----
If you want a 16:9 ratio final product (video) you should crop your image to
the ratio of 16:9. In addition (talking in terms of PAL) you should use your
favourite image editor to resize the image so that is 576 pixels tall...the
width takes care of itself if you cropped it to 16:9.

4:3
---
If you want a 4:3 picture (older style TV screen) then crop it to that ratio,
then resize the image so that its height is......576 (Pal mewasurement), again
the width takes care of itself.

Weird Sizes
-----------------
Under no circumstances should you EVER create or resize an image so thats its
dimensions are something like 800 x 600....if you do you will get a slightly
blured image...and no amount of tinkering around the edges will ever put it
right. See the FAQ on Movie Maker and Ratio on my website for a more detailed
example of why that image will blur.

---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
Just glad I don't live in Croydon, UK
\|||/
(o o)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
 
Sorry. I may not have expressed myself properly. I have the Pinnacle 8
(Quickstart) software but I'm not really using it except to capture the
analogue clips with the Dazzle 150. (as that seems to be the only way the
Dazzle works-like you said -it won't work with MM2.)

I'm having the problem with MM2 not playing--when the MUSIC is on the
timeline--- on already made projects (which is made up of JPEG pictures)
that I have saved previously before installing the Dazzle . If I take the
music off of the timeline the video part will then play. But if music--mp3
format --is on the timeline it just won't play.Hope this is clearer.
PS. Does your Dazzle 80 work quite well? My 150 for the CDN price of $200 is
really not that great , as it has some sound glitches, as well as some
pixelation in the background every now and then. Wondering if there is
something better out there that is not outrageously expensive.--TV tuner
card, HP DVD writer, DVCam with analogue passthrough? What would you
recommend?
Thanks
Diane
 
Test reply as it crashed last time

PapaJohn (MVP) said:
Diane,

You may have two different issues.

Your Dazzle 150 device captures analog to MPEG-2 files and doesn't work with
Movie Maker. I'm using Pinnacle 8 Quickstart also and have no conflicts with
it. But I'm using a Dazzle 80 that works with Movie Maker, not an MPEG-2
capture device.

You'll need to convert your captured files from MPEG-2 to AVI for use in
Movie Maker.

As a side note, I've been testing the unchecking of my Divx decoder in the
Compatibility list of MM2.1 and don't see it making a difference on
performance if I have it checked or unchecked. I can import and play Divx
files either way.

Your problem with the older projects might not be related to Pinnacle, and
the unchecking might not be effective. Go to the Problem Solving >
Acceleration and Codecs page of my site and try the manual renaming of any
problem codecs.... maybe it's something other than Pinnacle.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
Click to expand...
 
I'm pleased with the capture quality with the Dazzle 80, which cost me $30
after rebates.

The capture quality you can get with it depends on your system. I made two
custom profiles to capture from it on my Toshiba laptop, one for 640x480 and
the other for 720x480. But that was before I got my first digital camcorder.

Today I find it easier to use the pass-through feature of MM2.1 or dub the
analog files to my digital camcorder and then capture the digital file from
it. Sometimes my capture method seems to depend on what mood I'm in rather
than a technical reason.

I can't get analog tape quality to equal digital tape quality, so it depends
on what's important. In my last capture session, the audio capture was more
important than the video, so the dubbing ended up being best. If it's mainly
video, the Dazzle 80 is usually fine. It seems that the less expensive
solutions often work better.

I've been reading a number of posts about audio issues with MP3 files, with
suggestions to convert them to WMA first.... I use so few MP3 files that I
can't comment on them.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
 
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