Video playback offset doesn't work

[Terence Blanchard]

Hi I've been using a Canopus 300 for outputting video from DP, and can't fix the delay in the video. I've tried using the offset with no success. Has anyone used this box with any god results.
Joseph Oliver

[jborum]

I am using their ADVC 100 box and I'm having the same problem. The video playback offset worked very well on my G4, but since I've upgraded to a G5 with OSX 10.5 the playback offset doesn't do anything. I'm running DP 5.13. Does anybody know how to make this little feature work again? It's a bit silly that it no longer works. Does anybody else have the problem of the firewire video playback offset not doing anything?

[jborum]

I have a strange bug going on here. The firewire video playback offset doesn't work on my rig and I don't know why.

I USED to use the ADVC 110 with DP4.5 and a G4. It worked great. I switched to a DC30 hardware card and didn't need to mess with offsets any longer. NOW I'm on a G5, the card didn't fit, so I went back to using the ADVC firewire box. I'm now running DP5.13 and OSX10.5 on an intel mac. The video offset isn't doing anything! I can set it to 30, 0, or -30 frames and it looks exactly the same. It's always about 5 or 6 frames late.

Why is this feature not working, and what do I have to do to get it back in order?

Thanks so much.

- Jezza

DP 5.13
OSX 10.5
PCI 424
ADVC 110

[James Steele]

Okay... two separate threads for this now. I think this subject header is more descriptive, so I'll try and do a merge which is a new feature of this board. We'll see how that goes.

[James Steele]

There... that's better.

[Kubi]

Be sure to turn off the movie window's audio, audio will not be piped out FW but will follow the offset and thus never match the picture no matter what you do. (Unless you bypass FW altogether.)

Instead, select "Copy Movie Audio to Sequence" after you set the movie's correct start time. Doesn't matter if you do this before or after you set the offset, it'll always print the audio to the start time set for the movie, regardless of offset. This will create an audio track with the movie's audio. This you can also use to check sync.

So, set the movie start time to the correct frame, select "Copy Movie Audio To Sequence", then select Apple FireWire NTSC for Video Output, set the Video Output Playback Offset to 6 frames (at least that's my number), and de-select Echo Video (DP's movie window will be out of sync due to the FW offset.)

Hope this helps? Works for me like a charm...

Canopus ADVC110, DP5.13, OS 10.5.4, MacPro 8core 2.8GHz

[jborum]

As far as I remember the movie playback offset never used to affect the "echo video" window on screen, only the firewire output. The way I tend to use picture is the on-screen one for me (small) and the external video on a big screen for clients. It USED to be that without an offset the firewire video would be 5-7 frames behind, but with the proper offset the external and internal video playback would be locked together. NOW they're always 5-7 frames different and I have to choose which picture I want to be in sync.

So yes, I can get the external video in sync with the sequence. That's not quite the problem. I can not get both versions of the video in sync with each other, something I'm sure I could do with my older machine and the ADVC.

Am I crazy? Have I been spoiled by the extra video card I was using for this job until recently?

[James Steele]

So yes, I can get the external video in sync with the sequence. That's not quite the problem. I can not get both versions of the video in sync with each other, something I'm sure I could do with my older machine and the ADVC.

I'm no expert and post stuff, but why not then just get a small, inexpensive video DA (Kramer, etc) and have both you an the client use conventional video monitors?

[jborum]

Desk space, that's why! That's valuable real estate...

It also wouldn't solve the mystery, it would simply avoid it.

[James Steele]

Desk space, that's why! That's valuable real estate...

Understood. I was just throwing it out there as generally the picture looks better anyway. Not even room for a small LDC that's probably as big diagonally as the window on your computer screen? Wall-mounted perhaps?

It also wouldn't solve the mystery, it would simply avoid it.

One man's "avoidance" is another man's pragmatic solution in a less than perfect world. I was just suggesting something that might be an avoidance and/or solution between now and a DP update or whatever other solution might or might not arrive in the meantime.

[christopher]

Hi Guys, I was just wondering if jborum fixed his problem - the whole issue is important for me, too.

Does the offset work correctly in DP6?

[martian]

wot is correct?

it didnt work in 5.13 - in 6 it wors as advertised... your dv hardware generates a delay..

the only way is to have a tv mon in both rooms... and turn echo off

or get mirrored mons in both rooms..

[jborum]

I'm not sure about DP6 because I'm still on 5.13.

What used to happen in DP4 was that the timing offset only affected the firewire output, so the on-screen echo video and the firewire output could be in sync. In 5.13 this doesn't seem to be possible so I use only the TV monitors with the offset in place, no on screen picture.

Another option I have seen in use is to use an additional video card to use a 3rd monitor or HDtv for picture. That way you can also put a big counter up there, etc.

[christopher]

Thanks for the update!

[stephentayler]

Here is what I have found in DP 6, don't know if it is also true in DP5 - maybe I will check later on.

In Preferences under Film Scoring Events, there are settings for FireWire Video Output Auto Compression.

If this is set to Never (use the Echo port instead), then the Playback Offset will also be applied to the Movie window on the Mac, as well as the Firewire output, so they will not be in sync.

If you set this to Always (uses more CPU), then it only applies the offset to the FireWire output, and your Movie window will be in sync. This setting also means you can use a non-DV Quicktime (I have checked this with an HDV movie) it will compress to DV for the Firewire output. Uses more CPU though!!

Hope this helps

Cheers

Stephen