Just got my new Workprinter up and running

[newmanauk]

Hi,

Just finished transferring some home processed TriX with my new WorkPrinter XP.

The transfer looks excellent even using my crappy Samsung 1 CCD camera.

It took a while to adjust the timing cam but I've not had one blurred frame since. I upgraded to RAID 0 the other week and I notice if I capture to the system disk the blurring returns in places so the RAID 0 is definitely necessary for me.

I need to get a more permanent set up. The camera is on a soft carpet so the alignment is slightly off. Other than that I'm really excite and I'm going to start filming a lot more now I can transfer the footage easily and quickly, edit it and add sound.

Thanks Roger and congratulations on the addition to the family

Alan

[tangodancer]

Anyone have any tips for adjusting the timing cam? I am getting some vertical streaks on some newly acquired reels but can't work out how to get the timing adjusted (I'm not very mechanically minded!).

I think I've found the adjustment 'hole' but I don't know which is the 'set screw' referred to in the instructions. I've loosened and tightened what I think is the timing cam but the streaks don't seem to get worse or better.

I know I should speak to Roger but I haven't been able to get him on the phone yet - he is overwhelmed by the Christmas rush, I think! So in the meantime maybe someone here can help me out? And I will keep trying to get hold of the main man!

Also, I've done about 1000 feet of film before this with no vertical smear, could it be the film that is the problem? Seems odd that it would happen now and not then.

Well, happy holidays to all

Paul

[attenka]

I had the same problem once, vertical blur, and I tried to adjust my WP but nothing helped. Then I noticed that it was my video camera which produced the blur. It was in memory mode instead of normal record mode. Have you checked your camera? Have you changed something there?

[tbruegg]

Paul

I had the same problem when a added the Raid Controller to my system. Because it shared IRQ with another device. Perhaps you want to check out if you have any IRQ conflicts on your System and disable Network card.

Thomas

[studiocarter]

I got back to the unit and finally adjusted it properly. Here is what I did.

An Allen wrench was needed. The position of the black wheel was marked with a sharpie pen.

First try, right after it arrived, I moved the dial just a little bit at a time. Nothing worked and I got vertical smears each time. So, I put it all away and worked on web pages and weight lifting instead. I was frustrated.

Second try, I noticed that there are two clicks during film pull down. In my case one click was at the top and one click was at the bottom of the claw pull down cycle. I took off the cover with the label on it to see the claw work. I also took off the back of the unit and rotated the fan by hand. It works on slow speed, too. Each click has a different sound, one is high and one is low, not in volume but in tone.

Looking in the back, I could see that the high sounding tone was when the switch was depressed while the lower tone was when it released and came out again. It was unknown when the picture taking through the mouse was activated.

So, looking at a capture of nothing, just a few frames, I could see that, using a low workprinter speed, sitting at the PC, the counter on the capture window incremented at the high click.

Now, the high click occurred at the start of the pull down and didn't change much for little movements of the wheel. That meant that there would be a picture captured during pull down each time! It clicked again at the bottom, releasing the capture mode, just when it should be starting capture. It was set backwards.

The wheel was turned about 180 degrees this time. It worked perfectly in the first test. The high click, picture capture, now occurred at the bottom, just as the claw retracted after moving a frame into place. Now there was plenty of time for a clean capture. No fine movements were needed.

I was proud of myself how I figured that out.

Michael Carter

[MovieStuff]

First try, right after it arrived, I moved the dial just a little bit at a time. Nothing worked and I got vertical smears each time. So, I put it all away and worked on web pages and weight lifting instead. I was frustrated.

Hah! I think I'll put that in the instructions:

"Encountering difficulty in the synching process can be offset by web page design or weight lifting. Then resume the synching process."

[tangodancer]

I got back to the unit and finally adjusted it properly. Here is what I did.

The wheel was turned about 180 degrees this time. It worked perfectly in the first test.

Thanks for your information. I spent about an hour inching the wheel left and right but to no visible sign of improvement, saw your posting this morning, turned it 180 degrees and all sign of the blur was gone! I doubt I would ever have tried that; I owe you a beer.

Had an interesting experience today, one of the films on a 50ft reel would not 'bite' onto the takeup reel, just slipped around. I changed the leader in case that was it but still wouldn't catch. So I moved the film onto a 100 foot reel and it took straight away. I wish I understood why, makes no sense to me...

But my problems are fixed and the batch of transfers I did today look superb so I am a happy camper.

Paul

[MovieStuff]

Now, the high click occurred at the start of the pull down and didn't change much for little movements of the wheel. That meant that there would be a picture captured during pull down each time! It clicked again at the bottom, releasing the capture mode, just when it should be starting capture. It was set backwards.

The wheel was turned about 180 degrees this time. It worked perfectly in the first test.

The timing disk is set for firewire captures when it leaves the shop. DV cameras have a delay on the firewire output of their video and, therefore, there must be a delay on the capture signal to match. Otherwise, the computer will capture when the film is moving. If you are capturing analog, then there is no delay and you can set the timing disk so the release of the internal micro-switch happens at the bottom of the pulldown, which is what it sounds like you are doing. But if capturing DV, then the release of the micro-switch ironically needs to be at the end of the dwell time/ beginning of the pulldown so that the image captured will be of the previous dwell time.

In any event, even the default setting is only good for my computer and camera combination. Everyone's set up is going to result in a different timing setting so it isn't surprising that you had to adjust the disk. Glad you were able to work out the timing.

We are working on an outboard electronic timing module with a dial that we hope to offer to people in the new year. All WorkPrinter-XP units will have the manual timing disk but the synch box will allow easier phase adjustment of the timing signal relative to the desired target frame. DigVid will be making upgrades to DodCap to take advantage of this new product where DodCap will show only the captured frames. Together, setting synch will be as easy as watching the capture window and turning a knob until the capture is clear.

Roger

[studiocarter]

Yes, my kit is analog. I didn't know about the dwell time. Sounds crazy. What kind of firewire card does that? All?
You use the Canon ZR60 right? Sometimes anyway. What card and software captures the frames? Dodcap no doubt.
That dial sounds like the perfect thing to swtich back and forth between analog and digital.

[mattias]

Yes, my kit is analog. I didn't know about the dwell time. Sounds crazy. What kind of firewire card does that? All?

yes afaik. the biggest problem is that you can't monitor the video on a tv conencted to your deck while still use the speakers connected to your computer since they won't be in sync.

/matt

[MovieStuff]

Yes, my kit is analog. I didn't know about the dwell time. Sounds crazy. What kind of firewire card does that? All?

It's not the card in the computer. It's the DV camera, itself, that causes the delay. The camera requires time to compress the information and turn it into a DV signal. In fact, if you take the firewire output of a miniDV cam and run that to a monitor via your computer, you can snap your fingers in front of the camera and then turn your head in time to see yourself snap your fingers on the monitor. It is a significant delay.

What is really interesting is to take the analog output of the camera and run that to a different monitor and watch the delay between the two. The analog signal is "real time" and the firewire signal is "delayed time". I worked on a project that had several miniDV cams being fed into a digital switcher via firewire. It was a real time shoot of ad-lib performers and we really had to be on our toes when switching. I took the analog output of all the cams and ran that to a bank of monitors and made the switching calls based on that. Doing so let me "see" ahead in time a bit, which made the cues to the switcher a little more timely.

[Kurt8]

Roger, will that outboard timing module also work with the older WP2 model? Will you also be offering upgrades of the older WP models in the new year? I somehow remember you mentioning that.

Thanks!

Kurt

[johnmeyer]

You might want to consider using a different capture application. I have never understood the need to have RAID etc. I capture at 6 fps from Workprinter onto a relatively slow computer. In addition, I no longer need to adjust the timing cam. The secret? I use Scenalyzer Live (aka SCLive).

It's available from http://www.scenalyzer.com.

I use build Aug 9 2003. This is a special build that has a timing function built in that the author created especially for workprinter users. You will have to request this build, because the standard commercial release is the July 28 build. The August 9 build has a feature that lets you specify the delay, in software, between when the mouse click is received from the workprinter, and when the capture actually takes place. As long as you don't change the workprinter capture speed, this method works fine. However, if you speed up or slow down the capture, you will have to change the software timing factor. This special build also fixes an inconsistent timing problem that existed in the July release. All of these changes were done by the author specifically in response to my requests because I told him that there were other workprinter users out there.

SCLive is a FANTASTIC capture application that has all sorts of other nifty features including time lapse capture, batch capture, optical scene detection, multiple capture drives, print to tape output, capture individual frames from any AVI file, and much, much more.

[MovieStuff]

You might want to consider using a different capture application. I have never understood the need to have RAID etc. I capture at 6 fps from Workprinter onto a relatively slow computer.

Hi, John!

At 6fps, you are more likely to be able to capture with a single video drive but, even then, the results are not consistant from computer to computer, as we have found from doing research. Of course, for a business, consistency is the key. I have always told individuals buying the WorkPrinter to try it without a Raid first but that consistant results are not assured unless a Raid is used. You are able to get consistant results, which is great, but most people can not with a single drive.

Now, the new WorkPrinter-XP actually captures at about 8.5fps. It is listed on my site at 6fps, just to be conservative and to cover the difference in speeds that results from domestic 60 cycle and foreign 50 cycle power. But, on average, it runs nominally at 8.5fps. At that rate, I can guarantee that no computer without a Raid-0 configuration will work consistantly, if at all. It may work on one capture and then fall out of synch on the next. A Raid will ensure consistant performance, which is vital in a business environment.

In addition, I no longer need to adjust the timing cam. The secret? I use Scenalyzer Live (aka SCLive).

Jeff Dodson (the author of DodCap) and I considered long ago putting a synch timing adjustment into DodCap but decided not to for several very good reasons. First off, we are constantly trying to increase the speed of the WorkPrinter units. They have gone from the initial 1fps to 4fps to 6fps to the current 8.5fps capture rate; over eight times the initial rate of the first WorkPrinter. Because rapid stop motion capture is VERY resource intensive, adding yet something else for the CPU to handle per frame seemed to be inviting trouble as we eye even higher capture rates. Also, with regard to the Raid issue, giving the CPU less to do is only going to increase the liklihood of success for someone with a slower, non-Raid machine.

Therefore, instead of adding a synch timing feature to the software, we will be offering an outboard solid state timing control that adds no more overhead to the CPU workload. Also, this will allow WorkPrinter users, both former and current, to take advantage of the outboard synch adjustment regardless of what capture program they are using; Premier, DodCap, CaptureMate, MAC, PC, etc. And, finally, since more people owning the original WorkPrinter-2 units have a slower computer, they will be able to use the new timing adjustment without adding more overhead to their present CPU usage.

I think the idea behind Scenalyzer is clever but, unfortunately, I can't really offer any support for it because how it affects the overhead of one computer to the next is going to be unknown, just as some people can capture without a Raid and some can't. If all computer systems were exactly the same and we could accurately predict the outcome of implementing such software, then it would be more viable.

Therefore, my "official" position is that WorkPrinter users are welcome to try Scenalyzer but, if they run into timing issues that they can't work out, there really isn't much I can offer to help them debug their setup. After shipping out over 500 units, I already spend way too much time on the phone helping people set up my own product. I don't need to be debugging someone else's. Please understand, I'm not being difficult. There are just only so many hours in the day!

[johnmeyer]

Roger,

As the Workprinter author, inventor, proprietor, and guru extrodinaire, I defer to you completely, and everyone should take your advice, not mine.

My only comment would be this: If one of your customers can't get the capture to work with Premiere or Dodcap, then before plunking down $$$ for a RAID setup, download SCLive and try it. The free download version puts a watermark on the video, and it has a timing problem that will give you blur on some frames (because it doesn't provide consistent timing between the mouse click and capture). However, you should be able to tell whether it is dropping frames. It's worth a try.