CS3 HDV Export to tape marathon/firewire nightmare

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Major difficulty trying to export HDV video (.m2t files) from the timeline direct to tape on a PC with Premiere CS3.2.

The most current project has failed to completely export 10 times as of the moment.

What transpires: After the material is transcoded & the “render and record” function kicks in, during the actual exporting process, it unexpectedly comes to a unscheduled halt, completely stopping at seemingly random lengths (for some unknown reason). So, the whole project is never delivered to tape. It could be 6 minutes, 45 minutes or some other # made it but never 100%. I then have to start/re-try the export all over again as the XH-A1’s LCD screen goes to black.

Many hours thus far have been wasted. It’s very frustrating as I never had this problem with archiving SD footage to tape like this!

I’ve tried the following thus far:
1) Used several different firewire cords of various quality.
2) Used both an assortment of brand new tapes & also used ones in case that potentially would be the difference between success and failure. Maybe there was a timecode factor that might mess things up, hence the new ones.
3) Loaded several timelines (project master & back-up copies)
4) Relaunch CS3, load a fresh timeline (a copy of the master or the original again) and do another transcode from scratch.

Currently, I’m at my wits end and at an impasse on how to go forward.

The last time I tried this exercise with a different project it took me like 7 times or so in order to get it archived to tape. Persistence & determine paid off that time only.

Naturally, I do not have the time and patience to grapple with this every week so I need help.

What could possibly be causing this, any ideas? Ever happen to you?
What do you use for a firewire cord that works consistently?
Brand? Thickness? Place of purchase?

Something funky is going on here and I’d like to put it behind me as I plan to work with HDV video for along time to come.

Thanks!

[edDV]

It could be your Pentium 4 CPU.

As I recall, "print to tape" renders first then transfers. That should work for a Pentium 4 but maybe this is a settings issue. Maybe your current settings attempt a render on the fly. This wouldn't work for a Pentium 4.

Best to ask about this in a Premiere CS3 specific forum.

[aedipuss]

any interruption in data being delivered to the HDV camera will abort the process. could be a badly fragmented hard drive, an antivirus program sniffing the file transfer, some windows process starting and using the h.d., or a bunch of other things. start with a defrag, go into task manager and shut off all unneeded processes, disable all any virus type stuff, and take the computer offline.

or figure out what's interrupting the data flow.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

What are the ramifications of doing a defrag? Won't that reassemble, relocate or in some way redistibute exisitng data?

I just bought a dedicated video drive a few weeks ago. Do I defrag that one or the main drive with the operating system?

How does doing a defrag help this problem? Do the potential rewards outweight the risks?

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

EdDV, how have you been?

Good to hear from you as always.

My CPU is a Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4 ghz and yes I realize by this stage my PC could be underpowered.

Maybe the graphics card ( ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro) can't handle export to tape however it imports HDV footage just fine with HDV split.

My system can only hold 4 gigs of ram.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

I gave up for now after having 13 or so successive failures.

I tried both the front and the back firewire ports on the PC. Made no difference at all.

[edDV]

Defrag is non-destructive to data. I prefer Norton Speed Disk to XP's defrag but XP works better than nothing. There are also freeware disk defragment programs.

Defrag pass one will join file fragments into contiuous files for faster access. Pass two orders the files on the disk based on statistical use. Norton gives the user control of file placement on the drive.

I usually defrag the OS drive monthly to quarterly. I defrag the video drives between projects or when I see disk churning issues. This happens more often when disks are near full.

EdDV, how have you been?
Good to hear from you as always.

My CPU is a Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4 ghz and yes I realize by this stage my PC could be underpowered.

Maybe the graphics card ( ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro) can't handle export to tape however it imports HDV footage just fine with HDV split.

My system can only hold 4 gigs of ram.

The source of the problem is your Premiere Pro CS3. If it would just export HDV to a file, you wouldn't need to go back to the camcorder via "print to tape". BTW my Vegas does HDV print to tape fine.

This is why I suggested you try the Premiere Pro forums where someone may have experience with CS3 print to tape hints and tricks.

Your CPU should be adequate. Your display card plays no role in import/export. 2GB RAM is good enough, 4GB is better for some modes but I rarely see these programs use more than 2GB.

[aedipuss]

pretty much the only thing print back to tape needs is an uninterrupted flow of data. your current computer is fine, but please update your profile computer specs, they still list a p4.

an external drive may not cut it, as usb has a cpu controlled i/o buss and is easily interrupted. and an external firewire drive might conflict with the camera. make sure to use an internal drive.

defragging a hard drive has been around forever and isn't going to hurt anything. all it does is take the widespread pieces of files that are written in small chunks in different parts of a hard drive and write them into one continuous file. that way the hard drive head doesn't have to seek all over the platter to find the data it needs. the tool is included in all windows versions. right click on a hard drive letter in explorer and select properties/tools/ and defrag. checking a drive for errors in tools can't hurt either.

the video card shouldn't have much effect, but just to be sure you can try turning off the preview.

[edDV]

I agree an internal dedicated video drive should be used. The only exception would be an external drive connected with eSATA.