CS4 On Location dropping out ...
 

First post on this forum... I'm posting here because I'm not sure where else this thread would go.

I use Adobe On Location CS4 to record depositions via Firewire and an external HDD. I am having issues with the application shutting down after a 75 minute to 80 minute take. The application appears to be okay but drops out during the start of a take (unpredictably, I might add).

I'm running Norton 360 as an antivirus application. I try and shut the application down during capture.

I used Serious Magic DV Rack without issue for 3 years. Had to purchase a new computer when the old one started to run hot.

For what it's worth, legal videographers go out to each job with the potential of recording 7-8 hours of video at a sitting (but not continuously).

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

If you simply want to capture live HDV to computer, you could try using HDVSplit (freeware). If you simply want to capture live DV to computer, there are a number of apps that can do that easily. WinDV is a real good one (and also freeware).

Thanks for the suggestion, Robert. I have very specific reasons for running DV Rack/On Location. Freeware is worth what you pay for it, IMHO.

I capture DV.

There is some excellent free software out there (often better than payware). Firefox comes to mind, along with Open Office, JAVA, and a lot of other superb software. WinDV is the most reliable DV capture app I've ever tried (and I've tried quite a few - a lot of payware DV capture apps just downright suck).

Verify that your laptop HD spins at 7200 rpm. Laptops commonly come with 5400 rpm drives installed to save battery power.

HDD Speed...more
 

Wesley:

Thank you for the response. My PC was specified to work with Adobe CS4. It's got the right drives, video card, memory, and CPU. I only use 7200 RPM or above drives for all of my systems.

On Location and DV Rack come with video tools that are not available on freeware. The tools allow you to QC the video on the inbound side and not in post. They are critical to making a good record in my profession. I only get to take the video one time. There are no second takes in legal video. Well, that's not true, but the second time it gets done I have to pay the bill and not the lawyer.

As far as freeware is concerned, Firefox is an excellent product. I have and use some freeware products on a regular basis. I find, however, virtually every freeware product that has relatives is the ugly cousin to the paid version. There are only a few that I can think of (and some are video products) that don't change much from the free to the paid version, and with those, you usually only eliminate advertising with the paid version.

OpenOffice is an interesting product as long as you're not an applications developer. I've been developing spreadsheet and database applications since 1984, and I've never found another office suite that allows application development like Microsoft. I don't like a lot of MS policies, and I don't like their pricing strategy, but their applications usually work well together and you can do a lot with them if you know VBA.

IMHO...

There is a recent update to OnLocation which purports to fix some bugs... just fyi... /Battle Vaughan/miamiherald com video team

I assume these are laptops? Was the old computer running Windows XP, and the new one running Vista?

I was thinking the same thing. Check to make sure all the power management etc is turned off.

Ron Evans

CS4 On Location...
 

Both laptops, both XP Pro, service pack 3. DV Rack was mostly on SP2, but I ran SP3 without issue.

All power management tools (drives, hibernation) are turned off. A screen saver is not the cause; the machine(s) recorded fine with the screen saver on.

For what it's worth, I have booked close to 1000 hours recording with DV Rack and On Location.

On Location Update...
 

Is this an update available via the normal Adobe update path (if you know)?

Was the change over from DV Rack to On Location simultaneous with changing over to the new machine?

CS4 On Location dropping out.
 

Kind of sort of. On Location is on a new laptop. However, I also went out and found a used copy of DV Rack 2.0 HD and loaded it on another new laptop (switching the registration from one user to another is very entertaining. I suggest everyone do it at least once. Your visit to the DMV to get new license plates will seem tame in comparison). This DV Rack laptop is a backup for the On Location laptop.

My new DV Rack laptop has never blown up. The On Location laptop has.

Granted the laptops are slightly different configurations. The one running On Location was purchased specifically for CS4 (and other video applications). It has the better graphics card. The other laptop is a desktop replacement. Same platform, slightly lower spec video card.

I ran DV Rack successfully on a 2.0 Ghz PC with 1 MB of RAM and Windows XP for 2.5 years.

The new laptop purchased specifically for video capture has no issues with any other applications (including the rest of the Adobe CS4 suite).

Yes, it should show up if you click on help>updates, from the Adobe updater...I am away from the Windoze computer and don't recall just when it was available, but iirc within the last few weeks. /bv

Hi Bruce,
While we do some testing of long recordings (>1hr), I think it's safe to say that you have more experience in that realm than we do. I'd like to work with you offline to isolate the cause of this problem. Please contact me at mapes@adobe.com. (Once we've nailed down the culprit, I'll post here for the benefit of everyone else.)

Incidentally, while I encourage all OnLocation users to update to 4.0.3, that patch fixed literally one bug involving the Quicktime format, which had nothing to do with a crash in OnLocation.