Serious Magic DVRack

[Drew Curran]

I've twice tried to download the trial of DV Rack HD2. I'm told on the download page that a link will be sent to my email address.

Both times I provided a different email address. I'm not getting any email with a link.

First tried 2 days ago

Any ideas?

Andrew

[Rob Bond]

Eugene,

I am using a 2.5" (laptop) 5400 RPM drive as your describe with DV Rack (non-HD version). Here's a link to the drive and the enclosure used:

Drive: (SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM100JC 100GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache ATA-6)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152024

Enclosure: (Bytecc Aluminium 2.5" HDD HD-HD1-U2FW)
http://www.directron.com/hd201u2f.html

--Rob

[David Stoneburner]

I finally got a laptop and would like to get DV Rack. I'm not shooting HD and most likely won't be for another year or so. DV Rack Express would be just fine for me. Any idea where I could still find any?

Thanks in Advance.

[Seth Bloombaum]

check with videoguys.com, a forum sponsor.

[David Stoneburner]

Thanks I have sent them an email. I have also seen it at some other online shops, but they are from companies that I have never heard of so before I check resellers.com I wanted to see what anybody else had to say.

Thanks

[Stephen Hall]

Okay, I've tried several times to install newly-purchased DV Rack onto my new laptop.

It prompts me for the installation key, which I enter, then zips through doing some things, says it's finished.

I click 'Ok' on the final installer window and the readme file pops up.

The shortcut on the desktop marked 'DV Rack' is invalid. There are menus created under Start -> Programs, but all the menu entries are invalid.

There is no StatusLog.txt file in the Documents and Settings subdirectory mentioned in the readme file. Nothing. No error popups or anything.

I looked in the Serious Magic / DV Rack subdirectory under Program Files and there are some binaries there. I click on 'Activate.exe' and it asks whether I've activated; I click "No"; it brings up a user info form and immediately fails with a dialog box stating "An error was encountered performing activation. Please try again later." I cannot get past that, and of course, the installation is incomplete, anyway.

What gives ? This was pretty expensive software to just die during installation without even giving a hint about what was wrong.

My setup:

1-day old IBM Thinkpad T60, Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 GB memory, 80GB disk free, Windows XP SP2, all Windows Update patches applied.

Tried installing as my own user account, which has Administrator privileges, then as Administrator: same result.

Tried copying the CD's contents to a directory on my hard drive and re-trying the installation: same result.

Have Symantec Antivirus 10.0.0.846 OEM running -- tried turning off Autoprotect: no change.

Any thoughts ? I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Stephen H

[Seth Bloombaum]

Although activation has frequently been aggravating since SM went to Softwrap (make sure you start activating 3 days before you actually need to use it, in my experience! you'll need the time for email back-and-forths with softwrap in the UK), I've never experienced the installation problems you're describing, and I've done every version of DVRack.

Get thee to tech support!

[Stephen Hall]

Thanks, I finally got it going. I must say that that is the most ridiculous, convoluted activation process I've ever experienced.

I had to:

Leave the product with a wrecked installation, then apply a patch. The patch seemed to fix the product and the activate gadget, as well.

Once that started working, I could go through the Byzantine registration process.

Sheesh, I'm all for 'em protecting their IP, but that was horrible.

I'm sure Adobe will get everything straightened out as the product evolves.

Stephen H

P.S. Oh, and as for support helping, I got "Oh. We don't support v 1.0. Call Adobe. We only support 2.0 here." Lovely.

[Andy Tejral]

At least, I'm guessing that's what the problem is.

I can record clips OK but nothing appears in the monitor nor wfm/vector.

I tried a Panasonic DV deck as an A->D converter and a Sony VX1000 camera with the same results.

The computer is a brand new, muy spiffy, Asus A8Js with dual core 2.0GHz, 1Gb ram. The video card seems to be a problem. nVida doesn't seem to know that they made a GeForce Go 7700. Its an Asus notebook but the only video driver on thier website is the one that is installed on the computer.

I did notice that Edius doesn't have overlay either.

I'm not sure where to start troubleshooting this. Any help appreciated!

[Andy Tejral]

Never mind, fixed it.

I'm not sure why (so if someone has an explanation I'll listen) but the video card was still devoting a whole bunch of memory to the monitor that was no longer hooked up. I activated it, reduced its screen size and deactivated and I had overlay and I had a working DV Rack.

Unfortunately, I had the bright idea of installing a patch. Now I have to reactivate the program and its asking for information I don't have. Terrific.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Right. As Andy figured out, many video cards will only allow video overlay on the "primary" monitor, which can be changed within the card's configuration software.

[James Binder]

Looking for an inexpensive copy of master sets 4 for Ultra2 -- any ideas where to find the best deal?


Thanks

[Seth Bloombaum]

Check out forum sponsor videoguys.com.

Unfortunately, this kind of product generally isn't available at much of a discount - unless I've missed it.

[Mike Moncrief]

Hi All,

I am using the last version of DVD rack(before Adobe) with the HDV power pack installed.. when using it for a normal 4:3 DV project, the field monitor in DV Rack looks cropped.. like part of the video is cut off.. WEhen I look at the captured footage it is normal.. I just cannot figure out why the DV Rack monitor looks cropped?? Any ideas??

Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

[Mike Moncrief]

Hello,

OK I think i answered my own question.. looks like the "zoom" button was turned on, hence the crop.. Another thing that is a bit confusing though is that the video appears letterboxed on the monitor, even though i am shooting 4:3 DV??
Also I do not remember, what is the difference between AVI T1 versus AVI T2 ??

Thanks,
Mike M.