My Intensity Shuttle USB3 had been almost working too long..

Hi All,

I'm hoping you can help me out.

I bought an Intensity Shuttle USB 3.0 a little over twelve months ago, and after spending a boat-load more on new PC hardware to meet with its approval; it seemed to be mostly working...

I say mostly because every now and then, Media Express would completely hang the machine - requiring a power-cycle to recover (I find that counting to 10 after changing preferences etc. before my next click reduces the likelihood of it falling over); and from time to time it'd do other weird things, but on the whole, it was able to do what I most often threw at it (capturing 1080i50 from Component).

Recently though, I came to capture some PALi50 from Composite (I'm trying to capture a short video of my parents' wedding which is currently on VHS (transferred from some old cine camera or other).

After a couple of minutes' scratching my head, I rememberd to switch to Composite input in the Blackmagic Control Panel, and sure enough I got sound & light in Media Express.

The problem I had however, was that as the tape plays, there are some sync-blanks where different shots are cut together. With frame-drop detection enabled, these are enough to stop Media Express capturing; I figured I'd just disable 'stop on dropped frames' and everything would be groovy.

What I ended up with was a few seconds of video, then basically a broken file - Media Express shows blank frames and won't resume playback (since they're all drops, I guess), and WMP simply puts its legs in the air.

So, I figured I should check if there was any new version of Desktop Video, since experience has taught me to update that before wondering too much about what the Shuttle's playing-at.

Anyway, I've just updated to 9.7.7, and everything's gone dark.

Composite input is selected as before, and whether I set PAL or NTSC in Media Express, there's no video. Interestingly (I haven't checked release notes to see if this was supposed to happen), all options for capture file format have disappeared from the SD format options, and I've only got AVI 10-bit and DPX 10-bit in HD 1080i50, where previously had other options (including 8-bit) etc.

Help!

Thanks in advance for any clues anyone can share; and regards,

Rob.

[EDIT] PS> I've Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 (I have CS collection for various 9-5 pursuits) and (don't laugh) Corel Video Studio X6 (for quickly messing about with videos for websites); so if there's any way of making either of those capture what I need from the Intensity (I've *never* successfully captured anything from the WDM capture driver to date), I'd be interested in suggestions there too. Thanks again!

The 9.7.7 drivers don't work with the USB 3 Shuttle, see here
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10602

You also may need a TBC since your coming from VHS.

Thanks for the tip.

Blackmagic... Pull your collective finger out.

Your hardware's luuuuuurvely. Your software blows giant donkeywang.

The website directing me [*when I selected the exact hardware model*] to a driver which is by-design not-compatible seems to me to be a pretty fair representation of the overall situation. *sigh*

Hardware IDs? Bus location? Two of many things which surely must be interrogable before a driver installs/starts? I can screengrab device manager showing a perfectly working device, using a driver which is flat-out not compatible. Did your driver guys come from E-MU systems, by any chance?

So... I'll trawl through previous releases and find the latest software which is intended for the Shuttle USB3, and see how that behaves.

...From the 2nd reply (posted while I was ranting this), it seems I might need a TBC... REALLY?

On a device which is clearly aimed at bridging the gap between dime-a-dozen USB capture dongles and more professional gear, requirement for a TBC to do basic/sloppy capture of this sort seems a bit of a let down. Particularly when Media Express quite happily recovers sync in the preview window.

Any chance of an "I don't give a flying f**k about frame & sample accurate timecode and all that stuff, this isn't for broadcast; really." checkbox in the capture options? Maybe with a "there's no audio either, so please just capture a lot of pictures and write them to a file one after the other, I'll worry about the rest" sub-selection?

Thanks again,

An increasingly-frustrated [because your stuff is clearly better than this!] Rob.

EDIT: Now, having respired into a paper bag for a little while; less facetiously... Any chance of a "sample & hold video drop outs" implementation in software?

Rob. Hopefully you feel better after that rant. Not that you don't have a right to be frustrated.

However would you actually think it appropriate to use the expletives you included (with nice *'s so we don't actually see the actual words you are using) if you were meeting face-to-face with Blackmagic? I would hope not.

For some reason - online forums seems to create the space for plain rudeness.

EDIT: By the way - the driver is not incompatible "By design". It's called a bug.

On your point of order... I might well, since in context, said expletive wasn't aimed at you or your colleagues (in that case, for the record, I absolutely wouldn't; as despite my feeling that such language has value (as used) for punctuation/emphasis, I appreciate that not everyobdy would see it that way when it was aimed directly at them).

From here on in then, capturing VHS from composite for this purpose, I don't give a happy hoot about timecode

As for the driver's non-compatibility being a "bug" - that's fair enough; but in that case, I'm confused by the logic of a week after its release, still distributing a build of a driver to users of hardware upon which it has show-stopping bugs? If all the Intensity products were lumped-together, I could perhaps understand it, but the matrix drills-down to the exact SKU. Seems like madness to me. Whatever.

Anyway; back to the actual issue at hand... Can you suggest if there's likely to be any way to get the Shuttle to turn a blind eye to the odd blanked frame without a TBC, or am I going to need a taiwanese eBay-special composite-USB dongle to do the job?

Apologies for ranting, but if you were Hauppauge, I wouldn't be so frustrated. (See: your stuff's clearly better than this!)

Rob.

The drivers are common across many devices - so the fact something is broken in one device does not mean it is not providing some needed improvements for others (It's what seems to make this whole issue all the more frustrating).

On the TBC. Yes. The Shuttle (despite it being "professional grade") does not do well capturing from analog VHS tapes. A TBC is advisable - and MAY help.

There are lots of posts here about the need for TBC when capturing from a VHS tape.
e.g. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8996&p=57725&hilit=tbc#p57046

The drivers are common across many devices - so the fact something is broken in one device does not mean it is not providing some needed improvements for others (It's what seems to make this whole issue all the more frustrating).

Quite. I certainly wouldn't suggest pulling a release entirely, when in the first instance aforementioned show-stopping bugs only affect one of many applicable products. What I might do however, is tweak my database such that when a user selects Intensity Pro (etc), the website offers 9.7.7, and when a user selected Intensity Shuttle (USB 3.0), offers 9.7.5 (perhaps with an advisory note). That much doesn't seem like rocket science; and would presumably save everyone some headaches (users the hassle of installing and then uninstalling a busted driver, and yourselves the hassle of explaining to every Tom, Dick & Harry that the driver has some dragons in it). Anyway; that's spilled-milk at this point.

On the TBC. Yes. The Shuttle (despite it being "professional grade") does not do well capturing from analog VHS tapes. A TBC is advisable - and MAY help.

There are lots of posts here about the need for TBC when capturing from a VHS tape.
e.g. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8996&p=57725&hilit=tbc#p57046

So it begins to look simply that my perception of the product is what's wrong. As above, I took (on advice from its distribution channel) the Shuttle to basically be a USB capture dongle for people who were a little more serious. In so much as it's similar in purpose, but vastly upgraded in terms of its execution; offering broader format/transport support, and far higher quality AD/DA conversion.

If it'd had BNC posts and TOSLink connectors all over it, I'd have fully expected to not get away with a laissez faire attitude to clocks & sync; but it doesn't. It has a touchy-feely chassis, pretty box art, and a complete set of just-like-the-ones-on-my-TV I/O.

Perhaps you can correct me, and set straight that the hardware doesn't have the capability to relax a little; but I feel pretty sure that this sort of thing could be addressed in soft or firmware? If that $20 WangDong Industries USB Splendidvideocaptureomatic 3000XL doesn't drop its guts when faced with a blank frame, it seems a shame to have a product wihch seems so perfectly positioned to wipe the floor with said rubbish be too highly strung to achieve it.

The simple facts that:

1) There's an option to not stop recording when frames are dropped.
2) Media Express' preview window doesn't miss a beat when the sync comes back.

...Suggest to me that the Shuttle is tantelisingly close to being able to cope.

I can't help thinking that as well as me, Blackmagic are letting their own product down by not equipping it with the ability to loosen its tie somewhat; as it (to me at least) ends-up in a bit of a no-mans-land. It's not prosumer/enthusiast equipment, because it doesn't do the basic things those guys are likely to want it to do from time to time (i.e. - it doesn't function as a quality-upgrade to the ebay junk, because it can't do what the ebay junk does at a basic level); and at the other end of the scale, if users were the type to have TBCs/clock masters/other outbaord hanging around, they'd surely just have bought a DeckLink in the first place?

I'll get over it; most likely not by investing in a decent TBC for one-off/occassional use to pull-in a bit of old tape, more likely by having to take the quality-hit and using some lesser USB capture gadget which just doesn't give a hoot.

Note to self: "Don't worry Dad, I should be able to do that for you; I've got this awesome little box like that Belkin thing you used to have, but with ADC that'll blow it out of the water." is a regrettably invalid statement.

And that's it in a nutshell. The Shuttle USB 3.0 (or its Thunderbolt sibling) to me has the potential to be the de facto standard piece of kit for any home/enthusiast user looking to manipulate consumer video types with quality that's a cut above the rest (so much so that if they bought anything else, they'd basically have screwed up); but as it stands, it's just not. It's closer pro quality, but further from consumer-friendly (or perhaps forgiving fits better?); and as such presumably only fills the odd comparatively tiny niché.

Honestly, I beg you - for you as much as me - if the limiting factor here is soft or firmware (surely a dirty sample-and-hold is doable?); have a crack at it. You're 99% of the way to a legendary product.

Sincerest regards,

Rob.

You need to remember, a lot of BMD's products are aimed at the professional market, hence adhere to the pro spec. And in the professional market, a composite signal, even coming from a VHS deck, is expected to follow such spec.

You want a quick fix? If you have a second VHS deck, black a tape, and dub the original over to it in one single recording. The Shuttle should be able to capture that.

You need to remember, a lot of BMD's products are aimed at the professional market, hence adhere to the pro spec. And in the professional market, a composite signal, even coming from a VHS deck, is expected to follow such spec.

I see what you're saying, but my point is sat squarely in the middle of that "a lot of" part If we looked at the entire range and picked out the ones which aren't aimed specfically at professionals, wouldn't we start with Intensity, more so Shuttle?

You want a quick fix? If you have a second VHS deck, black a tape, and dub the original over to it in one single recording. The Shuttle should be able to capture that.

Of course! I'll certainly give that a go, but I should say that I might have mislead you above - while the shots are cut-together on the tape, I think (although I couldn't be certain) that this was done before the whole shooting-match was bounced to VHS.

I will give it a try however, even if out of curiosity and diagnostic-diligence alone.

I have been thinking some more about the broader issue of handling these events/deviations from spec; and on the evidence I can see, whether or not there's likely to be a hardware limitation in making it all a little bit more flexible; or indeed if it's more likely to be an issue for software.

My somewhat tongue-in-cheek developed thoughts on that to follow...

Thanks again,

Rob.

Actually. Hang on a second...

Unless you're about to show me the weirdest logic/signal-path diagram in creation, I'm pretty confident that while the Intensity Shuttle might not "do well capturing from analog VHS", it's the software letting it down here.

"and the preview window shall set you free..."

It suddenly dawned on me that there's significance to the preview/monitor window. It works. Just fine.

...This brought me to thinking about the hardware in terms of a basic input-process-output operation: Wavy electricity is input on the Shuttle's composite port; then the Blackmagic wizards who live inside the hardware cast their A/D spell, and pretty little pixels are pushed up the pipe to the pooter as ones and zeros.

What happens to them next, is up to the driver, application, and encoder; right?

As far as I can work out, there are two likely models for the way the hard and software interact. The first is that the software issues direct instruction to the hardware on what it's supposed to be doing at any given moment (i.e. it communicates transport commands of a kind); the other, which I feel is more likely the case, is that the software is pretty passive in terms of its effect on the hardware, and it all works like a network-bridge of sorts - the software initialises the hardware (either upon opening the log/capture pane, or on changing project preferences) with parameters for source and destination formats, and then (assuming input is to spec), the hardware just begins to translate what comes in and streams it out, for the listening to computer to do with it what it will.

Now, looking at the issue I face...

The ones and zeros henceforth, and I've lovely dancing pictures on the screen; and at that point, matching ones and zeros being written to disk. Then there's a brief interruption to sync, which is where it gets interesting.

Surely if there was a hardware issue in handling the blank, I'd lose the preview window - because the wizards have become confused - at least until the hardware state was reset - either by transport commands in the first operation model, or by reinitialisation in the second; but neither of those things happens here. Without any input in the application to reset the hardware, the preview window continues to show pretty dancing pixels, it's only what's written to disk that becomes useless.

...The hardware is still quite happily shoving pixels up the pipe.

Hardware: check.
Firmware: check.

My gut says the driver is probably holding up its part of the bargain too, because there's still I/O happening which is broadly correct, resulting in recognisable images in the preview/monitor. Maybe the driver has some sort of panic which results in the application/encoder writing rubbish after a blank comes past, but I don't feel it likely.

So, that leaves Media Express and its encoder as the only remaining points at which there might be something happening to the pretty pixels coming out of the hardware resulting in there being pictures on the screeen but rubbish on the disk.

The theory seems to hold water looked-at another way, too. Imagine hooking some jump-leads up to the back of the preview window (or dumping from DirectDraw/framebuffer) - there's a ready supply of working pictures, from which a playable video might feasibly be constructed - the hardware has done its job already in order for that to be true.

Like I said, the software blo..

...Seriously though, doesn't this sound fairly logical to you? Might it be possible for the software guys to give it some head-scratching and see if they can make the written file as bombproof as the preview/monitor?

Fully prepared to be corrected and eat my words; and again with sincerest regards,

Rob.

[Edited for horrendous typo]

Your theory is nice. But unless you know how the hardware is put together it's just a rather pointless exercise. And... it won't make any difference to the task at hand. I don't know about you - but I'm interested in finding solutions to present issues to allow me to do my work rather than coming up with some idea about why some software fix based upon my theory on how it works should improve things.

Mike Squires response seems the mos reasonable description of what the issue is.

Did you know there are many different ways (software) that you can use to capture video from the Shuttle? You are not restricted to just using Media Express. They will ALL have the problem.

Your theory is nice. But unless you know how the hardware is put together it's just a rather pointless exercise.

Wow. And I'd stopped trying to rattle cages after my second post.

I thought I made it pretty clear that yes, I was indeed speculating/theorising... and more than that... asking if I was thinking along anything like the right lines.

I had hoped the response might be something more informative or constructive than pointing out that I didn't spec the PCB. The fact that's all I got seems to suggest that I'll just have to carry on guessing.

And... it won't make any difference to the task at hand. I don't know about you - but I'm interested in finding solutions to present issues to allow me to do my work rather than coming up with some idea about why some software fix based upon my theory on how it works should improve things.

Some might say this is an argument for the notion that coders should administer support.

Workarounds are good. Not having the problem in the first place is better.

Mike Squires response seems the mos reasonable description of what the issue is.

And I've said I'll try that; but we both know that even if Mike's is an operable workaround, it's not ideal. Maybe I should copy back-and-forth between magnetic media a thousand times, that way the Shuttle can sync on the noise? Or better still, I could just draw 45,000 pictures instead of trying to capture 30 minutes of tape? It's no fun when people are being obtuse, is it?

Again, I was wondering, asking, about how it all works, and if (in simple terms) there might possibly be a (hopefully uncomplicated) way to implement it in the software that whatever goes on the screen (since it does), goes on the disk?

It'd save me, and presumably others, time doing deck-to-deck copies, and would help retain the advantage of purchasing kit with better ADC/DAC by not duplicating lossy media before digitisation.

But more than that, and again, as my third(?) post - the one full of pleas to Blackmagic's better nature - that surely if such functionality might be implemented, it would be another string to the product's bow? In my opinion, helping it fulfill the potential it has to be all-things-to-all-enthusiasts.

Did you know there are many different ways (software) that you can use to capture video from the Shuttle? You are not restricted to just using Media Express. They will ALL have the problem.

I knew that there are many different ways I'm supposed to be able to capture video from the Shuttle, but as (much further) above, I've never had any joy with the WDM capture driver to date. I tried Premiere earlier, but it didn't even see the Shuttle; however I expect that was because I had the latest Blackmagic software installed at the time.

Yes, the latter half of the previous sentence was deliberately barbed.

I'll concede now that perhaps no other application would yield better results; but it raises a question about exception handling.

Will all applications cheerfully continue (indefinitely) to write a file, despite the fact that it'll be useless since input went momentarily out of spec (perhaps within a second of commencing capture), without even a sniff of a warning?

Asked another way... Is it not a problem that it's entirely possible for users to be confident (as the application shows it's capturing, the preview/monitor is running smoothly, and there have been no warnings) that the Shuttle and Media Express are operating as intended (maybe hoped), and have for the last x time (perhaps hours) been capturing lovely video, when in fact there's nothing usable after the first few frames?

Maybe if it can't be implemented that the Shuttle will capture what the preview/monitor shows, it might at least be possible to write some code to warn users that although capture is continuing, what's being written to the disk is unplayable.

Rob.

Hi ,

I have resolve intensity shuttle USB 3.0 work with normal USB 3.0 boards,

Suggest you to try hard and you found it so essay..................

Will all applications cheerfully continue (indefinitely) to write a file, despite the fact that it'll be useless since input went momentarily out of spec (perhaps within a second of commencing capture), without even a sniff of a warning?

I must admit I missed that you were saying the preview looks perfect - and that it's only the playback of the recorded file that is faulty. (Forgive me... your posts are very lengthy and I find myself scanning them to pick out anything that is actually related to an issue I feel I might be able to help with).

You never did mention what format you are capturing in. Could you confirm? I'm curious if your hard drive is unable to keep up with the capture (if you are recording in the default of uncompressed). SD formats are a lot less demanding than an HD source - but nevertheless it could still be an issue.

Your first post mentioned you capturing OK with the Shuttle before this (albeit with Media Express occasionally crashing)... so I would expect the format will be the same as then. But... I thought it might be worth checking.

If it was working fine before you updated to 9.7.7, I would just go back to the last driver version you were
using.
I updated and noticed that there were only two capture formats in Media Express and the SD selections were blank.
I went back to 9.7.5 and all worked well. I'll check out the next update when it comes out.

Hi ,

I have resolve intensity shuttle USB 3.0 work with normal USB 3.0 boards,

Suggest you to try hard and you found it so essay..................

Hi Amit,

Thanks for the suggestion.

Actually when I first started using Intensity Shuttle USB 3.0, I did run into some of the problems caused by the variations between USB 3.0 setups. In the end I built a new IvyBridge PC, with two different USB 3.0 controllers on board. Since then, I found the Shuttle to [broadly speaking] work with either of the controllers.

I think the problem I have now is related to something else, but thanks all the same

Rob.

I must admit I missed that you were saying the preview looks perfect - and that it's only the playback of the recorded file that is faulty. (Forgive me... your posts are very lengthy and I find myself scanning them to pick out anything that is actually related to an issue I feel I might be able to help with).

And I must admit I arrived at my laptop with some trepidation today; because I realised in my frustration and keen (honestly) to resolve the problem, I might've [read: probably] been coming across a bit of an a**hole (that one's alright, in context? ).

My sincerest apologies for that.

I'll admit that at the time of my second post, my frustration was at the point where the post was intended as a bit of an axe-grinding exercise (but not just that). Having said that, I also solemnly promise that subsequent posts, although in part tongue-in-cheek, were well meaning (although I appreciate how it might not have seemed that way); I tend to get bees in my bonnet in situations where I have the strong feeling in my gut that something is falling just short of its potential (and the bigger that potential, the greater the frustration) - there's some background to that, but it's waaaaay OT (I'll bore you about it in a PM, if you'd like!).

Which brings me round to my next apology - for my lack of brevity. I like detail and developed-thoughts, unfortunately my brakes aren't big enough, and I can struggle to find a concise encapsulation for it all.

You never did mention what format you are capturing in. Could you confirm? I'm curious if your hard drive is unable to keep up with the capture (if you are recording in the default of uncompressed). SD formats are a lot less demanding than an HD source - but nevertheless it could still be an issue.

What I most commonly capture with the Shuttle, is 1080i50 from component, to disk as 8bit YUV AVI. The disk is 2 x 2TB SATAII drives in a Mirror. It routinely records for several hours (I archive whole sessions of cricket matches for training/editorial purposes), and writes lovely files (albeit because my source is interlaced, they don't look so hot paused).

Your first post mentioned you capturing OK with the Shuttle before this (albeit with Media Express occasionally crashing)... so I would expect the format will be the same as then. But... I thought it might be worth checking.

This project is 720x576i50, again 8bit YUV AVI.

Just to give you a bit more on what's actually been going on (and how it's different with 9.7.5 installed (alas I'm not sure which I was running before I installed 9.7.7))...

I fire up Media Express, give it a few seconds to gather itself, then click the log & capture tab; when I play the tape, I see (perfectly satisfactory) video in the preview; it flickers a little with sync/blank, but it recovers, and the preview continues.

If I capture with 'stop on dropped frames' set, the first point at which the video is interrupted, capture stops with a dialogue box prompting me that frames were dropped. As much file as there is, is playable.

If I capture with the 'stop on dropped frames' not set, behaviour is interesting...

With whichever software I was initially runnining:

If I leave the tape in a portion where there's a little run of a clean shot, then start capture, it continues to write a file until I tell it to stop. Saying there are 10 clean seconds, then a drop, then several minutes of clean video, the resulting file will begin playing (in WMP, for example), then at 10 seconds in, throw a codec unsupported warning, and stop.

If I started the capture at the beginning of the tape, where there's loads of blank, the file won't even begin to play (despite being perhaps 8GB when I've been capturing for a little while).

I'm pretty sure VLC was struggling in a similar way, and playback in Media Express was just as patchy.

With 9.7.5 installed:

I've just captured from right at the beginning of the tape, where there's a some blank, then a leopard in a snowstorm, then some skethcy video for a few seconds before the shots get longer & more stable.

Again, Media Express (with 'stop on dropped frames' de-selected) captures for as long as I want it to - I've got an 8.22GB file for pretty much 7 minutes on-the-button's worth of video.

In the browser pane on the left (showing clips in scratch), it's rendered a frame as static preview which is one of, if not the first 'clean' frame of video picture on the tape.

If I try to play it in WMP, I get a codec warning straight away. In fact, Windows Explorer doesn't even render a static preview - there's just a generic placeholder icon for the file.

Media Express struggles with it too; it starts to play, but at about 0.2 frames per second. The counter at the top of the screen makes erratic jumps forward, and after the leopard-in-a-snowstorm, just shows a black screen (it might've shown an actual image if I'd waited, but progress was clunky enough to realise straight away that it wasn't right).

Interestingly, however, if I spit the file at VLC; it plays, warts and all.

It starts with the blank, then the noise, then every shot, regardless of how scrappy the transition; right to the point I stopped capture. It's basically a carbon copy of what the preview window was showing.

It *is* tantelisingly close; but there's something in the file that everything apart from good-old brute-force VLC doesn't like.

Regards,

Rob.

Just saw the above and my heart sank. I'll try to keep replies brief in future.

Will see if I can make a similar file, but shorter than 8.22GB, and put it online in case you'd like to poke about at it with GSpot or something like that?

R

EDIT: Now it gets really odd.

I wound the tape back to the beginning, hit play & capture, and gave it 30 seconds.

Media Express has rendered a preview (the noise, this time); Windows Explorer shows a frame of video, and WMP plays it to the end. (31 seconds, 610MB)

So it works But only sometimes

EDIT2: I was about to wager that (with 9.7.5 at least), it's related to what's in the first frame. Hoping to catch it out, I started capture with the tape at the start, but not playing. After a second or two of nothing, I started the tape. Unfortunately (for getting the issue put to bed), the clip works perfectly. You can even tell the difference between -infinity black, and black 'on the tape' when the clip starts to play.

Dropped frames,.. TBC,.., unh huh, unh huh,...

Can I ask why no-one suggested taking the output of the VCR thru a second VCR (with no tape in it) and feeding that to the Shuttle?
Second VCR will act as a poor-man's TBC.

Of course, the actual solution there is a Frame Store, not a TBC, where the Frame Store holds the last good frame on memory until the next good frame comes along.

They were standard use in all Cine-Video transfer houses, and are a 'must use' in any analog era video production facility.

If you ebay search for a secondhand Videonics MX-1 - that's a cheap 4 input SD vision switcher that is digital on the inside, analog inputs with Frame Store, and you can add a little sharpening as the video passes through the mixer.

[Apologies for being absent from the topic for a while - I've been unable to get online at all for the past week or so]

Passing straight through another VCR is of course another good idea - thanks.

However the root issue doesn't appear to be related to dropped-frame/sync issues any longer.

As far as I can see, there's something else causing Media Express to write not-quite-right files *sometimes*. Capturing from the tape/VCR setup as described above (with 9.7.5 sofware), repeating as accurately as possible, I've found varying success with the only 'input' variance as far as I can work out being quite how much I capture.

Capturing anything from a few seconds to a few minutes, from the front of the tape, with loads of flicker and blank, I get files which work just fine with everything. I've files of duration/size between 588MB and 5.32GB which everything likes. Even Windows Explorer is happy enough to render static previews. Windows Media Player (and anything else I've found) plays them perfectly.

I've tried capturing [basically] the whole tape [tried stopping capture as video finishes, and just before], and I get files of about 8.3xGB. VLC will play them, and Corel Video Studio (heh!) can open and work with them. Media Express can't play them correctly (it draws one frame every second or so), Windows Explorer can't render a preview, and Windows Media Player throws a codec warning immediately.

Interestingly, since moving to 9.7.5, I've had the return of some strange behaviour I'd not seen since much earlier revision software - whereby upon performing some action or another in Media Express, or sometimes even switching focus to another app, I get anything between two and infinity (until I disconnect the USB lead or reboot) 'dedoo' device-disconnected sounds from Windows. On occassion this can be while Media Express is in focus and showing Log/Capture; the preview will freeze and Media Express tends to crash shortly after. Sometimes it behaves just fine; I've not identified a pattern as yet.

All the best,

Rob.

Anything doing with this?

Blackmagic: Would you agree that it appears there's something causing Media Express to create broken containers sometimes?

I've had two update notifications this week (hadn't been using the Shuttle to see what it'd updated to), but see 9.7.7 is still latest software on the website - I suppose the update check has pulled down that (bugged) version as newer than the 9.7.5 I'd rolled back to?

Thanks,

R