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Q
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What are the system requirements for MotionPerfect?
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A
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Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, Millennium, NT4, 2000 or XP.
- DirectX 6 Media or DirectX 8
- Pentium processor
- 64 MByte RAM
- True color graphic adapter
Recommended
- Pentium 450 MHz
- 256 MByte RAM
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Q
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How can I tell whether DirectX 8 is installed?
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A
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DirectX 8 includes a diagnostic tool called
"DXDiag", which will display the version of DirectX on the
system.
In the Windows "Start" menu click on
"Run…", type "dxdiag" and click OK
When the tool appears, you will find the DirectX version information in the
last but one line of the display.
If you have DirectX 8 installed, you will find a line
similar to:
"DirectX-Version: DirectX 8.0 (4.08.00.0400)".
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Q
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Why do I get the error message,
"Direct Show not properly installed (Error
e100001e)"?
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A
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MotionPerfect needs at least DirectX 6.0 Media to avoid
this error message. You can get DirectX 6.0 Media or better the newer
DirectX 8 at the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp
This error message may also show up if DirectShow is installed and you are
using DV video. It is resulting from an incompatibility with the DV codec.
Try to use another codec, e.g. Intel Indeo, Cinepak or the lossless
"Huffyuv" codec (http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html)
as an intermediate format.
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Q
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Is there a Mac version available?
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A
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Unfortunately no.
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Q
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Is Windows XP supported?
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A
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Yes.
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Q
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Is Windows NT 4 supported?
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A
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Yes
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Q
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Is MotionPerfect available as a plug-in for my favorite video editing
program?
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A
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No
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Q
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Why does it refuse to use some compressors
in the list?
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A
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The Compressors listed have two parts, a decoder for
playing and an encoder for creating new files. Some are totally free
and both halves will function on your machine. Others are sold by
their authors, but usually only the encoder (file creation) is
restricted. Following the model of Adobe Acrobat and Real Player, the
playing part is broadly distributed for free so file recipients can
play.
If the program refuses to use a Codec to make your
output file, it means that you only have the play-back portion and not the
encoder.
A second issue with codecs is that many have limitations
on the format of the input file. Some only work on 256-color video,
some only work on true-color. Further, some which are block-oriented,
only work on videos whose sizes are multiples of whole blocks. Blocks
are often 4x4 pixels or 8x8 pixels so this means that the video has to be a
size divisible by 4 or 8 in horizontal and vertical.
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Q
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How do I use my Digital Video Camcorder with MotionPerfect?
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A
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If you are using a Digital Video (DV) Camcorder and
downloading the video to your computer using the digital interface (such as
IEEE 1394 Firewire, USB, or a proprietary interface) it is possible to use
the video with MotionPerfect using the following procedure. First, be
certain that the DV CODEC for your camera is installed on your computer.
Follow the manufacturers instructions to install the included download
software. Verify this interface is working by downloading a video in DV
format using the manufacturers tool and viewing the video with Windows
Media Player or similar player.
Second, Use a video editing package, such as MGI VideoWave,
Ulead, or Adobe to download the desired video directly from the camera into
the editor. Third, Produce (export, or publish depending on the editing
package - check the editor's Help file on how to do this) the video making
sure to set the output video file to "Windows AVI" and using
non-digital video compression (CODEC) such as Intel Indeo or Cinepak
Radius.
The resulting Windows AVI file can be enhanced using
MotionPerfect. You may even try to use a DV codec, but this may not work in
some cases.
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Q
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Why is MotionPerfect making my pictures
darker or introduces a color shift?
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A
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You may observe color shifts when playing back two or
more video clips at a time on the computer monitor. This situation also
applies to the two preview windows in MotionPerfect. Usually, the
first playback uses the hardware of the graphics card to play back with
acceleration. Subsequent instances must rely on software (Windows
drivers) as the hardware is single-task. On some systems, the
hardware and software methods differ in brightness or color shift.
However, we haven't yet noticed any color or luminance
shifts on video played back to DV tape after steadying.
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Q
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When playing both the original and the MotionPerfect video in the
MotionPerfect preview, I find play back of the videos is jerky. Why?
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A
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The file is probably fine – it is the playback
that is struggling. Playing a DV video clip on a PC requires a
continuous stream of data from the hard disk to the processor and to the
graphic adapter. In particular for DV video, a huge amount of data needs to
be transferred and rendered to the screen. Most PCs cannot load the
DV data from disk fast enough, so frames will be dropped for display.
This problem gets even worse when two videos need to be played. As a
workaround, display only one video at a time.
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Q
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I want use my favorite DV codec instead of
the Microsoft DV codec. Is there a way to do so?
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A
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The special DV mode can only make use of the Microsoft
DV codec. This allows MotionPerfect to set the codec parameters, e.g.
switch between NTSC or PAL, switch on or off reducing the image size. Other
codecs allow these settings as well but use different ways to communicate
with the controlling application. It is impossible for MotionPerfect to
know about all the DV codecs from different vendors.
In AVI mode, any other DV codec installed on your system
will usually show up in the compressor list. With some luck, it will
work. In many cases, it won't. Sometimes a codec in the
compressor list is only able to decode video but not to encode it again
after processing. This is a restriction of the codec, not MotionPerfect.
But even if a DV Codec works, MotionPerfect is not able
to change its default settings. So you are usually better off when using DV
mode when you want to write DV video. As DV is an international standard,
files produced with the MS DV codec should be read by every application
supporting DV files.
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Q
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I understand that MotionPerfect reads and writes AVI files. Are there
any other DV file formats supported, e.g. .DPR files produced by Fast
VideoMachine Plus?
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A
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No.
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Q
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Does MotionPerfect support AVI files
compressed with Canopus DV codecs?
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A
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MotionPerfect is reported to have some problems with Canopus codecs. In some cases, MotionPerfect can open Canopus DV files but cannot save it
with this compressor. In other cases, MotionPerfect cannot even open or
display these files.
Avi files produced by Canopus software differ slightly
from AVI files produced by other video editing and capture software: The
Canopus DV codec uses the 4-letter-code "cdvc" to indicate a
video stream is a DV compressed stream, while most other DV codecs,
including the Microsoft DV codec, use 'dvsd' for that purpose.
As a work around, you may convert your Canopus DV files
into the Microsoft DV format. Canopus offers a freeware conversion program
for that purpose. It can convert Microsoft DV format files as produced by
MotionPerfect into the Canopus format and vice versa. No recompression is
needed so there is no loss in quality.
You may download the converter for free from http://www.canopus.com/US/products/DV_file_converter/pm_dv_file_converter.asp
Another possibility is to use another compressor as an
intermediate format. For instance, the freeware codec "HuffYuv"
is compressing without any losses and supported by both MotionPerfect and
most video editing programs. You can find Huffyuv at (http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html).
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Q
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I am using a Pinnacle DV200 / DV 300 / DV500
/ DV500 plus. When pressing the start button, I get an error
"DirectShow probably not installed" (error e10000004). But I have
DirectX 8 installed and it appears to be working.
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A
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Open the Windows "Control panel" and double-click
the "Pinnacle control" icon, then click on the
"General" tab. There is a list box named "DV overlay
provider". Select "DV software codec". (Instead of the list
box you may find a check box named "DirectX standard playback
module". Checkmark it.)
If this option was already activated on your system, you may try to do the
opposite thing: Disable the option.
If this does not solve your problem, you may recompress your video with
another codec, e.g. the lossless freeware codec "Huffyuv" (http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html).
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Q
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Can MotionPerfect open AviSynth scripts (*.avs)?
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A
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Yes. You will need to set the file wildcards to *.* in
the open dialog.
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Q
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My favorite video editing program cannot open the video file processed
by MotionPerfect. But it plays fine in the
MediaPlayer.
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A
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There are two different methods how DV video and audio
data are stored in AVI files.
In DV Type-1 files, the video channel and the
audio channel are interleaved into a single stream in the AVI file. In
fact, the data delivered by the camcorder are stored without any change,
just an "envelope" is put around the DV data.
In DV Type-2 files, both the video and the audio
channel are stored in separate streams in the AVI file. This type of video
files can be opened by editing applications supporting the Microsoft
"Video for Windows" interface.
MotionPerfect can read both types. It detects automatically which
type the original video is.
By default, MotionPerfect writes DV Type-2 files. But
some video editing programs only can only read DV Type-1 files. So if your
editing program cannot open these files, you may tell MotionPerfect to
write DV Type-1 files. Just click on the "Options" menu entry in
the "Settings" menu. Click on the "DV mode
options" tab, and change the "DV AVI file format" to
"DV Type-1".
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