On Fri, 31 Dec 1999 13:38:33 GMT, syann@my-deja.com wrote:

>Hi Sparks users,
>
>I have been a lurker in this group for about 2 years now. Deja's
>searches bring to this group often because I have a lot of questions
>with digital video. There's enough activity on this group that I never
>have to post a question. A friend of mine has a DPS Spark IEE1394
>adapter and he has been through a living hell getting projects
>out the door with this thing. The DPS Spark has had every problem I
>could imagine. But ever time he or I (or someone else for that matter)
>called tech support we got conflicting solutions. Here is a list of
>things that we had go wrong with spark (and not premiere, I'll explain
>later):
>
>1. High pitch bursts of sound encoded with the capture (AKA birdies)
>2. Poor deck control
>3. Hard-core system resets and crashes
>4. Obliteration of windows 95 right from premiere (when using the trim
>window)
>5. Loss of connection to VTR or camcorder on capture or record to VTR
>6. Play direct to DV device never worked
[rest deleted...]

Ahhhh, we bought the DPS Spark card, and went through a
couple of weeks of problems with it (and with the friendly
DPS tech-support offer to buy back the card, but little
useful advice on how to make it run...) until version
2.00 of the Spark software arrived (and we tried various
"interleave" settings, positions for the card, and orders of
loading software/hardware...). Result: a stable-operating
DV-editing computer (though still a bit touchy regarding the
order one turns on the attached camcorder and loads/closes
the Spark software ->IF<- one forgets timeline-playback
and batch capture (no big deal - I render and save big
chunks of the edited time-line material [overlapping one frame for best playback], and play them out using the Spark play-list when all are saved; and I prefer to log captured
material [with notes] during capture, so batch-capture is
not needed by me...). We have since built a few other
Spark-based computers that have also worked well, and if
anything, appear more stable than the Raptor-P5.1a computer
I now have... As for the beeps, they usually disappear
on return of the DV material to the camcorder, but if they
concern you, this software works well for removing them
from the captured audio:
http://www.slb.org/beepfix.html
I see no problem with considering capture/play, camera
control, and editing as separate functions, well enough
accomplished with the Spark software, manually, and
Premier, in that order... I think asking for all functions
to operate through one piece of software is rather
extravagant at this stage of computer development...
(though, I think foolishly, the software makers do lead
one to believe this can be done by including functions
in their menus that do not work). With reasonable
expectations, this stuff actually works quite well.