Archive for May, 2012

HDV Tape Capture on Old Laptop: Trim & Tweak

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

I have an old 1-core Athlon laptop running XP and AVG AntiVirus.   I use it mainly for capturing from tape via a similarly-old HDV camcorder.  The tape contains Mpeg2 in Transport-Stream (TS) format, as recorded by the camera.  This capture takes place in real-time, with the tape, via FireWire (FW).  The capture process must not be interrupted – otherwise packets will be lost.  Losing packets is a nuisance rather than a show-stopper, presumably a benefit of the TS format, the only consequence is lost frames (unsure whether that affects overall duration or whether blank frames are substituted for lost ones).

To minimise chance of lost packets, I reduce as many possibilities of delay and interference as I can think of. The machine is disconnected from network (and WiFi is disabled).  For storage target, I attach a GRaid two-disk storage device, necessarily via USB2 (the machine only has one FW port, and that is used for the camera).  Additionally I Exit/Quit/Suspend a number of processes.  Firstly all relevant icons in the System Tray.  Secondly via application-specific Control Panels:

  • AVG AntiVirus: Disable elements via AVG Uder-Interface:
    • Shield
    • Identity Protection
  • Java
    • QuickStarter: Disable via Java applet in Control Panel
  • HDV Tape-Capture App (HDVSplit)
    • Change its priority from the default of “High” to “RealTime”.
      • {Uncertain if this is advisable, but the tape in reality is definitely real-time!  Anyhow, overall it worked OK}

(more…)

Mac OS: Boot Camp: Windows Upgrade: The Experience

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Steps Taken:

  • Old Experimental Disk > Boot Camp
    • Identified existing version as 2.1 (that came with Mac OS Leopard).
    • Discovered I needed it to be Version >3.1 to handle Windows 7.
      • Attempted to update it automatically, via existing-installed Mac and Windows (XP), but neither worked.
  • Cloned Current Mac OS > Snow Leopard system to experimental disk, over-writing (only) the existing Mac OS installation there.
    • Used SuperDuper in free (gratuite) mode.
  • On clone, updated relevant software:
    • Mac OS > Boot Camp Assistant
      • Download Windows Support Software.
        • I assued that would give me the latest version…
        • But Boot Camp failed to update – it said “The Windows support software is not available”
        • Wasted time retrying a few times…
        • Discussion at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2793568?start=0&tstart=0 indicated this was a known issue, and the work-around was to go for the second option, “I have the Mac OS S installation disk”.
      • Located Mac Pro (desktop) install-disk for Snow Leopard (it was in a thin cardboard box, along with iLife etc).

Cloning Mac OS to Another Volume (eg hard disk)

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Cloning:

Upgrade Mac Boot Camp XP to Windows 7 64-bit

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Web-Research:

  • http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/running-windows-anything-else-your-mac/179571-upgrade-windows-7-without-going-through-bootcamp-again.html
    • ID:
      • Updating Boot Camp and installing Windows 7 on your Mac
      • by Topher Kessler  January 20, 2010
    • Best to install drivers first:
      • Boot Camp Software Update 3.1 64-bit: The full Boot Camp driver package for 64-bit versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
      • Boot Camp Software Update 3.1 32-bit: The full Boot Camp driver package for 32-bit versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
      • Graphics Firmware Update 1.0: This provides graphics updates for iMacs and MacPros with Geforce 7300GT, 7600GT, and Quadro FX4500 graphics processors. It is only required if you are installing Windows 7.
      • {BUT are they not included as standard nowadays (2012) with latest version of Boot Camp ? }
    • http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/running-windows-anything-else-your-mac/179571-upgrade-windows-7-without-going-through-bootcamp-again.htm
      • ID:
        • upgrade to Windows 7 without going through bootcamp again?
        • Question by “brockga”, Feb. 2009
      • “should be” no need to destroy & re-create existing Boot Camp partition, just install W7 over the top of it.
      • Further advantage of this method: W7 “Custom Install” option able to save existing Documents
        • << The Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in “My Documents” over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually. >>
        • x
    • http://forums.macworld.com/index.php?/topic/139815-successful-setup-os-x-lion-bootcamp-win7-data-partition/
      • ID:
        • Successful setup: OS X Lion + Bootcamp Win7 + Data Partition
        • ernopena_nyc, 28 August 2011
      • The key to this working is creating your extra partitions AFTER you make the Bootcamp partition but BEFORE you install Windows. And once Windows is installed, you CAN NOT shrink, resize, delete, create, or modify any partition.
      • <<<
        • I have my internal 500GB hard drive partitioned the following way:
          • 120GB OS X Lion (system and apps)
          • 316GB workspace partition (user files, projects)
          • 64GB Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate
        • To make this work, I started with the standard procedure of installing OS X Lion on a single Mac OS Ext partition and using Bootcamp Assistant to build the Bootcamp partition for Windows.  Then I did 2 key things:
          • 1. Before installing Windows on the Bootcamp partition, I first went back to Disk Utility, shrunk the OS X Lion partition, and inserted a 3rd partition Workspace_HD for all my user files. Then I restarted and installed Windows 7.
          • 2. After Win 7 Ultimate, the Bootcamp drivers and Office 2010 were installed and activated, I DID NOT make any changes to any partitions. I can put whatever I want on any partition, but I CAN NOT shrink, resize, delete, create, or modify any partition. Any change to the partition tables after Windows is installed will BREAK the Bootcamp partition.
        • I went thru 3 broken installs of Bootcamp/Win7 to figure this out
      • >>>
    • http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-on-a-mac-my-boot-camp-survival-guide/3446
      • Miscellaneous related tips and discussions…

Adobe Premiere / DaVinci Resolve: Timeline-Exchange

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Is it possible to edit a timeline on Premiere, send it to Resolve, as a project/timeline structure rather than as a rendered intermediate file, color-correct in resolve then return (again at project/timeline level) to Premiere (say)?   From a brief web-search, it looks like the answer is “yes”.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/869356