Select from the list of symptoms below.

Difficulties capturing video:
Dropping frames during capture.
Playback choppy from CD-ROM.
Limited options for real-time compression with Indeo® video Release 3.2

Difficulties compressing video:
Compressing with Indeo® video interactive under Windows* causes system failure.
Indeo® video interactive not an option in compression dialog.

Difficulties with palettes:
Palette flash during playback.
Playback too slow with nondefault palette.

Difficulties with playback:
"Video not available, cannot find 'vids:iv41' decompressor."
"Video not available, cannot find 'vids:iv21' decompressor."
"Irregular polygon error" or "This AVI file is too big to be played in the selected VGA mode."
Jerky video and unsynchronized audio.
Video plays outside window, upside down, or in a mosaic.
MMTASK reports general protection fault.

Difficulties with QuickTime* for Windows*:
QuickTime for Windows causes problem.

Capture

1. Symptom
I'm using the Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro and having difficulty capturing video without dropping frames.

Cause
Frames are dropped because the computer cannot transfer the audio and video data to the hard disk fast enough. The ISVR Pro can capture video in the Indeo video Raw format with a resolution of 320 by 240 at thirty frames per second, but other aspects of the system affect audio and video capture. For example, Indeo video Raw uses nine bits per pixel, so a 320 by 240 frame contains 86,400 bytes. At thirty frames per second, this represents a data rate of approximately 2.6 MB per second, which is faster than the hard disk, the hard disk controller, or the processor can stream data to hard disk.

When you select Capture to Memory, the video capture application uses available system memory as a cache through which all incoming frames are streamed on their way to the hard disk. The ISVR Pro can transfer data to memory very quickly, so frames are captured reliably until you run out of memory. Then frames start to be written to disk. At this point, if your system can't sustain the data rate to disk, frames are dropped. The longer this process continues, the more frames will be dropped.

Other possibilities include a slow video or audio card, or software trying to update the video preview window in the editing application. If your monitor is in 24-bit mode, updating this window can consume a significant amount of processor resource. Another possible culprit can be the SCSI controller, which might be using relatively slow software.

Solution
If you're using the ISVR Pro, try capturing into the YVU9C format. YVU9C performs near-lossless compression during capture, getting compression ratios of approximately 2:1 or 3:1 compared to capturing in the Raw format. This reduce your data rate for capturing at thirty frames per second from 2.6 MB per second to approximately 1.3 MB per second or maybe even less, depending on video content.

If the captured YVU9C clips are compressed offline with Indeo video Release 3.2, the result is bit-for-bit identical to files captured using Indeo video Raw. Some signal loss does occur, however, for video captured in the YVU9C format and compressed offline using Indeo video interactive. If you wish to use Indeo video interactive, therefore, try other optimization techniques:

• Use a computer with a more powerful processor.
• Install more memory in your system.
• Use an audio card that can handle a higher data rate.
• Defragment your hard disk before beginning to capture video.
• Close all other applications when capturing to maximize the amount of memory available.
• Capture video clips small enough to fit entirely into system memory, and combine these smaller clips into one later, using an editing application.
• If using the ISVR Pro and compressing in real time, adjust the quality or data rate sliders downward.
• Turn off disk-caching. Caching programs are designed to optimize the repeated use of the same instructions, or repeated access to the same data. Video capture involves neither, and caching can actually slow capture.
• Turn off the video preview feature in the capture application. Although it usually freezes during capture anyway, simply leaving it on can consume small but precious amounts of system resource.
• Use Windows NT* with a capture card that is fully 32­bit compatible.
• If you must use Windows 3.x, use 32­bit disk access. Make sure that you're running the latest version of Windows 3.x to use the fastest 32­bit disk subsystem.
• Use the fastest hard drive practicable, such as enhanced IDE or SCSI Fast Wide.

2. Symptom
Using my Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro, I captured and compressed a video clip in real time, specifying a 300 KB per second playback data rate; or:

Using my Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro, I captured a video clip using the Indeo video Raw format and compressed it offline, specifying a 300 KB per second playback data rate.

In either case, it plays back smoothly from my hard disk, but when I play the file from CD­ROM, the video is jerky and the audio is choppy.

Cause
If you captured and compressed the video in real time, the audio and video bit streams are probably not interleaved. This interleaving does not occur during real-time compression, so you must perform this extra step afterward.

If you captured the video Raw and compressed offline, interleaving the audio and video every frame, then the limiting factor is the bandwidth of the CD­ROM drive. For example, while 300 KB per second is the theoretical data transfer capacity of a 2X CD­ROM drive, manufacturers often test the performance of their CD­ROM drives devoting 100% of the CPU resource to data transfer from the CD. However, when playing back video, the CPU is not only transferring the data but also decoding and displaying it. The resulting reduction in available CPU bandwidth means a corresponding reduction in the practicable data transfer rate from CD­ROM.

Solution
If the audio and video bit streams are not interleaved, use a video editing application to set the interleave to one frame. Save the video file with no other changes.

Otherwise, compress files to a lower data rate in order to ensure smooth playback from a CD­ROM drive. For example, digitize your video at 320 by 240, fifteen frames per second, and target a 200 KB per second data rate. Capture using either the Indeo video Raw or the YVU9C format and compress the files offline with a video editing application.

3. Symptom
I am experimenting with the Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro and wish to know why, when compressing in real time with Indeo video 3.2, I have no options for manipulating the video data other than setting the data rate or quality. I can't set the key frame interval, for example.

Cause
The reason is time: the ISVR Pro has only a fraction of a second to compress each frame, and so it can bring to bear only certain, limited, compression techniques. For example, it takes a long time to compare frames and create delta frames, so during real-time compression, the ISVR Pro performs no interframe encoding. It creates only key frames. Therefore, you can't adjust the key frame interval: the "interval" is always one.

Solution
Capture using the Indeo video Raw or YVU9C format; then compress offline using a video editing application and the Indeo video interactive or Indeo video Release 3.2 codec. Capturing using Indeo video Raw and compressing offline always produces better image quality than compressing in real time. Offline compression also allows you to set a key frame interval greater than one, usually resulting in better data rate control, lower average data rates, and better quality. Finally, offline codecs employ better compression algorithms, therefore producing better pictures.

Other things being equal, offline compression takes significantly longer than real-time compression, but the results are significantly better. However, if you need to improve your throughput, consider employing a batch compression application that can compress multiple video files without operator intervention. Adobe Premiere* and Media Studio Pro* both support batching, and Doceo Publishing sells Batchmo*, an application tailored for the purpose. You can use the scripting capabilities of your host computer to similar effect.

4. Symptom
Compressing with Indeo video interactive in Windows 3.x causes a system failure or a general protection fault.

Cause
Insufficient memory is available for compression.

Solution
We recommend 16 MB or more of RAM for both Indeo video interactive compression and playback.

Close all unnecessary programs and set the virtual memory to the maximum level. If possible, use the 32­bit driver of the codec with a 32­bit compression application running in Windows 95 or Windows NT.

5. Symptom
Indeo video interactive doesn't appear as an option in the compression dialog of the video editing application I'm using.

Cause
Indeo video interactive is not installed on the system, or the video clip you are trying to compress has an unusual frame size. Indeo video interactive compresses only frame sizes that are multiples of four. If the height and width of the frame are not multiples of four, the codec does not appear in the compression dialog box.

Solution
Install the latest version of Indeo video interactive.

If Indeo video interactive is installed, check the pixel resolution of the frame to determine if both the horizontal and vertical dimensions are multiples of four. If they are not, crop the frame size to a multiple of four in order to compress with Indeo video interactive. Dimensions commonly used are 320 by 240, 240 by 180, and 160 by 120.

6. Symptom
The display flashes when video playback begins, I cannot capture the Indeo video default palette, or I have captured the Indeo video default palette and pasted it to a bitmap and the display either flashes or the colors shift toward red.

Cause
The flash, called palette flash, is caused by simultaneously displaying more than one bitmap or video that do not share the same palette. When focus shifts from one window to the other, Windows asserts the new palette and the display flashes as the colors change. Incorrect procedures used to capture and paste palettes can result in palette flash.

Solution
Use the same palette for the video files and other bitmaps. Either paste the same palette to all bitmaps and video files, or use Indeo video's active palette mode to play videos using the same palette as the one already asserted.

To test to see whether a bitmap and video clip share the same palette:

1. Load a video clip into Media Player.
2. Load a bitmap into a viewer, such as Paint, on the same display.
3. Click on each window. If the video clip and the bitmap share the same palette, no flash occurs.

To paste Indeo video's palette to the other bitmaps or video clips, first obtain the palette. Then paste it to the other bitmaps or video files.

The three palettes associated with Indeo video are available as .PAL files from our ftp or Web sites.

Table 3. Indeo Video Palette Files

7. Symptom
I'm using my own palette with Indeo video in active palette mode, and video playback is unacceptably slow.

Cause
The codec has more work to do in order to decode the video using any palette other than its default palette.

Solution
Use the Indeo video default palette to make your application's graphics, so that the video plays with the best possible performance and without causing palette flash.

8. Symptom
When trying to play a video file, an error occurs that includes text such as vids:xxxx, where xxxx is the decompressor. For example:

Windows 95 or Windows 3.x ERROR:
Video not available, cannot find 'vids:iv41' decompressor

Windows 95 ERROR: There is no driver installed on your system.

Cause
Either the codec required to decompress the video file is not installed on the system, or it is installed incorrectly. To see the correct file name, click here.

Solution
Download and install the latest drivers for your system: a 32-bit driver for Windows 95 and Windows NT, or a 16-bit driver for Windows 3.x.

9. Symptom
When trying to play a video file, the following error occurs:

Windows 95 or Windows 3.x ERROR:
Video not available, cannot find 'vids:iv21' decompressor

Cause
The driver for Indeo video Release 2.1 is not installed on the system. Intel no longer distributes or supports this driver.

Solution
If you must play a video file compressed with Indeo video Release 2.1:

1. Look for the driver on the same CD-ROM or diskette that has the video file you are trying to play. The file is named either ir21.dll or ir21_r.dll.
2. Copy the file to your \Windows\System directory.
3. Add the following line to your system.ini file, in the /Windows directory, under the [drivers] section:

VIDC.RT21=ir21_dll or VIDC.RT21=ir21_r.dll.

NOTE: The Indeo video Release 2.1 driver exists only in a 16-bit version.

10. Symptom
When trying to play a video in full-screen mode in Windows 3.x, one of the following errors occur:

Windows 3.x ERROR: Irregular polygon error
or: This AVI file is too big to be played in the selected VGA mode

Cause
The video you are trying to play is larger than 320 horizontal pixels or 240 vertical pixels. Playing such a video in full-screen mode results in a window larger than the screen display.

The Windows 95 Media Player scales large-resolution video files to fit into the display, so this error does not occur with Windows 95.

Solution
Reconfigure Media Player as follows:

1. Load the video clip into Media Player.
2. Select Device > Configure….
3. Under Video Mode, select Window.

To obtain an effect similar to playing in Full Screen mode:

1. Select a display mode that is at least twice as large as the dimensions of the video to be played.
2. Load the video clip into Media Player.
3. Select Device > Configure….
4. Enable Zoom by 2.

11. Symptom
The video file plays with jerky motion. The video starts and stops, and the audio is not synchronized.

Cause
Either of two problems is possible: either the system cannot decompress and display the video file quickly enough, or the audio and video were not interleaved correctly when the file was created.

Solution
First, determine whether the audio and video are interleaved properly. In Windows 3.x, Media Player can tell you how a file is interleaved:

1. Load the video clip into media player.
2. Select Device > Configure….
3. If a video file is interleaved correctly, under Information, you'll see the line Type: AVI (interleaved) indicating that the audio and video are interleaved at every frame.

If the video file is not interleaved correctly, you'll see the line Type: AVI Default File Handler.

If the audio and video are not interleaved:

1. Load the clip into a video editor.
2. Set the interleave option to Every frame.
3. Save with no recompression.

If the audio and video are interleaved properly, then, in Windows 3.x, configure Media Player c so that it can skip frames:

1. Load the video clip into Media Player.
2. Select Device > Configure….
3. Select Skip Frames if Behind.

The file will play with more consistent motion than before, even though it may now jerk because of the skipped frames.

In Windows 95, Media Player cannot be configured to disable frame-skipping.

NOTE: Indeo video interactive files are more difficult to decompress than files compressed with previous versions of Indeo video; therefore they are more likely to skip frames. The scalability feature of Indeo video interactive allows the file to be compressed so that, during playback, image quality degrades before frames are skipped. To take advantage of this feature, the scalability option must be enabled when the file is compressed.

12. Symptom
When I play a video file, it plays outside of its window, upside down, or in a mosaic.

Cause
The graphics card driver may not be compatible with Video for Windows or QuickTime for Windows.

Solution

1. Install the latest versions of the Indeo video drivers.
2. Install the latest graphics card drivers, available from your graphics card vendor. Usually, the vendor is aware of any incompatibilities and can offer a solution.

13. Symptom
ERROR: MMTASK reports a general protection fault when attempting to play back a .AVI file.

Cause
Two or more applications are trying to access the same portion of memory, or the video file has a bitstream error.

Solution
Ensure that you are using the latest Indeo video drivers. Generally, they are less likely to cause a general protection fault because of memory problems and are more tolerant of bitstream errors. If you are using the latest versions and the problem persists, ensure that your graphics card drivers are also the latest versions. If they are, then close other open applications, if possible. If that is not possible, you have a more widespread system problem.

14. Symptom
QuickTime for Windows will not install, will not play .MOV files, or causes a Call to undefined dynalink error, a general protection fault, or a complete system failure.

Cause
These problems can be caused by faulty installation. The general protection fault and the error Call to undefined dynalink are both caused by a call to an out-of-date .DLL that can result from having more than one version of QuickTime for Windows installed on your computer.

Solution
Troubleshooting tips and information regarding QuickTime for Windows can be found at http://quicktime.apple.com, or contact Apple Computer at 1-800-767-2775.

* Legal Stuff © 1997 Intel Corporation