CompuServe Thread

#PAR MCI Drivers?

10 messages in this thread
#178201From: Scott TherriaultJul 2, 1995 10:10 AM
To All, Will the new MCI Drivers for the PAR allow us to use Adobe Premiere as a video editor instead of Razor Pro? I'm getting a PAR soon and will need to get Razor Pro unless Premiere is an alternative. Any comments about the two programs would be helpfull. Thanks Scott
#178220From: Anne BrownJul 2, 1995 4:17 PM
Scott – And anyone else who posts technical questions over the weekend. Autodesk will be closed until Wednesday AM so you won't get any answers until then. Unless some of the TMs in training or other members answer, Jonas, Nik and Brian are all off barbecuing something! Have a nice fourth! Anne
#178224From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]Jul 2, 1995 4:33 PM
Hi Anne, << Jonas, Nik and Brian are all off barbecuing something! >> I don't know about the other two.. but I'm not barbecuing anything. << Will the new MCI Drivers for the PAR allow us to use Adobe Premiere as a video editor instead of Razor Pro? >> The PAR is not an Autodesk product. This type of question is open to the general forum membership to answer. jonas[adesk]
#178267From: Dennis GoodJul 3, 1995 3:47 AM
Scott – 2 AM in the morning in San Diego, and I am struggling with the same question. I have downloaded the new MCI drivers from the library and, According to the documentation, Premiere 4.0a will work with the new PAR drivers. However, 4.0a is not yet shipping. There are some suggestions on how to get 4.0 to work, but it hasn't done the trick for me yet! The new drivers also come with routines to convert .ANI files to .AVI. I can't seem to get Premiere to recognize the converted files, either. Neither does the PAR Windows player. It claims it cannot find a driver for the .AVI file. Any advice that anyone can offer ASAP would be deeply apprecated. I am going home to get a couple of hours sleep . . . hope to see some responses when I return.
#178273From: Scott TherriaultJul 3, 1995 7:06 AM
Dennis, Thanks for the info, it sounds like you're in untested waters. In order to get the PAR system up and running I think I'll stick with Razor for now. Good luck. Scott
#178277From: Dennis GoodJul 3, 1995 8:04 AM
I appreciate your good wishes. Hopefully someone out there is watching and has an answer to this problem. I just got back in to the office – 2 hrs. sleep doesn't go very far. I will stash your address in my system. When I have this thing licked I'll pass it along.
#178373From: DE SMET EMMANUELJul 4, 1995 2:10 AM
Dennis, I didn't see your original message, but what is exactly your problem. I can assure you that the new DPS software with MCI drivers and AVI support works with Adobe Premiere 4.0 ( yes I type 4.0 and not yet 4.0a who will be released within a few weeks). Can you give me some further details what are the problems. Maybe you have one of the older PAR boards without the decimator chip. In this case contact the DPS folks to get the chip. Newer PAR boards have already the chip on board. Razor Pro is also a good alternative – it works directly with the PAR without the intermediate AVI step – but I slightly prefer Adobe Premiere 4.0 because of it richness of features, effects, transitiions, GOOD documentations and a Deluxe CD-ROM with tons of megabytes of good stuff. Emmanuel / Creative Computing
#178617From: Dennis GoodJul 5, 1995 9:15 PM
I agree with your estimation of Premiere. From the short look that I had at it, it definitrly appears to be feature-rich. As to specs on the system that I am using, it's your standard P100 running WFWG 3.11. The PAR does have the decimator chip. I initially had problems getting Premiere to run under WFWG 3.11, due to a conflict with the drivers for the Matrox Marvel II board in the system. Installing Win 3.11 and the Mvl II drivers resolved that problem. All of the pieces are in place, it's just a matter of learning how they fit together. I believe my problem to be in the setting of the proper parameters for the AVI CODEC. So, I am printing out the documentation, will give it more attention than I did when I was fighting the deadline, and see how things work
#178453From: Vanny PanizJul 4, 1995 8:29 PM
Dennis: I tested Premiere 4.0 with the PAR MCI drivers, and they work quite well (except that I have to toy around with field ordering). You have to: 1. Be sure to have the PAR decimation chip installed 2. Install the PAR MCI drivers using the DPS installer. 3. Use PAR2AVI to convert the PAR resident clips to AVI (it makes an AVI whose frames are pointers to the PAR resident .ani files) 4. Make your work with Premiere and make the AVI output file (this copies the unmodified frames, and creates in the PAR a temporal .ani file with only the transition, effects, etc. frames.) 5. Run the AVI2PAR programs, which reassembles in the PAR the output AVI file. You have to be very careful where you put the files (the .avi must be in a dos drive, and the result .ani files from AVI2PAR in a project directory in the PAR, not in the root). Look at the various file path default setting in the support programs, as they can cause problems. BTW, I have also RazorPro. It's faster and easier to work with it than with Premiere on the PAR, but it lacks a lot of features, and is far less documented. Unless In:Sync comes with better upgrades, they will have a heavy competition from Adobe. And who knows how it will be with the PVR. Also, GO ADOBEA for recent threads about Premiere/PAR MCI drivers. Vanny.
#178616From: Dennis GoodJul 5, 1995 9:15 PM
Vanny – Thanks for the response. The PAR we have does have the Decimator on it, so we are fine on that point. The installation of the PAR MCI drivers went off without a hitch, and PAR control works fine. The problem that I have is understanding the relationships between the PAR CODEC configuration parameters and the AVI conversion programs. Now that I have had a couple of nights to catch up on sleep, my thought processes are working a little better. I guess it's time to give it another shot. By the way, another problem I had with this setup was a conflict between the drivers for the Matrox Marvel II board and ADobe Premiere. Re-installing Windows and the Mvl II drivers eventually cleared it up.