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- From: videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se (Johan Otterstrom)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
- Subject: Re: VLAB Motion/MovieShop "Data Transfer Phase Error"?
- Date: 21 Mar 96 23:24:45 -500
- Organization: -
- Message-ID: <5019.6654T1404T2268@mbox200.swipnet.se>
- References: <4479.6653T1012T1736@iig.com.au>
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-
- >Sorry about the sheer bulk of this post, but any help with the following
- >queries would be much appreciated:
-
-
- >1) Does anyone know what aspect of the data transfer phase produces the
- >"Data Transfer Phase Error" of MovieShop's vmotion.library?
-
- >To explain, I have the VLAB and Toccata installed in an A3000T (Buster
- >11), WARP Engine 32MB, using a Quantum XP34300 ATLAS 4.3GB HD (also
- >installed are a TBCPlus, CV64 and OpalVision). I have tried everything I
- >can think of to get rid of this recurring problem, that often prevents a
- >clean playback of an entire project without a break. (Note: other SCSI
- >devices attached and configuration issues are described below in query
- >#3).
-
- >Is it known whether the error is referring to the SCSI or Zorro (or both,
- >or any other) phases of the data transfer, and what system changes might
- >influence it?
-
- >Also, with (high demand) cards like the VLAB Motion and CV64, does it
- >matter in what order they are installed in their Zorro slots (ie., closest
- >to CPU, to furthest away etc)?
-
- I don't think it matters. The problem with VLab is the slow ZII bus. The
- mximum transferrate I achieved was 1.9Mb/sec. and this drops when using audio
- at the same time. Check out the Draco it offers about 3MB/sec over the ZII
- bus. Also soon to come the Draco direct VLab M - 35Mb/sec. audio is on the
- board to.
-
- > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- >2) I have also found that both times I have added an external sound track
- >(ie., take a complete video that is comprised of camera video and audio,
- >and then add a music track digitised from CD) the playback is now
- >compromised by instability (irregular, occasional flashing frames) that
- >makes the video unrecordable.
- Flashing playback is often due to corrupt frames beeing rcorded. Use ALT+arrow
- keys to check through the different fields, then delete the corrupt frames.
-
- >The first time this happened, theproblem mysteriously disappeared as >quickly
- as it appeared about 2 days later. The second time, it has >gradually improved
- but not disappeared over the week since it happened. >Any ideas?
- > ---------------------
-
- >3) Does anyone know the orientation of the SCSI terminating resistors on
- >the A3000T motherboard? In the SCSI.FAQ, it mentions that most
- >controllers' terminating resistor sockets have a square hole, or similar,
- >to identify pin #1. Naturally, the A3000T is unique in this case, by not
- >having any identifier whatsoever as to which hole is intended for pin #1
- >of each terminating resistor.
-
- >Basically, I have a terminated external CDROM (SCSI-2 Pioneer DRM-602x as
- >SCSI ID#2) on the scsi.device (late revision AMD SCSI chip installed).
- >There are no other SCSI devices, internal or external, attached to this
- >controller, and it has no terminating resistors on the motherboard. Due to
- >the problems mentioned above, I wanted to fit resistors to see if it
- >helped in any way (I have 3 spare 221/331 8-pin resistors, while the
- >schematics ask for 220/330 resistors. Should these work?).
-
- >I also have 3 x SCSI-2 (2 are FAST) HDs and a SCSI-2 Exabyte 4200c DSS-1
- >(DAT) streamer attached internally to the warpdrive device, configured
- >thus:
-
- > WARP ID#0 ID#3 ID#4 ID#1
- > Engine -> Quant LPS525S -> Quant ATLAS -> Exa 4200c -> Microp 4110
- > (term) (boot/system) (video/audio) (backup) (general)(term)
-
- >I would prefer the chain to flow linearly from ID#0 -> ID#4 (terminated),
- >but I have no terminating resistors or docs for the DAT unit, making it
- >hard to terminate or change it's ID#.
-
- >I left termination on the Micropolis since it already was (before other
- >units were installed), and physical placement makes the current config
- >expedient as far as cabling is concerned.
-
- >While I know the warpdrive.device will scan it's SCSI bus from ID#0 to
- >ID#6, I didn't think this arrangement would produce errors, as long as the
- >physical chain is correctly terminated. Of course, the parallel existence
- >of the A3000T's SCSI bus, with one external, and no internal devices
- >attached, and with no termination on the motherboard throws confusion into
- >the equation (as far I am concerned anyway).
-
- >Does this configuration offer any obvious explanation of problems being
- >experienced (occasional SCSI READ error with Exabyte 4200c, and more
- >common "Data Transfer Phase Error" from MovieShop's vmotion.library (that
- >seems to happen more often with Quantum ATLAS than it did when using a
- >much smaller partition on the Micropolis 4110 for video
- >recording/playback)?
-
- >Note that in all other aspects, both SCSI busses appear to work extremely
- >well, both individually and together.
-
- > ---------------------
-
- >Any and all help offered is much appreciated as these problems are
- >compromising my ability to deliver product reliably and on schedule.
-
- >Regards,
-
- > Mark
-
- >---
- > mpa@iig.com.au - Ph:+61-70-332930 - Cairns
- > Wishful Vision - Fx:+61-70-332931 - Australia
- >---
-
-