SAWPro AVI Viewer

[jhludlow]

The first version of SAW that I used was purchased to run on a (brand-new, super-powerful) Pentium 133. I don't remember whether it was SAW, SAWPlus, or SAW32. At the time, one of the promotions available to me allowed me a consideration if I was to purchase one or all of the available add-ons at the same time. One of those was Reverberator... and another was AVI Viewer. At the time, I remember questioning spending money on AVI Viewer because I didn't have access to any AVIs (let alone hardware to create them) and had little interest in video. But, for some reason I bought it anyway - maybe it was a package deal with the other effects that got the discount. At any rate, I never used AVI Viewer in SAW and/or SAW32.

When I upgraded to SAWPro I was pleased to note that my add-ons were upgraded for free automatically. So, once again, I installed AVI Viewer for SAWPro - and didn't ever use it.

Then, along came SAW Studio. I'm not sure whether AVI Viewer was upgraded for SAW Studio or not. I upgraded to it but the brand new super-powerful computer and OS I built and installed to use it on never worked right with my ancient RME Digi32/8 sound card and the oh-yeah-and-that-card-too driver that was supposed to move it to Win2K (although there were brief periods of time that I thought I had if fixed). So - I ultimately mothballed Crowded Corner Studio against the day that I could afford the new sound card that it deserved - and that day still hasn't arrived. I've sort of put off learning SAW Studio until then too. For little audio things - I still use SAWPro and the, relatively poor, sound card that came with the ASUS motherboard.

In the meantime, digital video creation has become common place. My new budget digital camera threw that in as an afterthought - and it's not too bad. The same cannot be said for the built-in microphone however. As I was reviewing some 'footage' of my brothers (unwise) air guitar act at a recent karaoke contest (which he entered of his own free will...) I was wishing that I had some way to clean up the audio, at least somewhat, before I render it to DVD, mass produce it, and deliver it to all of his relatives.

Then it hit me: BUT I DO! I DO HAVE A WAY! I have AVI Viewer on SAWPro! THIS was finally the application I bought it for! So, I brought up SAWPro and for the first time brushed up on what was necessary to accomplish this feat:

Step 1: Enable multitrak smpte emulate. Check!
Step 2: Open AVI file and extract audio. Rats - error:


Cannot decompress stream MVI_0169.AVI Video #1.
You need to install the appropriate driver.

I wonder what it wants? The driver must be on my PC (Windows 2000) - I can view this video in either Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Am I supposed to register the driver with SAWPro somehow? I don't see a place to do that - and the AVI Viewer online manual doesn't seem to cover it either. I'm stumped.

So - I know that this isn't a SAWPro forum. I doubt that any of those exist still. But - I also recognize some of your names from over a decade ago and surely some of you used SAWPro and AVI Viewer. Does anyone know what I need to do to get this to work? Musical talent like my brother's needs to be shared and preserved - both for this generation and also for those to come!

Thanks in advance,

John Ludlow

[Dave Labrecque]

The first version of SAW that I used was purchased to run on a (brand-new, super-powerful) Pentium 133. I don't remember whether it was SAW, SAWPlus, or SAW32. At the time, one of the promotions available to me allowed me a consideration if I was to purchase one or all of the available add-ons at the same time. One of those was Reverberator... and another was AVI Viewer. At the time, I remember questioning spending money on AVI Viewer because I didn't have access to any AVIs (let alone hardware to create them) and had little interest in video. But, for some reason I bought it anyway - maybe it was a package deal with the other effects that got the discount. At any rate, I never used AVI Viewer in SAW and/or SAW32.

When I upgraded to SAWPro I was pleased to note that my add-ons were upgraded for free automatically. So, once again, I installed AVI Viewer for SAWPro - and didn't ever use it.

Then, along came SAW Studio. I'm not sure whether AVI Viewer was upgraded for SAW Studio or not. I upgraded to it but the brand new super-powerful computer and OS I built and installed to use it on never worked right with my ancient RME Digi32/8 sound card and the oh-yeah-and-that-card-too driver that was supposed to move it to Win2K (although there were brief periods of time that I thought I had if fixed). So - I ultimately mothballed Crowded Corner Studio against the day that I could afford the new sound card that it deserved - and that day still hasn't arrived. I've sort of put off learning SAW Studio until then too. For little audio things - I still use SAWPro and the, relatively poor, sound card that came with the ASUS motherboard.

In the meantime, digital video creation has become common place. My new budget digital camera threw that in as an afterthought - and it's not too bad. The same cannot be said for the built-in microphone however. As I was reviewing some 'footage' of my brothers (unwise) air guitar act at a recent karaoke contest (which he entered of his own free will...) I was wishing that I had some way to clean up the audio, at least somewhat, before I render it to DVD, mass produce it, and deliver it to all of his relatives.

Then it hit me: BUT I DO! I DO HAVE A WAY! I have AVI Viewer on SAWPro! THIS was finally the application I bought it for! So, I brought up SAWPro and for the first time brushed up on what was necessary to accomplish this feat:

Step 1: Enable multitrak smpte emulate. Check!
Step 2: Open AVI file and extract audio. Rats - error:

Cannot decompress stream MVI_0169.AVI Video #1.
You need to install the appropriate driver.
I wonder what it wants? The driver must be on my PC (Windows 2000) - I can view this video in either Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Am I supposed to register the driver with SAWPro somehow? I don't see a place to do that - and the AVI Viewer online manual doesn't seem to cover it either. I'm stumped.

So - I know that this isn't a SAWPro forum. I doubt that any of those exist still. But - I also recognize some of your names from over a decade ago and surely some of you used SAWPro and AVI Viewer. Does anyone know what I need to do to get this to work? Musical talent like my brother's needs to be shared and preserved - both for this generation and also for those to come!

Thanks in advance,

John Ludlow

John -- where ya been, man? We've been talkin' about ya. :p

Hey -- my first advice is to do yourself a favor and learn freakin' SAWStudio. You'll be very glad you did. It has a video track/viewer built in, which is way beyond the old AVI Viewer in SAW Pro.

That said, if you just too lazy -- let's see... I guess the AVI Viewer should work with any AVI file whose codec you have on your system, so my first guess would be that it's just such a new format/codec, that it's beyond what the AVI Viewer is expecting or can handle (for some reason that's beyond me).

Question: can you see the video in the AVI Viewer?

Bob will probably have more/better info.

But, dang man, if you bought SAWStudio, learn it! And use it!

[Bob L]

Its a function of the AVI Viewer and Windows... most of todays video formats are no longer compatible with the old Video For Windows codecs and protocol... most everything today uses DirectShow functions and codecs... SAWStudio's Video Track Viewer is designed with that in mind... this protocl did not really exist in the days of SAWPro code.

You may be able to open some video files in the old viewer by installing a codec pack like ffdshow or the KCodec pack available on the web... but my guess is, even with that, the old Video For Windows interface will fall short trying to deal with DV files and today's mpg and DVD files.

You will have a much better ride just diving into SAWStudio and learning it.

You will be kicking yourself for holding out so long once you do... not only will your video journey now be possible, but your audio quality and performance and features are infinitly better.

Jump in... the water's fine once you get used to it. :)

Bob L

[jhludlow]

John -- where ya been, man? We've been talkin' about ya. :p

Hey -- my first advice is to do yourself a favor and learn freakin' SAWStudio. You'll be very glad you did. It has a video track/viewer built in, which is way beyond the old AVI Viewer in SAW Pro.

That said, if you just too lazy -- let's see... I guess the AVI Viewer should work with any AVI file whose codec you have on your system, so my first guess would be that it's just such a new format/codec, that it's beyond what the AVI Viewer is expecting or can handle (for some reason that's beyond me).

Question: can you see the video in the AVI Viewer?

Bob will probably have more/better info.

But, dang man, if you bought SAWStudio, learn it! And use it!
__________________
Dave "it's a dry heat" Labrecque
Tucson, Arizona


Well, as I live and breathe - if it isn't Dave "it's a dry heat" Labrecque! You are one of the decagenarians that I had in mind! It's nice to see that you're still at it. I certainly hope that you've been saying nice things... I think I remember that - when I was first looking into DAW, back in 1995 or '96, before I actually took the plunge - you were one of the people whose experiences with SAW I read about that helped convince me that I could realize my dreams of a home studio using my computer (but, I can't remember - was it an email list or a bulletin board?). Isn't that right?

It's been a rough century for programmers - where I live, at least. I've had off and on work, but nothing steady. For the past several years I've been doing all of my recording at a buddies 'studio' who, frankly, has a vastly inferior rig. Plus - I thought that I was crowded before, but he's got an open space of about five feet by five feet (and mic stands live there too...) and we've gotten as many as 3 guys with guitars in there at a time. Still - mine doesn't work and his does, so we use it - and mics and guitars are transportable.

As for why I haven't taken the time to learn SAW Studio (with my scores of tracks) to use with my 2 track came-with-the-motherboard sound 'card' - well, you can imagine the foul mood I was in after the month and a half I spent failing to get my RME card to work in my new computer. The combination of the software and the hardware was a large investment for me. I even popped for a RAID 0 drive with a couple of 10,000 rpm Raptors for whatever the current project was at the moment. To have it not work in a way that no-one could explain, even after working with the SAW forum and the RME representative to the US (who, to be fair, had never actually seen an RME card as old as mine but worked hard to try to help me anyway (unlike ASUS who simply didn't return my calls)) well, I was pretty fried about it. Even today I don't know for sure whether just replacing the sound card and driver would make it work. In the back of my mind I worry that maybe it's something else (the video card? power supply?). I've been assembling my own and others computers for over twenty years now and feel pretty capable - but, without swapping each part out, I wouldn't know for sure which one it was and I don't have alternates on hand. That said: my best guess is that it's that RME driver. It's a shame too, because 8 good quality tracks in and out by lightpipe at 48 is, otherwise, still totally adequate for what I want to use it for, even if I'd like more, and it worked flawlessly for years in the old machine. Periodically, I still go to the RML site and dream...

Back to Earth - AVI Viewer: can I see the video in the AVI Viewer? No. It errors out before it ever gets there. I attempt to open the file and it tells me it doesn't have the driver to read it.

[jhludlow]

Its a function of the AVI Viewer and Windows... most of todays video formats are no longer compatible with the old Video For Windows codecs and protocol... most everything today uses DirectShow functions and codecs... SAWStudio's Video Track Viewer is designed with that in mind... this protocl did not really exist in the days of SAWPro code.

You may be able to open some video files in the old viewer by installing a codec pack like ffdshow or the KCodec pack available on the web... but my guess is, even with that, the old Video For Windows interface will fall short trying to deal with DV files and today's mpg and DVD files.



Hi Bob,

Glad to see that you're still at it too. I see that we've cross-posted.

I'm sorry to hear that it won't work - but, I understand the reason. In our profession (especially with Windows) nothing lasts for long.

John Ludlow

[Bob L]

You may want to try the ffdshow codec pack... it does attempt to cross directshow codecs with the old Video For Windows protocol... it may just open your particular file.

Or... you can use any one of the many different video file converter programs... some free... some very inexpensive... to convert your file over to an older format that the viewer in Pro will read... like a CinePak or an old Indeo format.

Bob L

[DominicPerry]

Can we (the forum) help you get your RME card / computer going? I can't remember anyone not getting an RME card working round here. It seems a shame especially if you've plunged a lot of money into a new rig.

Dominic

[Dave Labrecque]

Well, as I live and breathe - if it isn't Dave "it's a dry heat" Labrecque! You are one of the decagenarians that I had in mind! It's nice to see that you're still at it. I certainly hope that you've been saying nice things... I think I remember that - when I was first looking into DAW, back in 1995 or '96, before I actually took the plunge - you were one of the people whose experiences with SAW I read about that helped convince me that I could realize my dreams of a home studio using my computer (but, I can't remember - was it an email list or a bulletin board?). Isn't that right?

It's been a rough century for programmers - where I live, at least. I've had off and on work, but nothing steady. For the past several years I've been doing all of my recording at a buddies 'studio' who, frankly, has a vastly inferior rig. Plus - I thought that I was crowded before, but he's got an open space of about five feet by five feet (and mic stands live there too...) and we've gotten as many as 3 guys with guitars in there at a time. Still - mine doesn't work and his does, so we use it - and mics and guitars are transportable.

As for why I haven't taken the time to learn SAW Studio (with my scores of tracks) to use with my 2 track came-with-the-motherboard sound 'card' - well, you can imagine the foul mood I was in after the month and a half I spent failing to get my RME card to work in my new computer. The combination of the software and the hardware was a large investment for me. I even popped for a RAID 0 drive with a couple of 10,000 rpm Raptors for whatever the current project was at the moment. To have it not work in a way that no-one could explain, even after working with the SAW forum and the RME representative to the US (who, to be fair, had never actually seen an RME card as old as mine but worked hard to try to help me anyway (unlike ASUS who simply didn't return my calls)) well, I was pretty fried about it. Even today I don't know for sure whether just replacing the sound card and driver would make it work. In the back of my mind I worry that maybe it's something else (the video card? power supply?). I've been assembling my own and others computers for over twenty years now and feel pretty capable - but, without swapping each part out, I wouldn't know for sure which one it was and I don't have alternates on hand. That said: my best guess is that it's that RME driver. It's a shame too, because 8 good quality tracks in and out by lightpipe at 48 is, otherwise, still totally adequate for what I want to use it for, even if I'd like more, and it worked flawlessly for years in the old machine. Periodically, I still go to the RML site and dream...

Back to Earth - AVI Viewer: can I see the video in the AVI Viewer? No. It errors out before it ever gets there. I attempt to open the file and it tells me it doesn't have the driver to read it.

JHL,

Would that be the old Compuserve forum? Glad I was helpful. So sorry you've been in DAW hell for all these years! Dang, man. RME is typically about the most stable audio driver out there. Seriously. I would suspect the computer for sure. If it worked on the prior computer, I'd think that's the deal, my friend.

Fix it! If you don't want to trial-and-error every component, sell the thing and replace it. You'll be so very glad you did.

[studio-c]

You are one of the decagenarians that I had in mind!

Yeah, Dave IS pretty decadent. But not decaying. Just wanted to clarify that :)

j/k Dave

Cheers,
Scott

[bcorkery]

:) Missed ya Scott! :)

[Dave Labrecque]

Yeah, Dave IS pretty decadent. But not decaying. Just wanted to clarify that :)

j/k Dave

Cheers,
Scott

Yeah, clear as mud. Thanks, Scott. ;) :p

[studio-c]

Yeah, clear as mud. Thanks, Scott. ;) :p
Ya see, Dave, it's cuz i don't know what decagenarians means... and um, well,...

nevermind...



;)