Digital Micronics has held back on the Digital Broadcaster long enough! I won't describe the hideous ordeal this project has been, the year and a half of setbacks, technical problems, and just plain bad luck. But all of that waiting is through. We have heard the cries of impatience and words of encouragement from our loyal customers so we are releasing this product at the earliest possible availability of the hardware. As a result, the software is in its infancy. Our customers would wait no longer, so we are providing the product as it stands, ready or not. However, we have no intention of stagnating on this product. We beg your patience and we are certain you will be overwhelmed with the quality and features of this developing product. Upgrades will be following as quickly as possible concentrating on activation of all features and bug fixes, so be sure to SEND IN YOUR REGISTRATION FORM! Following this development, we will begin to make available more complex and interesting additions to the Digital Broadcaster package. We welcome any and all bug reports and suggestions to assist us in making this a better product. We request that any reports or suggestions be made in writing and either mailed or FAXed to us so that we may easily incorporate them into our development environment. Our FAX number is (619) 931-8516. Finally, we want to acknowledge the known problems and forestall any comments on those particulars which are already being considered. If after reading the list below, you become aware of a problem with the software not listed, or have some difficulty with which we may assist you, please call one of our dedicated customer assistance lines at DMI Technical Support HOTLINE (619) 931-1021 Calling this number will hunt to the first available technical support line. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DBCRecord - Version 0.9 PROJECT MENU o Quit - Quitting after opening a Reel will crash the machine. SETTINGS o Record Inputs - Video permanently checked and shadowed. o Record Inputs - Audio permanently disabled and shadowed. o SMPTE - Read and Stripe options non-functional. o VITC Line - added but non-functional. o Record Mode - Delayed behaves the same as Normal. o Record Mode - Stop-Motion and Time-Lapse sometimes produce a corrupt first frame. TIME & STORAGE o Desired Time and Required Storage - Non-functional. CONTROLS o Start Time, Total Time, and End Time - Function incorrectly. To allow temporary functionality, these buttons accept FRAME count inputs. They DO NOT update one another. I.E. To record Time-Lapse 1 minute from now, you enter 1800 into the Start Time field. These fields also DO NOT UPDATE while counting down. o Time-Lapse Delay - Same as above. o Timecode - Non-functional. o Pause/Stop - Non-functional for Time-Lapse mode. AUDIO o No controls present. MISC o Any loss of fields usually corrupts reel. o Timecode burn-in window - not updated. o Recording beyond the size of the hard drive will cause problems. You will get Disk Full requesters. Change screens to the DBCRecord control screen and press Stop/Pause. Change screens back to the WorkBench screen and press Cancel until the DBCRecord screen returns. Press OK at the requester informing you of lost fields and then press Cancel on the next batch of Disk Full requesters. Then close the reel. If you are lucky, the beginning of the file may be all right. You must load the clip into DMI 601(tm) to see how much was actually captured. REMEMBER THAT THIS REPRESENTS FAULTY DATA and will most likely lock up the machine when you encounter bad frames. It is a good idea to adjust the clip so that it will only refer to good data frames to avoid further crashes. DMI 601 - Version 0.9 PROJECT MENU o Keyboard equivalents are non-functional. o Open... - Non-functional. o Save and Save As... - Non-functional. o Preferences... - Timecode out will always stripe regardless of setting. o Preferences... - Start Timecode non-functional. (Use Timeline In) o Quit - Quitting while still displaying an image can result in a crash. ACTIVE CLIP o When adjusting the clip in and out times in UNLOCKED mode, the adjusted clip may move before the previous clip or after the following clip. o When adjusting the reel in and out times of a clip in UNLOCKED mode, the clip does not slide along the reel, its operation is the same as in LOCKED mode. o Reel In and Reel Out - Will be filled with garbage when selecting Drop-Frame timecode. ZOOM EDIT AREA o Clip Line Buttons - Trying to load a clip twice brings up a requester asking to choose another clip, create a copy of the one chosen, or CANCEL. Choosing to create a copy of the one chosen will cause a system crash. DO NOT CHOOSE THE CREATE OPTION. o EDL Button - Non-functional. o Audio Buttons - Open requester but load nothing. o Audio Edit Lines - Non-functional. o Align In and Align Out - Non-functional. o Slide Left and Slide Right - Non-functional. o Split - In UNLOCKED mode the left clip is usually moved to the end of the right clip. o Split - The Zoom window will show only to the end of the left clip if this is the last clip. o Clips dropped in UNLOCKED mode usually go to the end of the clip on which they are dropped, regardless of their position. o While playing, the TPI does not disappear. o When playing clips recorded at different quality levels from the EDL line, only the first clip (and any clips recorded at the same quality level) will appear correctly. o Only EDL line clips can be played. o Any clip on the EDL line must be active to play. o The manual fails to mention that an EDIT DECISION LIST Display will appear when the user double-clicks on the EDL line. o In EDIT DECISION LIST Display, nothing appears under SRC-REEL. o The EDIT DECISION LIST Display cannot be edited. SCOPE AREA o Entering a timecode when using Drop-Frame timecode will not display the correct frame but will show the timecode for the frame displayed. o While playing, the TIME CODE display does not update. o While playing, the TPI does not update. o Play Loop Button - Non-functional. o Pause Button - Non-functional. o After pressing the Stop Button, the Timecode stops while the video may continue playing for a few seconds (depending on recorded quality level). When the video stops, the frame displayed is incorrect. MISC o Drop Frame timecode works correctly for only the first 17 minutes of the timeline.