I use Windows XP on a PC and a Sony EVI D-30 with an Osprey-210 card.

I wanted to change my EVI's colour settings using Skype messanger as suggested in another thread. After installing it I wanted to see my webcams preview in the program but nothing appeared so I gave up on it (without changing any settings).

After that my cam stopped working in the VS Performer Application. It either appears to be 'Connecting' in the Flash preview window endlessly or I get a very distorted image of the camera view:

http://img37.imageshack.us/i/errorddx.png/

I reinstalled the Performer Application and nothing changed. The Osprey card works as usual too, so I'm assuming it's something wrong with the EVI. When I take out/put in again the S-VIDEO cable the image disappears alltogether or is as distorded as before.

Did anyone encounter a situation like this before? And how should I deal with it?

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Quote

What I would do here is try the EVI connected to a tv with the s-video cable, if you only have a scart (Euro-connector) on the tv you can buy a scart adaptor ( http://tinyurl.com/mzmzh4 ) and then plug the S-video cable to it and test the cable and camera. That way you will be able to fault find where the problem is. If the T.V has the same problem as you see on the capture preview its the cable or camera, so try another cable 1st that you know is working and see if that helps.


Try that 1st dear, or take the camera to a friends family house that has a t.v with a s-video input and test it that way too.


I would not think skype messed with anything ..


Also if the camera is working on the t.v , reinstall the drivers for the capture card and try opening the pc up and making sure the osprey card has not moved out of the slot it sits in and maybe try pulling it out and making sure the contacts are clean on the osprey card and push it back in the slot and screw it down, (MAKE SURE PC IS OFF BEFORE YOU DO THIS AND UNPLUG THE POWER CABLE) also earth yourself 1st to something metalic like a radiator before touching the inside of the pc or you may give the pc a static shock from your body and fry a part.


Regards

Nabil

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Thank you again Nabil for your reply!

I tried plugging the camera to the TV and it works perfectly there (the picture is even better than on the computer when it worked).

I reinstalled the drivers and I checked if the Osprey sat in its spot. It did, I took it out and cleaned it and put it in again.

The picture is still the same... I know that something is wrong with the S-VIDEO cable because sometimes the picture disappeared even on the TV and came back after replugging it in. But on the computer it never changes to nromal, no matter what I do
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I would get another s-video cable then dear, maybe one of the pins on the cable has a bad connection.

You can buy them at any electrical place that sell t.v's and home electricals.

Also when you said sometimes did it on the t.v did you try little bit to wiggle the ends that go into the camera and into the t.v ? sometimes by wiggling the ends it can show which side of the cablel is broken also by flipping the ends later so t.v end goes to camera then and camera end to t.v and doing the same wiggle test the same end should cause the same problem if not and it causes the problem on the camera end you may have a connection problem on the camera s-video output. That may need looking at by someone that can use a soldering iron. They do come loose sometimes the inputs.


Also have you tried to connect the camera to the osprey by the composite inputs ? that will 100% show if the osprey is not behaving .. Do this test too dear get the composite cables and try them on the osprey with the camera and if these work means either bad s-video cable or the s-video output on the camera needs looking at by someone that can test it electrically.



Regards

Nabil Quote

OMG this is so hot! no fuckin joke! It is like you are talking dirty to me! I love techy boys....fuck! You bettttteeerrr hold up that pocket protector cuz I swear I am gonna squirt! OMFG! Quote

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Penny just an idea do you have any other device there that has a s-video out ? like a video camera, games console or dvd player ? maybe worth trying one of them on the capture card too, you should see a good image if the cable is good and one of the above is plugged in.. If not its 100% to do with your capture card or the cable.

Thats just another idea for you to test the capture card with..


Also did you say you reinstalled the drivers for it ?


If not try reinstalling the drivers, by 1st doing a uninstall of the ones there fully. The reinstall.


Regards

Nabil Quote

Well it turns out that it WAS Skype!

I did everything you suggested and more, it worked with the TV just fine (so probably I didn't put the cables in properly last time), wiggled the cables, reinstalled drivers again, everything.

Because it worked with the TV I figured the problem lies within the Osprey card, not in the camera or the cables. After Googling Osprey card problems I quickly found people having issue with it and with Skype... Apparently Skype turns automatically the NTSC format to PAL! And it was enough to do just that to fix all the problems....

I feel silly and relieved... And a bit angry at the Skype bug :D Thank you so much Nabil for your help, it's lovely to know that I can turn to you in times of technical trouble like that!!
*sends thousand kisses*


Pammie look up all posts that start with 'Purgatory, help!!!' and you'll have some material He is a total sweetheart and I'm sure won't mind Quote

Great , happy you sorted it ... Yes what you did was have a SONY EVI-D30 (NTSC) USA Version , not a SONY EVI-D31 ( PAL ) Europe and installed the europe version of Skype and it will default to the local video standard, in your case it would be PAL as you are from europe, If you had downloaded the american version of Skype it would have defaulted to NTSC and you would not have had that problem.

Really you should have purchased the SONY EVI-D31 ( PAL ) Europe Version for your country, you must have purchased that from Ebay i'm guessing and got a USA version. So something to rememebr is to note the model number to in future when requesting help and the region you are in so to stop this problem many models seem to suffer with the region settings and video standards for their camera gear and capture gear.


Thanks for the information Pen I will make a note of it and something to add to troubleshooting in the future if such a problem crops up again with messenger software.

**Pammie just had to get a cold shower ** Thanks Pen

Regards

Nabil Quote

Also to add some messenger software and other software will default to the systems set default country. So when you install windows it will ask what country are you in and some software will also read that information to set their settings to the windows default country that was set.

So sometimes not always the region version of a piece of software (skype or msn etc) will cause this sort of problem too.


The systems default language and region can be found in the control panel under regional and language options. So sometimes may need to check you are also set to the right country if you purchased the computer ready installed with Windows, sometimes they have the wrong settings there too.


Regards

Nabil Quote

I want to upgrade my cam eventually and I'll make sure that it's PAL lol.

Thanks Nabil Quote