Troubleshooting Guide

DStone — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:15:35 GMT

NOTE:

Liquid is not certified to run under any operating systems except XP Pro and Home. If you are trying to run Liquid under any other operating system (XP64, Media Center Edition, Vista 32 or 64) you are on your own if you encounter problems. There are no drivers for the Pro BOB for XP64 or Vista.

Avid Liquid and Liquid Pro Configuration Guides

from Scott

doc id: 9718
created: 09 June 2006
updated: 09 June 2006

Anyone who is contemplating building a system for Liquid or who is currently having problems with Liquid should read these documents.

Edit: Feb. 24, 2008. The original link to the documents pointed to the Avid support site. This is no longer available. The link now points to the configuration guides for Liquid on the Pinnacle support site. This link may not point to the same documents as before. -- Dave S.

[The files on the Pinnacle site include older "cookbooks" for earlier Liquid versions. Look for those which are for Liquid 7. Those are the ones referenced here. Some of the older ones could also have useful information. I have not read the older documents. -- Scott]

There's some excellent information in the "Generic Cookbook" that even I hadn't thought of concerning virus scanning exclusions. The same document explains some of the inner workings of Liquid and how data is passed back and forth, including how the graphics card supplies the analog output at the BOB. This is a MUST READ document.

(This zip file was updated on July 18 with the addition of another guide for Liquid Edition 6.10.)

Liquid 7.2 Upgrade, Manual, and lots of other stuff.....

from Lew

Please read this entire thread if you are upgrading or need to uninstall and reinstall Liquid. You will also find other useful links and information in this thread.

NOTE: Some virus checking programs give a false positive with the Liquid install DVD and the full download linked below. Either turn off your virus checker or ignore any virus warnings it may generate.

The latest version of Liquid is 7.2 build 4296. You can download the full installer or the upgrade patch here. The full installer requires your 7.x serial number but can be installed on a clean install of XP without installing any prior versions. Please read the upgrade information the link takes you to very carefully and make sure you download the correct item (full or patch) for your upgrade situation.

If you have problems installing Liquid because it cannot verify your original Liquid disk, download this patch.

If you have issues because you are upgrading from programs like Adobe Premiere and do not have a Liquid disc to verify with, this has been reported to work using the above patch:

Begin installing the full upgrade. Cancel the install when you are asked for the CD.
Then run the patch.
Finally run the Setup 7.2 again.

UNINSTALLING AND REINSTALLING LIQUID

If you have highly customized Liquid's keyboard and toolbars, before uninstalling and reinstalling, make sure to create a login custom profile to retain these settings. You do this by exiting Liquid and instead of closing the program clear the desktop and sign in as a different user. There you will find a dialog box to create and load your custom profile. Also, see the user manual for more details.

You will need a registry cleaner such as Regscrub, which you can download here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048

If you need to uninstall and reinstall Liquid to correct a problem, I suggest you do it this way:

From the XP Control Panel Add/Remove, remove Liquid components in the following order:

1. HFX for Edition

2. TitleDeko RT

3. Liquid

Now run your registry cleaner a few times to make sure your registry is as clean as possible. Reboot your system and then reinstall Liquid. You may have to reset your render drive in Liquid's System Settings and your media location in Media Management so you might want to make note of those before starting.

INSTALLING 7.1 SP1

For people who are still working on unfinished projects in pre-7.2 versions, here are the instructions for installing up to 7.1 SP1. If you need to uninstall/reinstall and continue working on those projects, follow the steps under either "1" or "2" depending on your original disc. Install back to the version you were using when you started the projects to be sure of compatibility. Please update to 7.2 after finishing earlier projects.

1. A. If your original disc is 7.0 and you want to get to 7.1, install 7.0 first.
    B. Then install the 7.1 upgr. (3494).
    C. That's all unless you want to go to 7.1 SP1 (3581)

    D. If you want to go to 7.1 SP1 (3581), install the 7.1 3494 upgr. to 7.1 3581 update.

2. A. If you have an original 7.1 disc, install it first
    B. If you want to go to 7.1 SP1 (3581), install the 7.1 SP1 (3581) update

IF LIQUID IS IN DEMO MODE AND YOU NEED TO RE-ENTER YOUR ACTIVATION KEY:

For some reason the option is missing in Liquid after going into demo mode. This is on our list for some time now. But there is a workaround. Open the Easy FX editor (Hollywood FX)< and use the option "Enter activation key" in this program. Enter your Liquid 7 activation key and restart Liquid. Liquid will now be out of demo mode.

ATI Catalyst 6.6

This is the last approved driver set for ATI cards. There have been issues with later drivers. You can download it here. GOOD NEWS: It has now been reported by many users and the developers in Munich that the problems with drivers later than 6.6 have been resolved with the release of the 7.7 drivers. So, users are now advised if they have ATI 1600 and later cards to update to the Catalyst 7.7 and later version drivers.

IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES:

And are looking to purchase a Liquid upgrade, please go here.

FREE TRIAL VERSION OF LIQUID FOR DOWNLOAD:

Here are links to the trial version of Liquid 7.1 and the tutorial training files:

http://www.avid.com/products/tryout.html

http://www.avid.com/promos/index.asp

If you need an actual disc sent to you go here.

AC3 Codec

If you need an AC3 codec for import of VOB files, you'll find one here.

Official Avid Knowledgebase

You'll find other patches and answers to technical questions here.

MANUALS

Liquid 7.1 Manual (English) in PDF format.

Liquid 7.1 Readme (English) in PDF format.

DROPPED FRAMES WITH FIREWIRE CAPTURE

Many of you have posted having problems with dropped frames when capturing using a firewire device. Recently two users here have pointed to what may be solutions to this problem.

First, Microsoft has posted a patch because XP SP2 may cause problems with the IEEE port on some installations. The patch is here.

Second, another user has found that sometimes moving the audio card to another slot on the motherboard fixes this problem probably due to a reassigned interrupt.

Another thing you can try is to turn off the XP Indexing Service under the properties of your drives. Turn it off for all drives. It is on the General tab when you right click on a drive in My Computer and go to Properties.

NO AUDIO ON RENDERED OUTPUT

This has come up several times on the forum. In almost all instances it is caused by an incorrect sample rate for imported audio files. Valid audio sample rates are: 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz, 32000 Hz, 44100 Hz, 48000 Hz. Audio files must exactly match one of these sample rates to work correctly and it is best if they are 16 bit also. Do not use 32 bit files. Liquid uses 48KHz internally for its audio sample rate so if you are going to convert an audio file that is not one of the above rates, it is best to make it 48KHz 16 Bit. You will need an external program such as Audacity or Sound Forge to convert your files.

INSTALLING THE PRO BOB DRIVERS

If the drivers did not intstall properly, connect the BOB and power it up (clear any Windows install dialogs), put the Liquid install disc in your drive while holding down the shift key to prevent autostart, then right click on the drive icon in My Computer and open the disc and run the program comp_drvmbox.exe. Select the Avid Pro BOB from the list (it is the first one) and let the program run. That will install the drivers for the BOB. Restart your computer. You can tell if the drivers are installed and the BOB is recognized by going into XP's Device Manager and under System Devices look for the Pinnacle Marvin Bus and under Sound, Video and game controllers, look for the Pinnacle Pro BOB.

Note: You may have to let Windows search for and install the drivers again if the Windows dialog comes up. That will make Windows happy.

DVD Button Limitations

By design, there is a limit to the number of buttons you can have on any page of a DVD menu. The generaly accepted limit is 36. But, if the menu is 16:9 we have to use two button groups (one group for 4:3 letterbox and one for 16:9) which reduces the limit to 18. Exceeding these limits will result in render failures.

EXCLAMATION MARKS IN VIEWERS ON CLIPS

There are several causes for an exclamation mark (!) in the viewers for a clip. It means that for some reason, Liquid cannot see this media. One of major causes of this is playing with the Media Rank setting in the Logging Tool and changing it from Normal to a higher setting, or changing the Media Quality settings in the timeline properties. These settings have NO effect on the actual video quality of the media. They are a ranking system when more than one version of the same media is being used. In general, these settings should NEVER be changed unless you have a good reason for doing so.

The other common cause of exclamation marks is unlinking of imported media. You can relink the media by right clicking on the clip in the rack and selecting "Verify imported media" to relink the clip.

Using Liquid's Dolby encoder for commercial disc.

It is perfectly legal to use the Dolby encoder (both Dolby Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound) for commercial discs in any quantity, but you cannot use the Dolby logo or any Dolby trademark on your disc or packaging. To do that, you must obtain a license from Dolby. This is directly from Dolby:

"It's perfectly fine to use the encoder for commercial purposes, you only need a license if you want to use Dolby trademarks on your artwork/packaging. Since the encoder you use doesn't qualify you for logo use..."

Changing the colors of the Liquid interface

If you want to change the color of the Liquid interface, go here.

JL Cooper FaderMaster Pro

A user has reported that the midi controller on the Audigy 2 ZS card (and probably other Audigy cards) does not work with this device and Liquid. You need to install a standalone midi port card.

Timecode Plugins for visible TC on final output

Get them here.

Some Great Free VST Plugins

Click here and download any or all of these. They are very professional and work well in Liquid.

Free Audio editing tool...very powerful...and FREE!

Get Audacity here.

Using Canon "F" modes in Liquid 7.2

The following information is from Hans Peter, one of the Liquid engineers in Munich. This information has also been tested and confirmed by another Liquid user:

The Canon F modes are nearly the same as JVC and others are doing with a P. It stands for the progressive modes of the Canon devices. And because it is progressive you have to set the timeline to progressive before you start capture.

e.g. for a 1440x1080 25F timeline you have to open the advanced timeline dialog.

- choose the standard HDV 1440x1080 50i preset

- change the interlacing to non interlaced

for 30F you can do the same but you have to use the 60i preset

for 24F you can choose both presets but you have to change the framerate to 23.98 also the interlacing.

RecToTape is not yet supported with these progressive formats.

Using XDCam with Liquid:

See this forum thread.

Using AVCHD cameras with Liquid

See this forum thread.

HOW TO MAKE CUSTOM WMV PRESETS (BY DAVE STONE)

You need the free Microsoft Windows Media Encoder which has the profile editor.

Open the C:\Program Files\Avid Liquid 7\WMVProfiles folder, select the closest profile to what you want, and copy it to a new file.

Open the new file in the WMV profile editor and make the appropriate changes.

In Liquid, Export to WMV. Select the Custom profile and choose Modify Preset.

In the Modify Preset dialog, click on Advanced. Choose the profile you modified in step 2.

Click on Save as New Preset and set the name and description.

You now have the preset in the list of available WMV presets. Hope this helps.

The Unofficial Avid Liquid Bug Tracking System

from Dave

The unofficial Liquid bug reporting system is located at www.stoneacres.org/mantis.This system is not operatored or supported by Avid or Pinnacle. It's primary purpose is to provide a more structured means of entering and searching for bug reports than is provided by the forum.

Please note that while Avid doesn't support this system, when escalating bugs to technical support we can (and do) use this system to provide the information necessary to reproduce the bugs and show the scale of the problem. It's far easier to get tech. support to work on an issue if we can show multiple users have the problem and that it's a cause for concern.

Please see the rules and guidelines in the bug tracker Doc section. If you have any questions about the tracker, please contact me Here. Please do not post issues you may have about the bug tracker in the Liquid Pro or Chrome forums as these forums are for Liquid issues.

Edit 19-Jan-2006:

I've added a new category to the bug tracker: Documentation. If you find something that's incorrect, please add it in and post a note with what you believe to be the correct documentation. If you find something is missing, please note that, and if you can document what is supposed to be there, do so as well.

Liquid - Tech Support (Installation - Import - Export - Hardware)

Troubleshooting Guide

Liquid 7.2 Upgrade, Manual, and lots of other stuff.....

The Unofficial Avid Liquid Bug Tracking System