what's causing this video refresh problem in some programs?

2011-07-04 23:20:29

oh its a long story after trying to fix this problem. Here's where it started. I'm in windows xp and was doing some video editing and noticed lately there'd be screen refresh problems. Wasn't anything major and could just work around it. Like for instance, in adobe premiere the video editor, while i'm rendering a section there'd be a little square progress box, and while i switch to another windows, in that progress bar area, you could see it in another window like stuff wouldnt refresh. Here's a screenshot video of what that looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_kiaOQujg

And then in virtualdub, that i use to take big uncompressed video files and run them thru h264 compression, well when i start the program and go to select the compression menu, then the area where the two preview windows are it would cover up my compression menu with grey screen. I could fix it by clicking on the compression menu window and dragging it below the taskbar then bringing it up and it would be clear again. Here's a screenshot video of what that looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXfj4KaQPnI

So things weren't much of a problem and could just fix it and move on. Had started with the video editing lately and was about to begin working on audio again.. haven't since around 2000. I used to use this program called digital orchestrator pro where you could have midi alongside digital audio. I've always been able to run this program no problem but these grey screen refresh problems do what was going on in virtual dub but cover the whole dop working window. I can fix it by minimizing the program window and maximizing it back and its clear again. Here's what that looks like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRU926wBko4

Was starting to be a bit of a bad trip with how every couple minutes it kept doing that and i'd have to minimize and maximize. A couple years ago didnt use to do that. Lately started learning video editing so could be something with that where it started. Stuff like in here, internet explorer i dont get any refresh problems like that.. its only these 3 programs i noticed it in. And premiere it only does that when you're rendering and it has that little rectangle progress bar window. Other than that premiere runs fine. Then virtual dub with the two preview windows. Doesn't always do it though, sometimes it doesnt. And then that dop. Like i can work on stuff and it might not do it, then sometimes in dop i'll get like the whole program window 'll do a quick flash every few dozen seconds.. you can see a bit of that in the video. And sometimes on one of those flashes then it'll cover the working area grey. And its not that anything's processing or taxing the system.

So i tried to start figuring out whats going on here. First thing i did was go to the display/hardware acceleration slider and bring it down a notch to try and clear stuff up. Well if you bring it down a bit it starts to turn off the nvidia settings and after a while you cant even access the system tray icon for settings. Well just before that if you turn it down a bit, it'll clear up the premiere rectangle box in other windows.. but sliding it all the way left, the lowest setting, i'll still get that greying in dop.

The hardware acceleration slider couldnt fix it. Thought, ok might be a video card problem. I picked up an nvidia geforce 210 a few months ago because was running the motherboard video and thought things would take a load off it if i had a video card. The integrated video is also by nvidia and taking out the card and running that still has the greying screen area refresh problems.

Posted in the youtube google help with those screenshot links and nobody was getting back to me over a week. Then posted in the nvidia forum and nobody was getting back to me. Trying to do something here to maybe clear it up so went and got a 200$ upgrade kit with a new motherboard, cpu and ram. Now have a 3ghz quad core with 4gb ram. Using that geforce 210 the grey refresh problems were going on. Took it out and using the nvidia integrated on this new board, still doing it. The comp was running fast but noticed i was still waiting for the hard drive light so went and bought a 200$ ssd solid state hard drive with no moving parts. Didnt really have anything to do with trying to fix the problems but can rule out anything with the hard drive causing the refresh problems because was still doing it with a new hard drive.

So i started installing windows on this blank hard drive and noticed when i began the grey screen area refresh problems weren't occuring in the programs. Later on after a bunch of updates and programs installed noticed it was back. Erased the hard drive and reinstalled windows but this time after installing each program i'd check virtualdub and dop to see if the grey screen started. Well thought i had pinned it down because right after installing the k-lite codec pack, that has dozens of video codecs in it.. started getting the grey screen. Figure it was a bad codec in there. So i uninstalled it and checked virtualdub and dop and no more grey screen. Figure ok as soon as i install k-lite it should start doing it again. Well.. it didnt. It was installed and wasnt causing the grey screens. hmm. Erased the hard drive and reinstalled windows.. got the xp full for blank hard drives. Got windows going and installed virtual dub and dop and then ran k-lite and this time it didnt cause the grey screens in those programs. It seems to be inconsistent as to what makes it occur. And then sometimes i'd get those flashes in dop more frequently like sometimes it'd start bang and do it every 15 seconds.. and sometimes might not do it for a couple minutes.

Thought if i get a new video card from a different manufacturer it might clear it up because all this time it was nvidia with the pci-ex or the integrated. So went and got an ati card and was still doing it. Returned that and exchanged it for windows 7 64bit.

I get windows 7 going but when it comes time to run dop it says i cant. Thats like this older sound forge 4 i use. Tried 9 but the snap to zero sucks on 9 so kept using 4. Well cant run it in windows 7 even in compatibility mode. I'm there.. oh.. ok. well i'll try and find some type of new multi track recording program then. As i start going on with windows 7 i can't run this sound card, soundblaster 24bit live. Its just from a few years ago but looked it up and its the end of service life. Could still run drivers it found so had sound. But no midi in the mixer. I've got a laptop i use in the car with wireless internet to listen to internet radio stations and have an external soundcard with remote i got earlier this year. This sound blaster x-fi surround 5.1. In my laptop with xp the mixer has midi. I take the external card and plug it in here and run the drivers and there's no midi in the mixer.

I gotta have midi because thats how i was making music before. In digital orchestrator you'd have the note dots and use a program called vienna to make soundfonts with all the noises that would get triggered in dop. I start looking into this windows 7 and no midi output and sounds like it got phased out in vista. So i'm back to square 1 with the programs to make tunes and now i'd have to use just digital audio only in some type of multi track program. Can't run my old programs and no midi in windows 7. Well its too much and i'm at the point where i'm going to put aside the windows 7 and go back to xp. But now i'm looking at the grey screen refresh problems again. Tried premiere in windows 7 here and didnt have the rectangle box refresh problems while in another window. Not getting any of the grey screen in virtual dub either. But its just too much of a blow trying to make music with no midi.

What i was starting to get into was with this program called melodyne where you can see wav files in the key pitch note stuff is in instead of horizontal.. well i could take quick bits of noises and see what pitch they're in and copy that and lower or raise the next sound and fill up a keyboard with octave ranges of the noises and it would be in the same key and pitch as a regular piano. I've got a disk with 6000 classical midi files where when you open them in dop you see all the midi dots like sheet music and can take bits of riffs and change notes.. and instead of harpsichord now i can replace it with whatever bits of sound effects that are in the same key and have it play sfx instead. Was really interesting and about to get started on tunes with beats from quick bits of noises too and no more regular drums or keyboard sounds. Was getting stuff off the tv and couldnt recognize copyright anymore so was looking interesting. Can't do any of that with digital audio only option with windows 7. Too much of a blow and going back to xp but now i gotta deal with that grey screen blanking all the time.

So if somebody knows what might be causing it or some type of direction of what might be causing it that could look into, that'd be great because now i'm stuck in xp so have to deal with this.

How did i get at hydrogenaudio.. well this admin over at the k-lite codecguide forum mentioned how this is more of a forum for support with audio so maybe you guys might have some kind of ideas about maybe some kind of new audio program i could use in windows 7 or something. Not looking too good with the no midi in windows 7 though so we'll just try and figure out more about whats causing the grey screen refresh problems. Quite the bad trip i been on the past week. After this mess though i can deal with the grey screen every once in a while in dop at least in xp i'll be able to use it! This whole no midi thing was just too much going back to square 1 in 1997.

what's causing this video refresh problem in some programs?

Reply #1 – 2011-07-05 00:42:18

hmm.. interesting developments. The admin over at the codecguide forum happened to mention oracle virtualbox where i could install windows xp and i could run it in another window. I was thinking yeah right its probably like some emulator and when i go to install my old programs it'll give me the "no" cause i'm on 64bit. Well i'm starting to test it out and its kinda neat cause its like having another computer in a window. Starting to install xp from the cd and i'll see what happens when it comes time to install the soundblaster cd if i get the midi in the mixer and stuff. I just kinda picture hardware conflicts if i'm already using something. Like for instance, in here i'll be connected to the internet already with my wireless stick. But in the xp window its supposed to be like its not running yet.. so i dont know how things 'll behave. I almost couldnt even run my soundcard but went to the creative site and had something at least so i could get sound. So i'll see how it goes.

what's causing this video refresh problem in some programs?

Reply #2 – 2011-07-05 08:10:24

yeah its not looking good with the virtual box. whats going on with the soundcard is before you start you have to pick a type of hardward for sound and video and you cant use the hardware you have in your computer. I have to use my soundcard because otherwise when i go to put in the installation cd it says no sound card of that type detected and cant run the programs like the soundfont bank manager. I'm in the middle of updating the xp maybe it'll detect the old soundblaster 16 i can choose and get sound then maybe can run the soundfont bank manager because at least its creative too but not looking good. I'm posting over in the virtualbox forum too about all this mess i'm in and this hydrogen audio is the main forum area about this disaster. oh also started a thread in the virtualdub forum and mention how this is the main thread.. dont want to ramble on like this in the other places. Gonna keep plugging at this in forums until somebody can figure out whats causing this display refresh snafu.

what's causing this video refresh problem in some programs?

Reply #3 – 2011-07-05 22:39:27

had an idea last night where was thinking about the virtual box how i could be using windows 7 but run the xp for those older programs. can't do it in virtualbox because it doesnt recognize my soundcard.. so thought of using those 2 hard drives i got and on the 7200rpm install xp and run it bare bones with no windows updates. i'm thinking its those updates causing the grey screen refresh problems. so on that drive i'd install the old music making programs. And on the solid state drive i'd install windows 7 and do the video editing and thats what i'd mainly run. When i want to play around with the tunes i'd go in the bios before bootup and switch to the other drive. I'll see how it goes.