Presenter 8 crashes after connecting external Firewire cam

[Guest]

Good day,

We often organize workshops and conferences which I sometimes record with an external camera for later reference by our own staff or to make them available to clients who couldn't attend the presentations.

For a long time I was looking for a tool to synchronise PowerPoint slides with spoken recorded comment (audio/video), since I don't believe in just making slides available to people who couldn't attend the presentation, without the spoken comments of the speaker.

I also believe in slides with as less text as possible, but more with images, schemes and animations to support the speaker's message. But in such a case, the spoken comment is an essential part of the presentation to get the message, since the slides as-such alone don't tell enough.

I installed the trial version of Adobe Presenter 8 to test its suitability for our company marketing and presentation needs.

Adobe Presenter 8 seems to work perfect to synchronise Powerpoint slides and screen actions, together with video recorded by an external webcam, connected via USB to my notebook or via the internal webcam in my notebook.

However, I also want to record presentations, presented in our auditorium and meeting rooms and I want to synchronise in realtime (= during the actual presentation) the Powerpoint slides together with the video/audio from the speaker.  The realtime option avoids the work of recording the speaker on tape or in an MPG or FLV during the actual presentation, uploading the A/V file to my PC and doing the PowerPoint/audio/video synchronisation work afterwards by going through the whole presentation again.

To record the video I therefore use an external semi-pro videocamera (JVC DV-500), since this gives me better possibilities to frame the right image, zoom in/out, better lens, etc ...  in comparison with an ordinary webcam.  The JVC DV-500 can be connected to a computer via a Firewire I/F.

This always worked perfect when we recorded and streamed video/audio using Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder 3.2.  Adobe Flash Encoder recognizes the via FireWire connected external cam without a problem.

But, when using Adobe Presenter 8 within PowerPoint 2010 to start recording a presentation, and when I switch on the power switch on the external JVC-cam, Adobe Presenter 8 crashes, showing an error "Application encountered an internal error ... report to product support forums, etc ..." and "Adobe-Pr-VC.exe doesn't work anymore", and creating some error log and dump-files on my notebook.

After switching off the external cam and keeping it switched off, and manually deleting in Task Manager still running instances of Presenter-software (Adobe_Pr_VC.exe), and restarting PowerPoint, everything works well again with the USB or internal webcam.

Already deleted Presenter from my notebook, cleaned up registry with CCleaner, reinstalled Presenter, but error keeps on coming back.

Someone any ideas what causes this error?

Software conflict, driver conflict, Adobe Presenter incompatible with external A/V devices, no support of FireWire I/F, ... ?

Configuration:

Fujitsu notebook LifeBook T5010

Windows 7 Pro SP1  32-bit (Dutch version)

Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus (Dutch version)

Creative webcam connected via USB

External JVC DV-500 videocamera connected via build-in Firewire I/F

Firewire driver was installed by Windows automatically when connecting the cam (msdv.sys 6.1.7600.16385)

The only other real-time encoding software installed is Adobe Flash Media Live encoder 3.2.

Some other usual Adobe stuff (flash player, shockwave player, AIR, reader X, )

The possibility of connecting an external cam to record the speaker and synchronise the PowerPoint and/or screen actions in realtime, would greatly enhance our work.

Thanks,

Patrick ROTEN

Marketing dept.

CIPAL DV (Belgium)

[Mukul_Adobe]

Hello,

Presenter's Video creator tool comes along with a troubleshoot mode.

Kindly look for the same in Programs menu and launch it. Perform your workflow and once you get an error, close the tool.

It will prompt youe to email the error logs to the product team.

Kindly perform these steps and send us the error report. We will check it immediately.

Regards,

Mukul

[Guest]

Hi,

started Presenter's Video Creator in troubleshoot mode with external Firewire connected cam switched off.

1. Video Creator started in troubleshoot mode (got the 'troubleshoot' message)

2. default active cam was the USB webcam (HD screen, SD cam)

3. started recording

4. everything worked normal

5. stopped recording

Result looked fine. Got the normal troubleshoot message, asking to send log files.  Did not do this, since there was no error at this time.

Then repeated the process with exteral FireWire cam.

1. Video Creator started in troubleshoot mode

2. default active cam was the USB webcam (HD screen, SD cam)

3. powered on external JVC camera connected to the notebook via FireWire

4. Video Creator crashed after windows detected (beep sound) an active appliance on the FireWire port.

Could not even stop recording with Video Creator in a normal way to go to the "send error log to Adobe" procedure.

Instead got a box with the message: "Applications encountered an internal error. If the problem persists, please report on product support forums or contact the support team."

Had to shut down Adobe_Pr_VC.exe manually in Task Manager.

Tried the same procedure with another FireWire appliance, a DV video recorder with a tape of a previously recorded conference session.

Same error, as soon as I powered on the videorecorder, and Windows detected (beep sound) an active appliance on the FireWire port, Video Creator crashed with the same error message as above.

I can't go through the whole workflow to send the error logs to Adobe, since Video Creator crashes from the moment the power of a FireWire appliance is switched on.

No possibility to stop recording in a normal way (SHIFT-END or clicking the icon in system tray).

Had to manually shut down Adobe_Pr_VC.exe in Task Manager again.

Tried again with Adobe Flash Media Live Encorder 3.2 to see how this application reacts, to be sure there is nothing wrong with my notebook or the Windows O/S.

1. started Flash Media Encoder with external FireWire cam switched off

2. saw 2 active devices : build in Sirius webcam and external USB Creative webcam

3. saw image of my webcam in the encoder monitor windows

4. switched on power on external JVC camera, connected via FireWire

5. Flash Media Encoder immediatelly recognized "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR". Selected this and image of external cam was shown in the encoder monitor windows.

6. Could stream FireWire cam image to an external streaming service without a problem.

Conclusion:  a FireWire connected cam does work with other Adobe software. Must be something wrong in the Video Creator software.

Sorry I can't send you the log files, since app in both normal and troubleshoot mode crashes prematurely.

Hope my explanation helps you a bit to find a solution.

Regards,

Patrick