Feb 2021 update!!! new software available that works on Windows 10 and is IWWF approved

Video tape measure by Chip Shand

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Water-Ski/Three-Event-Water-Skiing/Technical-Controllers

Vidjmp

Vidjmp is short for Video Jump and is a program written by Bob Corson <bcorson@comcast.net> that allows you to measure traditional and barefoot jump distances using video cameras, computers, video capture cards, and grids of balls in the landing area. Using Video Jump Scoring in water ski and barefoot jump tournaments can significantly reduce the number of people required to judge the event as well as make results available almost instantly. The results are very accurate.

For Video Trick scoring tools please see http://www.utoronto.ca/ski/water/software/vt

Downloads:

VJ05a16.zip VJ05 version 16. Start here as the basis (this is a complete installer)

VJ07v1.3.exe A replacement EXE file to bring the above install up to date.

This page is a quick update to make the latest version available. Previous versions and other information is available here!

Note: It may be worth checking Bob Corson's page (the author of the software) for a more recent versin of the EXE at least. His page is at: http://www.s89455333.onlinehome.us/

Quick Setup instructions and claymores:

Video Jump does NOT work in Windows 7 or Windows Vista presently. Windows XP is the recommended platform. Windows 2000 works... but is not the preferred platform. Get a Windows XP machine, patch it to the latest, log in as an administrator and begin the install. NOTE: there is more to it than just running the setup. READ further before doing the install. Five minutes reading here will save you hours.

The first assumption is that you alread have video capture hardware installed. If you don't, go do that. At least make sure that you can do a 320x240 resolution capture in Windows Movie Maker before you try to get the Video Jump program installed.

Before launching the install make the following folder needed by the program
C:\VJIO
Now make a folder to store jump video captures, I use the following:
C:\VJFILES
Now extract all the files form the ZIP file VJ05a16.zip and run the Setup file to install. If it asks you about newer files, select to keep newer files.
Once the install is done, browse to the folder in C:\Program Files where you just installed the program and create a sub folder called LOUPE and move the 4 loupe files (they are obvious) from the program folder to this LOUPE subfolder.
Now you are in a position to launch the program.

A word to the wise about capture hardware, especially USB capture hardware. For video jump you need 640x480 resolution. In order to get this you MUST be using a USB 2 capture device plugged into a USB 2 high speed port. Plugged into a USB 1.x port will get you 320x240 capture only.

Capture card drivers can be a bit tricky at times. If you are using a USB capture device it may be detected as "new hardware" in each USB port you plug it into. Either plug it into the same port every time, or else before you get to the site plug the capture device into each and every USB port the computer has and make sure the driver installs properly. This can save you a ton of grief on site. If you are using a PC-Card (PCMCIA) and have two PC-Card slots in your laptop, make sure you have used the capture card in both slots before you get on site.

Laptops...
VJ works very wll with laptops provided you can get a working capture device, but there are claymores here... I have a number of very successful installations using the Avermedia UltraTV 300 USB device. While it is obsolete now, it does work and they can still be found online in various places. It is a small aluminum box with RCA inputs and a mini USB connector to the laptop. It has a quirk. The VJ software CANNOT set the input source. You MUST launch the AverTV application that comes with the device use the settings in AverTV to select the Composite input source. Once set, it remains that way and from then on all you have to do when you power up the computer is launch the AverTV application and once you see a picture you exit. AverTV is actually a useful application to launch when setting up your grids anyway. In the laptops I setup, the instructions are to plug in the Avermedia UltraTV 300 USB device before powering on the laptop, then I set the AverTV application to run at startup. If the device is in and working you get a picture and you can exit and launch VJ, if you get an error when AverTV runs, you need to check your hardware.

I recently purchased a very inexpensive capture device from www.dealextreme.com. It is item number 35826
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35826
This device seems to work fine though I have not run a tournament with it yet. It is a nice rugged looking device with full size USB cable attached to the device and RCA jacks for input. It seemed to just work with the provided driver.

One issue I have seen is when there are multiple capture devices installed. While this is more likely in a laptop (especially with builtin webcams these days) I have seen it in desktops (plugging in a digital camera can cause issues for example). his shows up in VJ when you show video configuraiton and there are multiple devices in the dropdown list to select from. It seems that when there are multiple capture devices, VJ will use the first one. You can use the device manager to disable the unwanted ones. In Start menu, right click on My Computer and select Properties, click on the hardware tba and select Device manager. You may find the devices under Imaging Devices or under Sound Video and game controllers. Right click on the unwanted capture device (should be the same name as in the VJ dropdown list) and select Disable. You can re-enable it later when done.

If for some reason disabling is not an option, you can use regedit to force VJ to use a particular device. You can really shoot yourself in the foot in regedit so be careful!!!. Start>>Run>>Regedit Navigate to the registry key sectin called:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\VJ05\Settings
Find the key called device and double click on it. Change the number to select the appropriate device from the VJ dropdown list. First device in the list is 0, second is 1, third is... you get the idea...

Useful Resources

The following files are useful for setting up a simple jump grid. These are Dave Clark files that are kept here for posterity.

Troubleshooting:

Here are a few common errors you can get and what they mean and issues you may see during setup and use.

From an operational standpoint, it is important to be ready for ANYTHING. Crashes happen. here are two tips that can help things run reliably.

  1. Launch, Setup Everything, exit.
    When you are at a site, you want to make sure you get everyting set up well in advance, launch the program, get all grid parameters set up correctly, then exit the program. Thats right, exit. Why? So that everything is saved properly so that you can launch and measure. That way you know that all parameters are set up and saved so that inthe event of a ccrash you know you have no setup to do, you can get right back to measuring.
  2. Never measure at the beginning of the video.
    The program will very often crash if you try to use one of the early frames of the captured video to measure. Sometimes you start recording late. It happens. You WANT to use a frame about a half second before you started recording. SOrry. But the worst thing you can do is try to use the very first frames of the video. They cause crashes. The SAFE rule of thumb is to use a frame that is two or 3 frames AFTER the captured video shows movement. So when you are backing up through the captured video, as soon as you see the video no longer change as you continue to back up, go forward until you have a few frames of motion, use that frame to measure and move on.

Runtime Error 53 while running setup


This error can occurr for some reason based on running as an administrator. Create a new user that is a computer administrator and try the setup again.

Error occurred while trying to close file, please retry


This error is a direct result of not having a folder called c:\vjio on your computer.

No correct save video directory has been set. Please put in the path of the save video directory here


This message means that the current path to where the video jump program will save captured screen images (BMP files) and captured jump videos (AVI files) has not been set to a valid existing directory. You must type in the name of an EXISTING folder here. Clicking Cancel here is an infinite loop so you might as well type in something. You can hit the Windows key and open My Computer and create a folder (suggested is c:\vjfiles) to enter here then toggle back to Video Jump and enter that name.

Nothing happens after I hit No to the DO I want to reset all parameters question


Right after the initial dialog prompt, the program initializes the capture hardware it finds on the system. This can take several seconds so be patient. If you never get a second dialog prompt then it means your capture hardware has hung.
If using an Avermedia UltraTV 300 USB capture device, uninstall the software and re-install. It may help to plug in the Avermedia device before re-installing the driver.

Cannot select the Composite Input onthe capture device or the capture device always shows TV or antenna input.


The VJ software is not always able to toggle the input correctly on all capture devices. AverMedia UltraTV 300 USB is one such device, but it is also one that works well with VJ as long as you launch the AverMedia software first to select the input. So with some hardware you may have to launch the capture manufacturer's software to set the input settings onthe capture device, then exit and launch the VJ software.

No MCI devices


This means that the program did not detect a capture device in the system. You must get your capture device working before you run the program. Some capture devices only work with special software. For example a Dazzle DVD capture device only seems to work with their software and is not detected as a WDM capture device.

Runtime Error 53 when running the program


Often related to not finding a file, the most coommon place is when you select Loupe in the System COnfiguration screen and have not properly moved the Loupe files into a folder called Loupe in the Video Jump Measurement folder in Program files.

Runtime Error 53 when running the setup


If you are seeing the runtime error 53 when running the setup program then the most likely cause is limited user rights on the account you are logged in on to do the setup. Log on using an admin account. If you are already using an admin account, create a new admin accouint and run the install from that account. I have no idea what is missing in the first admin account but it usually works from the second.

No video image when PAL camera hooked up

I have seen this when the video resolution was set to 720x480 on the capture hardware. Works at 320x240 but fails at 720x480. Workaround was set it to 720x576 instead of 720x480.

Program csashes after selecting the frame to use for measure


I have seent the program crash when you try to go BACK too far int he captured video. For example you start the recording late... oops... so when viewing the captured video you find you cannot go back far enough to see the skier touchdown so you go back to the VERY beginning of the captured video file... crash. The trick here is when backing up through the video, if you see the image STOP CHANGING then you have gone back too far. Advance a few frames until you see the video image change at least twice and use THAT frame to measure instead of the very first frame. next time start recording sooner... doh...

Having problems getting your video capture card going? Read this first!

There is discussion group information for Video Jump/Video Trick/Video Slalom related discussions located at:
http://www.s89455333.onlinehome.us/discus/discusvj.htm

Subscribe to the VideoJump Mailing List - Put your email address in the box and press the button


For technical information on AVI, VFW, WDM etc click HERE.