external 1394 HD & DV cam on 3 port firewire card conflict

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MikeInVegas2006 said:
Please see here for my problem:
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=292108&highlight=firewire

Called western digital, they couldn't offer me anything helpful at all...
That one article here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281695

seems to be quite similar to what's going on with mine, but I'm using Win
XP, not windows 2000...

Mike
dax702(remove this)@cox.net
Click to expand...
My only contribution being...........
How are the devices connected?
All I know is that Firewire/iLink/1394 interconnect's
come in 3 configurations:
4pin - to - 4pin
4pin - to - 6pin
6pin - to - 6pin

The 4pin-to-4pin is non-preferred..
Reason being that the two additional pin's on a six'
socket/plug are for power supply.
Example: If we connect a DV camcorder to a PC's
firewire input firewire port via 4pin only connectors.
Then we need to have the camcorder connected to
the main's power supply, or drain the battery.
Most camcorders only come with the 4 pin socket.
We would normally configure so as to have
a dedicated single ported firewire PCI card "powering"
our DV camcorders, so that would be:
PCI firewire card six-pin, connected to 4 pin socket
on DV camcorder. PLUS the cam connected to
domestic power supply

May I suggest: Connect your external HD via six pin -
to six pin on the shared PCI firewire card, but also
as a safety measure, have your external HD configured
with it's own dedicated mains power supply.
ALL external Firewire/USB HD's have the facility for
connection to domestic power supply.
I must stress that I only have personal experiance of
firewire camcorders, not external firewire HD's.
Good luck.

I hope that makes sense, I'm a Brit and I've been on
the cheap but potent Chilean merlot..........
 
actually, it made no sense to me, the only place i see pins are in the plug
that go into my camera, I see 4 little pins in the small connector... but on
the other ends of the plugs there aren't any pins so I'm at a bit of a loss
here?
 
I opened up the computer and found that the firewire card is a VIA with the
VT6306 chip on it, just wrote to them for tech support... but yes, the port
on the camera is 4 pin, connected to 6 pin on the card...and the HD is 6 pin
to 6pin.. I have the power plugged into a powerstrip for the HD, and I also
have the power for the camera plugged into the same power strip...are you
saying that I need to have each device plugged into a different power source
altogether? If so, I could try plugging the camera into the wall and leave
the HD plugged into the powerstrip... Please advise...
 
Well I just tried that and no such luck - I plugged the power for the camera
into a wall outlet separate from where the HD is plugged in...and it's doing
the same thing, somehow I didn't think that would work =)
anyone else?
Mike
 
MikeInVegas2006 said:
What exactly do you not understand about the problem? I can try to explain
it
better.
Click to expand...
But you've supplied very little relevent detail?
You supply a link to a forum and state your prob is similar?
Accepted that specific forum thread provided nothing helpful.
But it didn't guide anyone here niether!

This is all an assumption on my part - as you supply NO details:
Your PC has a 2 or 3 port firewire PCI card?
You have several devices attached, and I'm guessing that
connected to the PCI firewire card is a DV cam and an
external HD?
Again a guess, but you maybe attempting to capture DV
footage and save to the the external HD?
This just maybe too much processing for your system?
There is a whole heap of factors, so I'll just give one:
Front Side Bus (FSB) read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_side_bus

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/f/fsb.htm

http://www.gen-x-pc.com/fsb_info.htm

If it were an issue of low FSB you could overclock....But not adviseable:
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/hwGuides/article.php/10709_1009731__3

Until very recently 400mhz FSB would do just fine, but
for a multimedia PC - twice that would be required - mine is!
But it could be a whole pile of contributing factors that have
resulted in your problem, but you supply NO details?
You don't supply details of your capture software?
In the link, the "similar" problem, the poster is not using WMM
Are You?
Have you tried all "recommended" windows updates?
Etc etc etc etc etc ........................................

There is of course the issue of your location? Is your prefered
Format PAL? If so there is the issue of defaulting to NTSC
http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-67088.html

And here is an explaination of everything from interlacing
to the poor transfer of low res VHS, PAL and NTSC and
a lot more beside's..........
http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/interlace.htm

But a simple google search, just typing "DV problems"
produced this excellent site
http://www.geocities.com/delldvinfo/FirewireLinks.htm


End of thread.
 
I dont know why you're saying I supply no details; I try to be as detailed as
possible. This has nothing whatsoever to do with capturing video. It has to
do with using the external preview function IN Vegas 6.0 where the media
being played is on a firewire drive connected to a 3 port firewire card. The
video camera which goes out to the TV monitor is also connected to the
firewire card. When I enable the external preview and hit play, the video
becomes intermittent (on again, off again), there isn't a constant signal
being sent to the camera while the hard drive is being accessed. That's the
best way I can describe it other than taking an actual video of what happens
to show you...Basically it goes from the video for a second or so, to the
blue screen of the camera, back and forth like that. It's really hard to put
into words, trying my best heh...
 
MikeInVegas2006 said:
I dont know why you're saying I supply no details; I try to be as detailed
as
possible. This has nothing whatsoever to do with capturing video. It has
to
do with using the external preview function IN Vegas 6.0 where the media
being played is on a firewire drive connected to a 3 port firewire card.
The
video camera which goes out to the TV monitor is also connected to the
firewire card. When I enable the external preview and hit play, the video
becomes intermittent (on again, off again), there isn't a constant signal
being sent to the camera while the hard drive is being accessed. That's
the
best way I can describe it other than taking an actual video of what
happens
to show you...Basically it goes from the video for a second or so, to the
blue screen of the camera, back and forth like that. It's really hard to
put
into words, trying my best heh...
Click to expand...


Here is the Sony Knowledge base for that software - there are 41 pages!
http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php


This link is to download updates/patches for the software,
Select your product and fix the bugs..........
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step1.asp?CatID=2
 
MikeInVegas2006 said:
I found this:
http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=487

Which is pretty much the issue; the blue screen being the blue screen
shown
in the camera in the playback mode. flashes on then flashes the video from
vegas, then blue again and so on..but I could find nothing about "bus
mastering" on my Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 card =(
Click to expand...

Well that is a a coincidence!
Bus mastering refers to................ the cache and FSB
Which I "guessed" at in my last post!!! FRONT SIDE BUS
We still know nothing about your PC
We know nothing about your FSB cache (L1 and L2)
We know nothing about your system as a whole???


Your Graphics card..........
It apparently can come as AGP or PCI-X?
But, It ain't nothing special, an OK budget model
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/products.html

So I'm going to opt for another guess based on so little
info from you on your system...............................
You've installed software and placed demands that your
PC is just not capable of achieving.

This is definately end of thread.
 
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