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FireWire and Sony???
I have 2 Sony decks (DSR-40 and HVR-M25U)and three Sony cameras (two Z7s and one Z5). All with Firewire I/Os. However, with my new computer, only the Z5 is recognized by the computer, by Sony Vegas Pro 12 and Premiere CS5.5.
Someone told me maybe the FW ports on the decks and cameras are bad. I don’t think 4 FW ports would just go bad. All worked at one time. And I’ve tired several cables and a new cable too.
Is there a driver that this new computer needs to allow all Sony decks and cameras to be seen?
Suggestions.
Thanks.
Ken Bennett
Video Adventures
Capturing Your Life’s Adventures! -
9 Replies
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[Ken Bennett] ”
Is there a driver that this new computer needs to allow all Sony decks and cameras to be seen?”You’re correct, I can’t see why firewire ports go bad. Ken, this “smells” like a need to activate the Firewire Legacy drivers. Access this through the Device Manager. Please see the attached piccie. It’s really dead easy to do – I did it!
Cheers
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
Firewire ports can be blown very quickly and easily if you are not careful when connecting them. The equipment involved in a connection MUST be powered down before connections are made if you want to be sure you will avoid blowing a port. I use an external firewire based hard drive to connect my cameras. It is easy to power down the hard drive to make the connection.
One thing I have found is that sometimes the computer must be completely shut down and restarted before it will recognize particular firewire devices. My current problem child is a Cannon XL1 which frequently requires that approach. If that doesn’t work, you could try to connect the devices to an older computer to check their ports.
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Yes, blown ports are a possibility, and needing to restart/reboot for the f/w handshake is another. However, do try the Legacy thing first though. Win7 isn’t setup up with these from the get-go, and it is this new win7/8 information I am responding to here.
Cheers
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
I tested the cables, decks and cameras all on another computer in my studio. I get the same results. Only the Z5 is recognized. Both computers are running WIN 7 64bit and driver 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy). I don’t know if getting a FW card would change anything.
Still can’t believe 4 FW ports on 4 devices are broke.
Ken Bennett
Video Adventures
Capturing Your Life’s Adventures! -
I find that hard to believe as well. I also question the needing to have power off. I have been doing firewire since 2002 with cameras and constantly hot swap them. However, perhaps I am just asking for trouble…but I digress.
I would see if you have an older computer (laptop, anything really) that runs Win XP or an older system and try connecting them to that. I had issues with Sony Vegas allowing me to capture via DV and after like an hour, I went to my old XP laptop, opening Vegas 9 and flew it in without a hitch. It could be legacy drivers as stated above. There are SO MANY REASONS to keep on older Win XP box or laptop around for such needs in my opinion…Good luck and hope it is not 4 bad ports. If it is and you don’t have a ton of money, you can download the repair manuals and swap out a firewire port FAIRLY easily. I had one go bad on an FX7 I used to have (cable was tripped over) and it took about an hour…
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
I learned Vegas and audio from Jeff Fisher who assisted Douglas Spotted Eagle when Spot gave seminars in the Chicago area, and taught audio at the College of DuPage. Jeff was adamant that all power must be turned off before connecting firewire devices because the design of the firewire connector makes it easy to blow the port.
Until you find a computer that can communicate with your firewire devices, I think you have to assume that their ports are blown. That said, I did have a firewire hub that I had used on an XP machine that turned out to be bad when it was used on Win 7. It functioned, but very poorly. Replacing it resolved several problems including poor performance on some external hard drives.
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[Scott Francis] “I find that hard to believe as well. I also question the needing to have power off. “
The Sony FW port issue is a well documented one, which my movie club discovered back in 2006 after blowing the FW boards in 2 Sony FX-1’s in short succession. Powering off does not really help
Having said that, if you still have your old computer set up available, connect the cameras to that to confirm that your ports are still fine. Invest in a DV line protector (mine is from Kramer), to prevent potential blown ports in future. My cameras NEVER connect to ANY computer without the DV line protector.
If you are using a non-Windows firewall software package that is configurable, I would also check my firewall software to see if it is blocking the FW driver.
If you have tried Graham’s suggestion, there is one other extreme option you can try, and that is to *uninstall* or remove the legacy driver he suggested and let Windows 7 default to the one that shipped originally with Windows 7. I vaguely recall that is what I had to do when I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. If this works, you will need to stop Windows update from installing the later driver version.
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This might be helpful: I bought a new Dell computer which does not have a firewire port. Only USB ports. However, my Sony FX1 only has firewire output. The computer would not recognize it with a cable that was firewire to USB. I bought a firewire PCI Express card with 2 firewire ports and it works perfectly. (Siig NN-E20012-S2 FireWire 2-Port PCIe Firewire Adapter, about $45 on EBAY)
I hope this will solve your problem as it did mine. -
” The computer would not recognize it with a cable that was firewire to USB.”
There’s no such animal.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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