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Capture Freeze
(Continued from earlier post.)
LaCie 250gb Porsche FireWire drive, PowerBook G4, PowerMac G5 Dual Motorola, Canon XL2, Belkin FireWire hub.
Video freezes every 30-40 seconds during capture using both a used Porsche AND a new, out-of-the-box Porsche.
Some limited success early on with no freezing, but not lately.
Various capture limit sizes have been tested.
Various configurations with and without the Belkin hub have been tested.
Fan has been used to help cool unit.Absolutely NO similar freezing problems have ever occured substituting a LaCie d2 250gb FireWire/USB drive in similar configurations.
Thanks in advance.
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3 Replies
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All the built-in FW ports, 400 and 800, share one bus, and the bus defaults to the speed of the slowest device.
Having both the camera and the drive on built-in Firewire often works, but sometimes does not, as you have found.
If you separate the drives from the camera by creating another bus with a product like this for your powerbook:
https://www.macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/LYCFWba-CB.php
Or this for your G5 (double check what type of slot your G5 has before purchasing):
You will probably avoid the freezes.
No implied sanction of B&H or MacGurus
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Thanks, Tom, for speedy assistance!
Through “About This Mac” on my PowerBook, I learned that all three units – the G4 FireWire port, the Belkin hub and the Porsche drive operate at 400mps top speed, so all three would appear to be compatible. Along this line, I adjusted the capture/file size setting in FCE (I guess I forgot initially to mention the program I was using to edit!) to 400mb and found there was still freezing, but it was every 50-60 seconds, as opposed to more frequent freezing when set for unlimited capture size previously. I have not yet performed any troubleshooting on the G5.
Anticipating that the first drive I tried – being used – was bad, I purchased a new one and found the same troubles. So I think it is safe to say that the problems lie between the drives and the G4/G5, not within the drives.
Ironically, not only have I had no such problems using the LaCie d2 drive in the same configurations, but I have even used the d2’s USB port to my G4, since the G4 only has one FireWire port and it is used by the camera during capture. The result? Flawless capture.
I will investigate the products you mentioned. Thanks again.
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The camera is a firewire device also. The camera is likely the slowest device on the bus.
Good luck!
Tom
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