capture to firewire hard drive??

[Tim Kurkoski]

That’s the best way to go. Daisy chaining devices can slow them down. You’re trying to feed frames from the camera into Premiere, and then send them right back out through the same firewire port. End result = traffic jam.

[Brian Deviteri]

if you only have 1 firewire port, try connecting camera to computer via firewire then hard drive to computer via USB 2.0 or else another firewire port

[Mike Cohen]

I’ll try that, or get another 4pin to 4 pin cable.

I thought that was the issue.

Mike

[Tim Kolb]

Mike,

Keep i mind that FW ports are like AC outlets. Just because there is another hole to plug something in doesn’t mean it’s on a different circuit necessarily…

TimK,

Kolb Syverson Communications,
Creative Cow Host,
2004-2005 NAB Post Production Conference
Premiere Pro Technical Chair,
Author, “The Easy Guide to Premiere Pro” http://www.focalpress.com
“Premiere Pro Fast Track DVD Series” http://www.classondemand.net

[R. Hewitt]

Very true Tim.

To work correctly requires the firewire port (built-in to motherboard) to be on a separate PCI bridge to any add-in cards. This is the number one reason for problems related to Avid editing systems on non-qualified PC’s and laptops.

[Brett Nelson]

Does this mean that a combination Firewire/USB2 card (deck into Firewire port, external hard drive into USB2) will have the same problem as daisy-chaining Firewire devices?

Would it be better to use a separate Firewire card for the deck and use the combo Firewire/USB card for the external drive?

Thanks!

Brett

[R. Hewitt]

Almost certainly as both the firewire and USB ports will be on the same PCI bus. The problem results from two DV streams flowing through the same PCI bus, which requires CPU intervention to shift the data around. This can also happen with integrated firewire ports on motherboards and requires some research to get a board with dual PCI busses. Tomshardware is probably the best place to find this information.

The Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard provides an onboard firewire port that is independent from the primary PCI bus. This is the board I use and I can capture direct to an external drive without any problems – both firewire and USB2 (lacie).

[R. Hewitt]

Sorry, that link should have been Toms Hardware.

[Brett Nelson]

Thanks for the input! I installed a second Firewire card that I had laying around. My deck is plugged into one and my external drive into the other (I don’t have onboard Firewire). This seems to have done the trick…which makes sense since they are now on separate PCI slots.

I know external drives aren’t always the fastest, but they are so useful, especially when sharing media or keeping big on-going projects from clogging media drives.

Brett