External preview problem with cam and tv connected to same firewire card

[Edward Troxel]

The connection should be:

Computer –> firewire –> camera –> TV

In one of the posts you mentioned VIA. VIA chipsets have typically caused problems. Stick with the TI chipsets if possible.

Now… based on the sketchy info from that link, I’m not really following what the real question is. Can you ask a straight-forward question here?

Edward Troxel

[Mike Costantini]

Yes, When my media on the timeline is on the firewire hard drive that is connected to the firewire card, as well as the video cam that is 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…

[Edward Troxel]

Are you daisy chaining the camera through the hard drive?

Does the firewire port have multiple plugs and each piece is plugged into a different connection?

What kind of camera are you using/have you tried it with a different camera? (I.e. some cameras will show the symptoms you are describing while others may not)

Edward Troxel

[Mike Costantini]

Edward,
not sure what daisy chaining means but I don’t think I am.. It’s a 3 port firewire card. The camera (Canon ZR-20 that I use for capturing so to not wear out the heads on my Pana DVC80 is plugged into one port, the hard drive (Western Digital 120GB external) in another port. I have NOT tried it with the other camera, but that sounds like a darn good test which I will try today and let you know…Funny thing to note is that I can capture tape just fine, it’s just that external preview that is giving me the fits…

[Zip-edit]

I have a canon zr-40 that never really worked great for that type of use. transport control was slow etc..
My sony vx2100 is superior with talking firewire over the canon. I get instant response in comparison.

I presently have a Belkin 3port TI chipset PCI firewire card .
I connect 2 harddrives, a camera, and a 18 channell firewire audio card all at the same time. all 3 ports filled and 1 item chained thru audio rack.
no problems….
Until I use my sony trv-900 camera which then forces all devices to drop then go blue screen. It doesnt like having anything else on the firewire line except itself…go figure.
hope this helps
Zip

Zip

[Mike Costantini]

Connected the DVC80 instead of the ZR20 and it’s doing the same thing, actually worse with the better camera.

This picture below shows that the external preview correctly displays when not playing.
https://www.geocities.com/sdsumike619/notplaying.jpg

This picture below shows the blue screen on the camera while the timeline is playing, but it bounces back and forth between the blue screen and the video (I’ll try to make a video clip)
https://www.geocities.com/sdsumike619/playing.jpg

[Mike Costantini]

https://www.robertconti.com/otto/firewireprobwithpanasonic.avi

[Edward Troxel]

Can you connect the drive via USB? It would be interesting to test if the external preview works when the camera is the ONLY device on the firewire.

I’ve seen this happen with some cameras and not with others on the same connection. However, it could be many different issues.

Edward Troxel