Firewire hub or way to hook up mulitiple input devices….

[David Roth weiss]

Tim,

A hub won’t cut it, cuz that uses the same single bus on your motherboard that you’re already using for both firewire 400 and 800. What you need is a wirewire card.

DRW

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim] “I have a Kona IO/LA, a firewire mixer that is awesome, and then my Kona 2 with the KBox. I need to be able to drop in additional firewire devices…either camera, decks, etc. without swapping out and confusing software when I need to add a different device or camera.”

I picked up a very simple Firewire hub on ClubMac.com through which I run my AJA Io LA, Panasonic AJ-1200A deck and Sony M15U HDV Deck. We also have FW 400 and FW 800 drive connected to our Mac Pro and it all works perfectly.

You just need to understand that only ONE FW media device can be turned at any time with FCP running. So either the Io, a camera or tape deck. If you have two turned on at the same time with FCP launched, it will get confused. So you’ll need to quit FCP, turn off all media devices except the one you want to use, then re-launch FCP.

We have have had zero issues running our drives and the media devices at the same time. We have two G-RAID’s daisy chained together off FW800 and I have a FW400 drive connected for backup. Haven’t had any issues capturing from any of the decks with those drives on.

I want to say it was something like a Io Gear Hub. http://www.clubmac.com It was something like $65.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Rennie Klymyk]

I use a Kramer VS-66FW firewire switcher which has 6 bi-directional inputs that I have an AJA IO; FW HDD; G4: G5: DVD Deck style Burner and a DSR-11 plugged into. I can route anything to anything and it can connect the deck to the g4 at the same time the aja IO is connected to the G5 as well as many other possibilities. And I don’t have to get out of the chair. Although I think it will work as a glitch free live switcher I’ve never tried it for that.

[Tim Baker]

Thanks Walter…that sounds like what I need. The “only one powered on at a time” issue does not really bother me I guess…I am just sick of having to swap devices or firewire cables. Especially since my JVC HD100 has a firewire port shorting problem so I have to power down comp…to hook in the camera and power up progressively. What a pain!

I will look for a hube like you are talking about asap.

Now if I had the firewire card…could I keep multiple devices powered up? Just curious.

I can always count on the cow.

Thanks all,

Tim Baker
Chameleon Mobile Video Productions
(239)849-3295
“It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that we should seek…it is the courage to take the next step in the dark that we must find.”

[Tim Baker]

Rennie…you have peeked my interest. I have used a lot Kramer products and have a high respect for them. However, I know they can be pricey.

What is the price tag on that switcher that you have?

Thanks,

Tim Baker
Chameleon Mobile Video Productions
(239)849-3295
“It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that we should seek…it is the courage to take the next step in the dark that we must find.”

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim] “Now if I had the firewire card…could I keep multiple devices powered up? Just curious.”

Nope, FCP can only handle one Media Firewire device being active. If multiple firewire media devices like decks and cameras are powered up and connected somewhere via Firewire, FCP will see them.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Rennie Klymyk]

Hi Tim, sorry for the delay, I was out. Check this link below for a whole pile of them. I have a minty one I’ll sell for $500.00 including shipping if you are interested. I have 2 of them and I am renovating and re-arranging equipment so I only have one in use which is doing the job. The rest of the gear is all analog or sdi so I think I can get by adding a hub instead of the second unit if I need to when I set everything back up. 2 of them could get interesting though as you can connect them if I remember correctly.

Kramer VS-66FW.