Firewire Splitter

[skdvr]

Good afternoon everyone... I am looking for some sort of firewire splitter... What I am trying to do it take a live feed (via firewire) from my PD-170 to my laptop and another edit computer at the same time. Is there a way to do this? I know I can do an analog signal to one and firewire to the other but I would rather take firewire to both. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks a ton...

Phil

[JohnnyMalaria]

You can as long as at least one of the computers' FireWire interfaces has two ports. Simply daisy chain via the interface with 2 or more ports.

i.e.,

Camcorder-------->FireWire Port 1 on first computer

FireWire Port 2 on first computer------->FireWire Port 1 on second computer

(I've tried this on my main PC and a laptop at it works fine.)

[skdvr]

That situation will not work here... The laptop only has one firewire port. What I am looking for would go from the camera to the splitter and then from the splitter to a laptop and a edit computer (Casablanca Prestige) at the same time. The edit computer will only accept one firewire input and will not output firewire on the other port at the same time.

Thanks for the help though...

Phil

[JohnnyMalaria]

If you have more than one port on your Casablanca system, it will almost certainly be possible.

Connect your camcorder to the Casablanca's FireWire, turn it on and then launch the software on the Casablanca that you need to connect to the camcorder (e.g, select it as your source or whatever you need to do with the Casablanca).

Now take a FireWire cable and connect it to another port on the Casablanca. Connect the other end to your laptop's single FireWire port. Launch the required software on your laptop.

e.g., if both systems can preview the live DV, launch both preview apps. It is important to launch the first without the second being connected otherwise both FireWire interfaces try to control the bus leading to blank DV.

Topologically, connecting the camcorder to the Casablanca first is the same as connecting it to the laptop first.

FireWire tends to be very fussy about the order you connect things. Some times you have to reset the interface. With built-in FireWire interfaces this is difficult (you'd have to disable and reenable it in Control Panel etc). A PCMCIA FireWire adapter makes it easy - just pull it out and plug it back in.

Note, even if you don't have any software running on the Casablanca, the camcorder signal will be visible to the laptop. As long as the interface has power, an incoming signal on one port is always sent out on the others. (The exception is when the Casablanca in this case is sending data to the FireWire interface from the computer.)

[skdvr]

Thanks for the help. I will give it a try. Well actually I will pass the info along for someone else to try because I am leaving for vacation in the morning (not really vacation, I HAVE to see the in-laws )

Thanks again.

Phil