MAC NEWBIE: footage won't digitize to my new external hard drive

[BB&B]

Hi,
I have a capture problem. When digitizing a notice says "frames were dropped etc".
It only happens when I send my media to the external hard drive; internal HD it works fine.

Here are my specs.
Machine Model: Mac PowerBook G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 768 MB
hard drive: 40 G

OS: osx 10.3.9
Editing software: Final Cut Pro 4

dv camera: sony vx 2000
external hard drive: Lacie USB2, 250G

* I've checked that the EXHD is in the USB 2 port.
* I'm wondering if it were a fire wire EX HD would it work then?
* Am I running some kind of software that confuses the EX HD, like Nortons apparently has to be disabled, is this true?
* Is my computer too old to be using USB 2?
* I only just baught this EX HD so I really need to exhaust all options before I send it back or buy another one; well, they wont take it back.
* Um....the EX HD handles other files ok, just not video.
* I'm going to put FCP on my husbands computer and try it all on his just in case it works on his computer because it's newer, is this worth a try?
* I have my system preferences all configured right for the data to go to that drive.

Any suggestions would be golden.
With many thanks in advance,

bb&b

[rumplestiltskin]

The Powerbook has only one FireWire port. This means you must be daisy-chaining the camcorder through the FireWire drive or vice versa. This is not the recommended usage due to the problem you've encountered; the combination of the bus, slow CPU, and daisy-chaining conspire against you. Digitize to your internal HD and make the camcorder the only device on the FireWire bus. when you're finished capturing footage, it's okay to transfer it over to the FW drive for editing and rendering.

Another option would be to purchase a PC (PCMCIA) FireWire card. The external HD can plug in there and the camcorder can plug in on the motherboard and all will be well. I'm assuming you have limited internal HD space so the PC card solution will be the most convenient. Shouldn't be more than about $80 or so for such a card. Make sure you confirm that the card is compatible with your Mac and the version of the OS you're running.

[BB&B]

i fixed it.
simply my computer doesnt support usb 2. capturing on to the internal hard drive and transfering data to the EX hard drive was going to take hours.

got to get me an upgrade !!.

thanks for your help.

[rumplestiltskin]

i fixed it.
simply my computer doesnt support usb 2. capturing on to the internal hard drive and transfering data to the EX hard drive was going to take hours.

got to get me an upgrade !!.

thanks for your help.

Probably would have helped if I had thoroughly read your question before I answered. You may still have issues if you daisychain firewire devices, though.

[BB&B]

i fixed it.
simply my computer doesnt support usb 2. capturing on to the internal hard drive and transfering data to the EX hard drive was going to take hours.

got to get me an upgrade !!.

thanks for your help.

Probably would have helped if I had thoroughly read your question before I answered. You may still have issues if you daisychain firewire devices, though.

Hi again,
what does daisychain mean?

thanks
d

[guns1inger]

Connecting your HDD to your PC through Firewire/USB, then plugging your camera into your HDD.

[BB&B]

HDD? Does it mean external hard drive?
So does daisy chaining mean: ex hard drive into computer, with camera connected to ex hard drive (rather than internal hd)?

[guns1inger]

Yes. Firewire and usb allow you to chain (or Daisy Chain) multiple devices together. That way you could theoretically attach 127 devices to a single USB 1.1 port on a computer. The problem is, doing means they all have to share the same bandwidth. OK for something like printing, hwere it doesn't really matter if you slow down the print job to send data through in smaller chunks. However it is death to a real-time process like video capture.

[BB&B]

rightio. i'm hearing you. thanks for your time, Tired Person.
d

[rumplestiltskin]

Actually (and this is a minor detail), USB connections cascade similar to how you'd connect an Ethernet network. USB devices do not have daisy-chain capabilities but, with the addition of a USB hub (or hubs), multiple devices may share the bus.

Be extremely careful about your PowerBook's single firewire port. As firewire can carry power, a bad cable or attempting to connect things improperly can fry your port and that means a new motherboard. I strongly recommend getting a PC card firewire adapter for your PowerBook; if the adapter fries, you can toss it and get another. Keep the motherboard firewire port for your camcorder (which uses the 4 pin, unpowered cable).

Unless you are using a device that requires bus power (a portable hard drive that doesn't get power from a wall wart or power cable), I recommend you get a 4-to-6 pin adapter that eliminates the power pins from the equation. I use this type of adapter on my iMac and then don't have to worry about what I connect to my Mac. I've seen (and experienced) these ports frying and, unless you're under AppleCare, it sucks big time.

Note that most of the FireWire PC card (cardbus) adapters do not provide power to portable "pocket" drives so you'll want a wall wart.

[BB&B]

Actually (and this is a minor detail), USB connections cascade similar to how you'd connect an Ethernet network. USB devices do not have daisy-chain capabilities but, with the addition of a USB hub (or hubs), multiple devices may share the bus.

Be extremely careful about your PowerBook's single firewire port. As firewire can carry power, a bad cable or attempting to connect things improperly can fry your port and that means a new motherboard. I strongly recommend getting a PC card firewire adapter for your PowerBook; if the adapter fries, you can toss it and get another. Keep the motherboard firewire port for your camcorder (which uses the 4 pin, unpowered cable).

Unless you are using a device that requires bus power (a portable hard drive that doesn't get power from a wall wart or power cable), I recommend you get a 4-to-6 pin adapter that eliminates the power pins from the equation. I use this type of adapter on my iMac and then don't have to worry about what I connect to my Mac. I've seen (and experienced) these ports frying and, unless you're under AppleCare, it sucks big time.

Note that most of the FireWire PC card (cardbus) adapters do not provide power to portable "pocket" drives so you'll want a wall wart.

Sheez. Okay! Nice Advice.
Thanks.