Firewire I/O issues hard to troubleshoot

[anubis13]

I'm using a Canopus ADVC-100, a cheap CompUSA firewire card, a JVC GR-DF550U miniDV camera, a JVC VCR and a panasonic NTSC video monitor.
I also use Vegas 6.0 for editing.

When I try to preview footage (timeline) to an external source the audio does not come out of the canopus.

when I try to preview footage to the camera the
audio does not output.

When I try to Print-to-tape from the Vegas timeline it gets very choppy and the camera stops recording

When I try to print to tape with the vegas capture utility the record to device button makes the camera go from REC/PAUSE back to play mode instead of REC.

When I play my DVR into the canopus (svideo in) it outputs the signal to my camera's LCD.
(camera hooked up to Firewire card by separate FW cable)

I'm trying to figure out why this is going on.
Is it my Canopus box?
Is it my FW card?
why can't I print to my camera from the pc but I can record the input of my canopus into my camera?

[anubis13]

thanks for all the help

[edDV]

I'm using a Canopus ADVC-100, a cheap CompUSA firewire card, a JVC GR-DF550U miniDV camera, a JVC VCR and a panasonic NTSC video monitor.
I also use Vegas 6.0 for editing.

When I try to preview footage (timeline) to an external source the audio does not come out of the canopus.

when I try to preview footage to the camera the
audio does not output.

When I try to Print-to-tape from the Vegas timeline it gets very choppy and the camera stops recording

When I try to print to tape with the vegas capture utility the record to device button makes the camera go from REC/PAUSE back to play mode instead of REC.

When I play my DVR into the canopus (svideo in) it outputs the signal to my camera's LCD.
(camera hooked up to Firewire card by separate FW cable)

I'm trying to figure out why this is going on.
Is it my Canopus box?
Is it my FW card?
why can't I print to my camera from the pc but I can record the input of my canopus into my camera?

My 2 cents.

Use one firewire device at a time until you sort the problem.

I use similar equipmet and don't have these problems.

I suspect Vegas settings. If Vegas is set correctly (read help on IEEE-1394 monitoring), then the problem is in the HDD system with possible disk contention issues.

Start simple. Try to capture a camcorder file. Then try to preview a known good DV from the timeline.

"When I play my DVR into the canopus (svideo in) it outputs the signal to my camera's LCD.
(camera hooked up to Firewire card by separate FW cable)"

That is normal.

[anubis13]

Ok so I rechecked the vegas documentation and took my camera to work. Premiere 6.5 on a mac G4 prints to tape flawlessly.

when I try to preview to external in Vegas the first frame of the clip is displayed and flickers on and off a few times. then it gets good.
THE PC IMMEDIATELY SHUTS DOWN! as if I hit the power switch.
the canopus also displays the frame for a few seconds then goes blank, but the PC remains on.
Microsoft error report claims unknown device driver error.

Printing to tape from the timeline engages the tape but nothing is recorded.

sometimes the video outputted from the vegas timeline will superimpose itself on prerecorded tape footage.

This reeks of bad iEEE card but I'm not sure.
Has ANYONE ever experienced anything like this?

[edDV]

Bad IEEE-1394 card possible. Try WinDV for a simple transfer test back and forth.

If WinDV works, it could be a bad Vegas install.

[Richard_G]

Try moving the Firewire card to a different pci slot, although as you are getting random shut downs, I rather suspect a driver problem. Have you updated any drivers recently? If so, why? If it was working why try and fix it.

[guns1inger]

Make sure it isn't in the slot next to the AGP or PCIe slot

[anubis13]

I tried WinDV and it worked quite well by itsself so I have a workaround for the problem but still no preview to external device.
I reinstalled vegas 6 and Premiere 6.5.

If I try to use WinDV while either of these programs are running I get the same flicker and shutdown. If I try to use the print to tape function in either of these programs I get the aformentioned flicker and shutdown.
If I try to preview to external device in Premiere 6.5 I get a shutdown. Vegas 6 just won't display externally anymore.

The error message I get is

The PCI slot in use is not near agp or pciX slot. I reseated it.

This leads me to think that there is a conflict between the NLEs and the FW card.
How do I diagnose this kind of problem? never encountered it before.

[edDV]

I have all the same programs here and the first program that grabs the DV camcorder or the ADVC transcoder has the device until it is shut off.

The other programs just won't connect.

[budz]

buy a ADAPTEC FIREWIRE PCI CARD....those cheapo COMPUSA cards are shitty....i tried using one of them when i first bought my ADVC-100....i had nothing but problems so i returned it and bought a ADAPTEC one....no problems whatsoever.....

[GeorgeW]

Have you applied the updates to Vegas? There were issues with Vegas 6.0 and firewire export. Version 6.0c fixed it for me. They recently released version 6.0d -- I haven't installed that update yet...

Regards,
George

[edDV]

Vegas will assert control if it and the transcoder/camcorder are the only IEEE-1394 devices active. The problem comes with other devices being present.

It appears to me that the first device connected gets priority.

I hope someone knows how to control this.