firewire capture problem

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February 5, 2013 - 15:00

delmartin

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Joined: Oct 27 2003

I have an old SD camcorder - Panasonic NV-DX100 - which I have used many times to capture from DV tapes into Avid Media Composer.

After a long time, I tried to use it again to re-edit some old stuff but although deck Controls work fine, clips cue, pre-roll and then play in camera but just green screen with some kind of shash appears in capture window along with message "audio/video unexpectedly no longer coming into the system."

I have upgraded my mobo recently so I'm connecting to a firewire port that is untested but, as I say, the deck is recognised and deck controls work without problem.

Anyone any ideas of what or where the problem is?

Thanks in anticipation.

Derek

System is P9X79 m/b; i7-3820 Quad core CPU; 16Gb RAM; Quadro 2000 GFX card; Windows 7 64bit OS.

February 5, 2013 - 15:09

Gavin Gration

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Joined: Jul 29 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

Avid may (or may not) be using the built-in Windows firewire controls. They used to have their very own way of doing things.

One thing you can check is....Go to the control panel/device manager and check the IEEE1394 driver. It needs to be a "legacy" version - if it's not then update the driver and select the legacy driver from the options offered.

Reboot and try again.

http://www.manchestervideo.com

February 5, 2013 - 16:41

delmartin

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Joined: Oct 27 2003

Re: firewire capture problem

Thanks for your rapid response, Gavin.

OK, I tried to install legacy driver version, as advised but with no success.

There were actually 3 drivers listed;

1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller

1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (legacy)

VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller

BUT strangely no matter which one I installed it always listed it as being exactly the same version - 6.1.7600.16385!

I have found a comment elsewhere that it might be the firewire port (onboard) and to try stand alone firewire card. That would be a nuisance as I chose the particular version of the Asus P9X79 m/board purely for the fact that it included firewire port! Grrrhhh!

...actually, just thinking aloud, I have thought of getting an ADVC converter (Canopus 110 type of thing) maybe that would be a work round for this problem as well; what do you reckon?

Cheers

Derek

February 5, 2013 - 23:39

Gavin Gration

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Joined: Jul 29 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

Via firewire chipsets used to be problematic - Ti (Texas Instruments) were always the one to go for.

That was a long time ago - we've had Via chips in a few of our machines (especially laptops) with no ill effects.

Forgive me if this is an egg sucking lesson but.....Windows tries to install it's own motherboard and chipset drivers if you allow it to. While these might seem to work OK they might not be optimal - Asus also have a sneaky habit of launching boards with issues and then releasing BIOS updates to fix them - but they don't let on that there was a problem in the first place!

This link is for the basic P9X79 board - you'll have to fish around if yours is a fancy one.

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P9X79&p=1&s=42&os=30&hashedid=qozuUIBauoP94eTQ

See if that helps before you chuck any money at the problem.

http://www.manchestervideo.com

February 6, 2013 - 05:27

JOHN . A.V.

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Joined: May 6 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

before you go down any external device route. And , if all else fails, I still have a DV storm 2 card and bay & S/ware if your Mobo has a PCI slot. See :- http://www.dvforums.com/forums/canopus-dv-storm-ii-bay-software

February 6, 2013 - 08:57

RayL

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Joined: Mar 31 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

May I give a recommendation for John AV's Storm offering?

The DV Storm is particularly 'tolerant' when it comes to firewire capture. Where other cards demanded that the external firewire source was connected before booting up, the Storm accepts a source without quibble.

Not only that, but the Storm Video application is a model of what a capture application should be. It has full software controls for the external device as well as controls for playback of the captured file. It has displays of the tape's timecode as well as a display of the amount of captured material. It has a preview screen showing the video as it is being captured and a stereo bargraph display of the audio as it is being captured (both of which also work on playback).

It has, of course, the Canopus 'unlimited capture length' facility which transformed long-form editing projects when it appeared.

There are numerous other useful features within Storm Video but perhaps now some of you appreciate why I have been so disappointed with the capture facilities of present-day software!

Ray

February 6, 2013 - 10:09

Mark M

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Joined: Nov 17 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

And am I right in thinking that the Storm doesn't run on any operating system more modern than Windows XP?

Adobe Certified Professional Premiere Pro CS6, Premiere Pro CC

February 6, 2013 - 10:45

RayL

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Joined: Mar 31 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

You may be right - haven't tried. I avoided Vista and my Windows 7 computer doesn't have a Storm installed.

Slightly off-topic but I wanted to have XP running on the same computer as Windows 7 (to run legacy software that 7 doesn't like), so rather than dual-booting on the same C: drive I have two drives, either of which can be C: (one is an SSD). I make the selection as to which will be the boot drive in the BIOS during boot-up.

Ray

February 6, 2013 - 12:24

Mark M

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Joined: Nov 17 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

You know that you can run "old" x86 software in Windows 7 in several different ways without having to resort to a separate installation of XP?

There's the Program compatibilty troubleshooter, and there's "Windows XP mode"?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows

and if that doesn't work

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7

I had feared I'd have to have an XP partition but my fears were never realised thanks to these two tools.

Adobe Certified Professional Premiere Pro CS6, Premiere Pro CC

February 6, 2013 - 13:57

delmartin

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Joined: Oct 27 2003

Re: firewire capture problem

Gavin - thank you for your further comments and link. The firewire port on the P9X79 board is controlled by a VIA 6315 chip but I can't find any reference to it on either the Asus or VIA website.

Anyhow, I decided to give it all a go last night with all possible permutations. In the 'deck configuration' dialogue box, inside Avid, it lists my Panasonic NV-DX100 camcorder so, naturally, I had selected that as the preferred setting. Somewhere or other, I'd even read that you shouldn't use 'auto-configure' when using DV capture. BUT I decided to go boldly and, lo and behold, it worked!!! The deck is now listed as 'Generic DV device-PAL' and, with the legacy driver installed, everything works - not absolutely perfectly - but certainly good enough. I'll soldier on until the next crisis...

Derek

February 6, 2013 - 16:23

#10

Gavin Gration

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Joined: Jul 29 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

Good news - my guess is that Avid has presets for the NTSC version but not the PAL one.... at least it's working.

http://www.manchestervideo.com

February 6, 2013 - 16:26

#11

Gavin Gration

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Joined: Jul 29 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

BTW When I said chipset I meant the whole motherboard - Via drivers are integrated into Windows and to be fair these days most Intel boards get picked up by the built-in "good enough" drivers.

When you hit snags the proper drivers "for everything" can sometimes pull you out of a hole. Likewise with early BIOS releases. Any bottleneck in a system will manifest itself one way or another - the cause isn't always obvious.

http://www.manchestervideo.com

February 6, 2013 - 17:40

#12

JOHN . A.V.

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Joined: May 6 1999

Re: firewire capture problem

Mark M wrote:

And am I right in thinking that the Storm doesn't run on any operating system more modern than Windows XP?

Yes , Storm has problems with Vista. The overlay being the main problem but there are other niggles too . Vista imho is crapware . I dislike forever being asked to perform an action too many times and I like to see what I am looking for as in XP , not go through some complex routine just to find it.

February 6, 2013 - 17:53

#13

ChrisGill

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Joined: Nov 26 2010

Re: firewire capture problem

If you get this problem again just click on the 'Check Decks' tab in Avid capture where you set the deck etc. this seems to help establish the connection.

Freelance Cameraman

www.tvv.co.uk/crewhire.htm

February 9, 2013 - 11:24

#14

delmartin

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Joined: Oct 27 2003

Re: firewire capture problem

Interesting comment, Chris.

I had wondered what 'check decks' tab did because on mine it seems to do absolutely nothing! Even now I've got it working it is still very flaky, dropping the connection quite often with I/O ERROR showing up in the capture window. Not perfect but it'll do.

Thank goodness I don't capture from tape very often now! AVCHD so easy...

Derek