I have been offered a Pinnacle DV500 PCI at a very reasonable price. I know that the DV500 has been through many changes of identity over the past few years and has gained all sorts of extra letters after its name (RT, DVD, Edition, etc). Through all of these has the actual hardware of the card changed or is it all in software? If I buy what I think is an older guise of the card (from the packaging design) can I effectively move to the latest version by downloading software upgrades from the Pinnacle site or has the hardware spec of this card changed significantly? Are older cards more temperamental or do they have incompatibilty issues with video cards etc?
I have to be quick to get the card offered to me and so would appreciate any quick replies or opinions that other users have.
Thanks!
In the last week I've seen two clients with DV500s. For the first we upgraded his old DV500 system from Win98SE/Prem 5.1/DV500 v.2 to XP/Prem 6.5/DV500DVD V.4 and it worked fine.
For the second, a more recent DV500 card running on 2K/Prem 6.01 would not work properly with either V.2 or V.4. Despite extensive PCI card shuffling, Windows insisted on making the DV500 share IRQ11 with the graphics card, the sound card and the USB controller - hardly a recipe for success!
So the answer is:- if it is really cheap and you feel like taking a chance then go for it, but the DV500 can be a pig to install if the hardware conditions are not right.
Ray Liffen
There are three versions of the card in existance, but all will work with any version of the software.
Very early cards had a separate daughter card, middle-aged cards do not have this, and the recent cards have an audio socket on the backplate.
The latest "DVD" version has a modified break-out-box whic incorporates a 1394 port. This has to be connected to one of the two 1394 ports on the backplate.
My own card is a second generation card, bought with Premiere 5.1 and version 1,2 of the DVD500 drivers. I have upgraded it successfully to P6/V2 followed by P6/V3 and now P6/V4. I originally used W98SE, but now use W2k.
Later versions of the DVD500 drivers will not work with P5.1. Earlier vesions will not work with Windows XP. You can get full details of all this from the Pinnacle website.
Be aware that the card is very fussy about motherboards and some combinations of Soundcards and graphics cards.
A further important point is that the Pinnacle drivers are not standard OHCI drivers and so the 1394 ports will only work with DV devices. There is an unofficial patch for the card which converts the drivers to standard OHCI drivers. You can obtain this from the Pinnacle website, or from a site which you can locate from their web-boards.
Thank you both for your informative and speedy responses! Once again the CV Bullteing Board comes to my rescue. I think I may just close my eyes and take the leap!
Ray Liffen,
As a matter of interest, did the 2nd customer have an Asus P3BF board ? I only ask because I have the exact same symptons and configuration. The DV just will not work. I am contenplating buying the new ASUS P4PE board but if it is an ASUS board issue, then I will reconsider. What was the motherboard the DV500 did work in ?
Thanks
Bob.
The DV500 with problems was mounted on a Chaintech M/B. The computer was made by Evesham but the DV500 came from another supplier and was fitted later. From discussion with the owner it was clear that the computer had never worked properly for editing - always the most difficult situation to fault-find.
The DV500 that did work was in a Dell computer. Because it worked I did not need to find out the type of M/B.
Ray Liffen