im starting to think that sometimes it may have to do with the camera/deck.
historically ive ALWAYS hooked my camera/deck to and external FW hard drive and its funny, canon XL2's ALWAYS work just fine as to sony dsr 20/25/45s but i have had repeated connectivity issues with various dsr 30s and 11s.
and there are almost always issues with my little consumer sharp viewcam.
dunno why, just seems the way its worked out