Firewire problems

Today, I had this strange experience. I'm teaching 24 journalist-students in the use of FCP. They all have a MacBook Pro 15", 2gb ram, OS10.4.7 and FCP 5.1.1 and a LaCie 250gb HD with triple interface.
And today they schould log and capture with the Sony HVR-A1, connected with a firewire800-firewire400 (4pin) to the harddisk and then connected to the MacBook with a firewire400. But then a student had problems to get a communication with the camera and it seemed that when the camera was connected it slowed everything down, spinning ball and so on. I then tried to use other cables, a second camera, but same @#$%&. The same on another computer with the same HD and cameras, no luck. Then upgrade to 10.4.8 and FCP 5.1.2, still no luck. And the sad thing, now both the cameras are dead on the firewire-connection....
I have a thought, is it the firewire800-firewire400 (4pin) cable doing all the trouble ?? Any suggestions ???

Svenne Friis
Postproducer, Editor, Teacher
Denmark

Try this and see if it doesnt help

[docs.info.apple.com]

Michael Horton
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Tell all your students this: Daisy-chaining a storage device (external drive) with a capture/playback device (camera) is a bad, unprofessional approach. About half the people who try this have problems. The other half will try to convince you this works, but a 50 per cent failure rate for me is not a professional way.

Were the drives properly formatted? Did you swap out the cable? What happens when you take the external drive out of the equation?


www.derekmok.com

Yes. FireWire cables become very busy puppies when you daisy chain drives and camcorders.

Sometimes, too busy for live video, either playback or capture.

Koz

I am experiencing a very similar problem running a LaCie 300 GB External and a Canon ZR 60. With the camera switched off, the LaCie works fine. With the camera on, everything functions very very very very slowly. I have now read a few times on the web, including here, that to Daisy Chain the two devices is a recipe for aggravation. Is there a work around for this? In other words, is there a way to have the LaCie function as it should AND have my Canon ZR60 hooked up so I can capture and watch my editing handywork on my large television screen?

Might try creating a preset for FW BASIC rather than NTSC DV. That might help. Otherwise you need another FW card. If you have an iMac, then you're out of luck.

Michael Horton
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Did I just read the camera is connected to the DISK, then DC'd to the MacBook Pro?? That's trouble. I own this camera, I own these disks, I would never do this even on my tower.

[is there a way to have the LaCie function as it should AND have my Canon ZR60 hooked up so I can capture and watch my editing handywork on my large television screen?]

Suggest get a FireWire 800 PCMCIA Card for the CardBus slot (about US$80.00) to create a separate connection just for the disk. Other brands as well, shop around. If it doesn't work, you can always return it. The most you'll be out is a restocking fee.

- Loren
Today's FCP 4 / 5 keytip:
Do a virtual Audio Mixdown to lighten playback load with Command-Option-R!

The FCP KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com