Firewire drive formatting

Mark Sloan · October 28th, 2004, 12:19 PM

The biggest problem is that there is no one providing a guarantee of one device's compatability with the FW protocol as compared to another. So no matter how good the Apple built-in controller is, you are going to get crap happening depending on the devices connected to it. Jeff is correct, FireWire was specified so that devices can run at different speeds (an advantage over USB) and should not be a problem... at least in theory. In the end, whether you daisy chain or use different ports, you are still using one controller so that there are more collisions and less efficiency (but again, this should still work fine for what you are doing).

You could drop $50 and get a PCI FW card... but most likely the problem is the 2MB buffer on the drive. Can you borrow another drive and see if it works better? Have you tried running both on the FW 400 ports?

Jeff Donald · October 28th, 2004, 02:11 PM

I would try different ports and configurations, as Mark suggests, as a means of determining if your drive will be usable. The small buffer certainly could be part of the problem. Have you talked to the LaCie support yet? In the past they have been very helpful and seem well versed on Mac issues. Have you looked on their site for new drivers or firmware revisions?

Heath Hays · October 28th, 2004, 08:43 PM

ive given up for now. im just going to log to an internal and move it afterwards. so silly... i now have an issue with batch capturing. im willing to bet its xl1 related, and im going to do a search on it now.

thanks guys.

Peter TK Lee · October 28th, 2004, 09:59 PM

FW speed of cameras are usually stated in the manual. AFAIK, cameras come in 100Mbps speeds which will in the end dictate the transfer speed of the FW bus anyway.

Heath, I think you should try daisy chaining the devices - G5-HD-camera.

Also, there was some mention in another forum that the rear FW ports be used rather than the front. I'm guessing that you did connect the HD to the rear but connected the camera on the front.

Try the daisy chain method and let us know :)

cheers,
Peter

Heath Hays · October 29th, 2004, 04:53 PM

ive tried the daisy chain every which way. i havent tried plugging the cam in the back in stead of the front though. ill give that a shot.

Peter TK Lee · October 29th, 2004, 07:53 PM

Heath,

Once you have tried connecting the camera to the rear ports, and if that does not change your situation, can you bypass the external HD altogether (make your internal the scratch disk) are you able to capture properly? This would be a test.

cheers,
Peter

Heath Hays · October 30th, 2004, 07:00 AM

yes things function fine without the fw drive in the loop.

Jeff Donald · October 30th, 2004, 07:08 AM

Can you borrow another FW drive to try?

Peter TK Lee · November 1st, 2004, 11:28 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Heath Hays : yes things function fine without the fw drive in the loop. -->>>

Do you have any other devices attached to the FW ports (like iSight)?

Can you think of anything that is different (changed or added) to the G5, from the time you could capture properly to the time that things started going wrong?

cheers,
Peter

October 28th, 2004, 02:11 PM	#17
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	I would try different ports and configurations, as Mark suggests, as a means of determining if your drive will be usable. The small buffer certainly could be part of the problem. Have you talked to the LaCie support yet? In the past they have been very helpful and seem well versed on Mac issues. Have you looked on their site for new drivers or firmware revisions? __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

October 28th, 2004, 08:43 PM	#18
Heath Hays Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 60	ive given up for now. im just going to log to an internal and move it afterwards. so silly... i now have an issue with batch capturing. im willing to bet its xl1 related, and im going to do a search on it now. thanks guys. __________________ Heath Hays MGD Productions

October 29th, 2004, 04:53 PM	#20
Heath Hays Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 60	ive tried the daisy chain every which way. i havent tried plugging the cam in the back in stead of the front though. ill give that a shot. __________________ Heath Hays MGD Productions

October 30th, 2004, 07:00 AM	#22
Heath Hays Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 60	yes things function fine without the fw drive in the loop. __________________ Heath Hays MGD Productions

October 30th, 2004, 07:08 AM	#23
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Can you borrow another FW drive to try? __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

October 28th, 2004, 12:19 PM	#16
Mark Sloan Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 346	The biggest problem is that there is no one providing a guarantee of one device's compatability with the FW protocol as compared to another. So no matter how good the Apple built-in controller is, you are going to get crap happening depending on the devices connected to it. Jeff is correct, FireWire was specified so that devices can run at different speeds (an advantage over USB) and should not be a problem... at least in theory. In the end, whether you daisy chain or use different ports, you are still using one controller so that there are more collisions and less efficiency (but again, this should still work fine for what you are doing). You could drop $50 and get a PCI FW card... but most likely the problem is the 2MB buffer on the drive. Can you borrow another drive and see if it works better? Have you tried running both on the FW 400 ports?

October 28th, 2004, 09:59 PM	#19
Peter TK Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 39	FW speed of cameras are usually stated in the manual. AFAIK, cameras come in 100Mbps speeds which will in the end dictate the transfer speed of the FW bus anyway. Heath, I think you should try daisy chaining the devices - G5-HD-camera. Also, there was some mention in another forum that the rear FW ports be used rather than the front. I'm guessing that you did connect the HD to the rear but connected the camera on the front. Try the daisy chain method and let us know :) cheers, Peter

October 29th, 2004, 07:53 PM	#21
Peter TK Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 39	Heath, Once you have tried connecting the camera to the rear ports, and if that does not change your situation, can you bypass the external HD altogether (make your internal the scratch disk) are you able to capture properly? This would be a test. cheers, Peter

November 1st, 2004, 11:28 PM	#24
Peter TK Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 39	<<<-- Originally posted by Heath Hays : yes things function fine without the fw drive in the loop. -->>> Do you have any other devices attached to the FW ports (like iSight)? Can you think of anything that is different (changed or added) to the G5, from the time you could capture properly to the time that things started going wrong? cheers, Peter