Artifacts / static with FS-1 capture at DVinfo.net

Sam Houchins II · June 22nd, 2005, 07:23 PM

My first capture with the FS-1 produced sprinkled artifacts or static in the video.
I'm editing a home VHS movie for someone. The chain is as follows:

VCR, out with RCA cables
into vx2000, out with 4pin-4pin Firewire cable
into FS-1, out with 6 pin-6 pin Firewire cable
into external FW/USB2 HD enclosure with 160 GB, 7200RPM, IDE HD.

I've tried playing the tape in a different VCR, great picture.
I've captured to computer HD with Vegas, great picture.
I've captured to external HD with Vegas, great picture.
The culprit seems to be the FS-1.

Why?
Thanks.

edit: I just tried a 2nd FS-1 unit, same results...

Dinesh Patel · July 6th, 2005, 08:05 AM

Hi Sam

I'm also getting artifacts in FS-1 recording. Did you manage to solve it? I contacted the Focus support and they are of the opinion that the firestore might have a faulty cicuitry.

Many thanks
Dinesh

Sam Houchins II · July 6th, 2005, 03:42 PM

I've had no reply from anyone but you. I've also tried contacting Focus' tech support directly by phone and email to no avail.
When I get time, I'm going to try extra hard to be sure to avoid any possible interference from power cables. I've seen in their info base online that they recommend avoiding running power and firewire cables parallel within 6 inches of each other. When I tried capturing the first time, the FS-1 was in its carry case; however, I'll pay closer attention to the routing of the firewire cable, or maybe wrap the cable in aluminum foil to shield it?!?!?! I also have yet to try the 4 pin cable that I'd used in a different scenario without the FS-1, to see if it's the cable.
I had certainly hoped one of their experts would have dropped me a line that would have instantly solved the problem. It seems unlikely that both the units I have suffer from some rare bad circuitry, but their silence leaves me to only guess at the possible solutions.
Dvinfo is an awesome resource, the only thing I've ever been disappointed with is focus info's lack of communication re: my issue after they've been invited to host their own forum on this otherwise awesome site. Hardly up to the high, helpful, professional standards that have been set by other members / users / sponsors. If this is to be dead air space, perhaps it's wasted on them.
User to user, if I guess the solution, I'll be glad to let you know!!!

Dinesh Patel · July 7th, 2005, 07:55 AM

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have tried many things to resolve the problem. I also considered interference from power cable and used the best possible 4-pin to 4-pin shielded firewire cable but it didn't click. Unlike 4-4 pin firewire cables, the 6-pin firewire cables carry electricity current as well which has now made me think that the power may not be causing interference within the cable otherwise 6-pin firewire wouldn't have been so much popular in use. But I am yet to try using protective sleeves around the inputs to prevent possible short circuit betwenn the two through the chasis. The firewire input and power input on FS-1 are just an inch apart where it isn't physically possible to set them 6-inch apart from each-other.

I also painstakingly tried different video formats as advised by Focus support and also different DV input sources. One last thing I wish to try is using a different firewire hard drive enclosure. At the moment I'm using the Mapower enclosure with Oxford 911+ firewire bridge chip. I had to downgrade the firmware to make the firestore recognize the hard drive. I haven't come across any information on the net about incompatability between FS-1 and Oxford 911+ chip.

Since you have two FS-1 having the same problem, may I ask you a question? Did you use both FS-1 with the same firewire hard drive or two different firewire hard drives and if they were different firewire drives, were they of the same make or different ones. My problem started when I changed my firewire enclosure. My previous enclosure is dead, so I can't confirm whether the artifatcs I am getting now in recording is due to a possible incompability between FS-1 and the new enclosure with Oxford 911+ chip. What firewire chips do your firewire drives have?

Dinesh Patel · July 12th, 2005, 10:17 AM

Have you been able to pinpoint the source of problem in your FS-1 recorders. Please have a look at this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...523#post332523 It may possibly have answer to your misery

Sam Houchins II · July 20th, 2005, 07:01 AM

I got my external FW HD enclosure from comp USA. It was free after rebate with the purchase of the 160GB IDE HD. How can I determine the firewire chipset and compare that to a list of non-compatables for FS-1?

Dinesh Patel · July 21st, 2005, 03:49 AM

You should be able to find the chipset brand from the technical specifications of your HDD enclosure.

Focus Recommended Drives are: Maxtor One Touch Series I (not series II), ComboGB (pocket drive), Fire 800, Acom Data Firewire Drive Series or Avid Media Drive RS. I emailed Jim Oslon of Focus Enhancement about updating the list of compatible drives as those which are recommended above are either discontinued or very difficult to get hold of. He replied back saying that the Focus Support was going to test some more drives and will update the list of FS-1 compatible drives but didn't gave any indication of when that was going to happen.

It may take very long for Focus to update the list. There are many people on this forum coming up with various FS-1 problems related to HDD incompatability. It may be helpful to all FS-1 uses if a new thread is started on this forum where the users can leave information about the HDD they are using, the FS-1 compatibles and incompatible drives they have come across, any problems they might have faced and how they managed to solve it, for an example, firmware upgrade/downgrade or modifying the settings or any other way, etc

Dinesh Patel · August 6th, 2005, 07:25 AM

At last I have been able to resolve the blocky distortions that I was getting in FS-1 recording. I tried Maxtor OneTouch (first generation) 250Gb USB2/Firewire HD drive. At first, the FS-1 refused to recognise it but then it did work and now the recording is absolutely clean without any distortions whatsoever.

The Focus Support felt that the FS-1 might have some circuitry problem and advised me to sent it for repair. Since, the recorder is no more under warranty, it would have cost me dear to get it repaired. Thanks to this wonderful forum, I came across someone who had the same problem which got resolved by switching over to to Maxtor OneTouch drive.

With Mapower firewire hard drive enclosure that I have been using earlier, I had experienced most problems that have been mentioned by many users like FS-1 not recognising the drive, no disk error message, freezing up, blank recording , no audio/video, distorted recording, etc. I think the FS-1 is very choosy about the HDD but once it get cent percent compatible drive, it would work perfectly.

Sam Houchins II · August 20th, 2010, 04:14 AM

Is there any chance of a hard drive being available anywhere that will work with an FS-1?

June 22nd, 2005, 07:23 PM	#1
Sam Houchins II Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Fredericksburg, VA Posts: 282	Artifacts / static with FS-1 capture My first capture with the FS-1 produced sprinkled artifacts or static in the video. I'm editing a home VHS movie for someone. The chain is as follows: VCR, out with RCA cables into vx2000, out with 4pin-4pin Firewire cable into FS-1, out with 6 pin-6 pin Firewire cable into external FW/USB2 HD enclosure with 160 GB, 7200RPM, IDE HD. I've tried playing the tape in a different VCR, great picture. I've captured to computer HD with Vegas, great picture. I've captured to external HD with Vegas, great picture. The culprit seems to be the FS-1. Why? Thanks. edit: I just tried a 2nd FS-1 unit, same results... Last edited by Sam Houchins II; June 22nd, 2005 at 08:07 PM.

July 6th, 2005, 08:05 AM	#2
Dinesh Patel New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 11	artifacts Hi Sam I'm also getting artifacts in FS-1 recording. Did you manage to solve it? I contacted the Focus support and they are of the opinion that the firestore might have a faulty cicuitry. Many thanks Dinesh

July 12th, 2005, 10:17 AM	#5
Dinesh Patel New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 11	FS-1 artifacts Have you been able to pinpoint the source of problem in your FS-1 recorders. Please have a look at this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...523#post332523 It may possibly have answer to your misery

July 21st, 2005, 03:49 AM	#7
Dinesh Patel New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 11	FS-1 compatible hard drives You should be able to find the chipset brand from the technical specifications of your HDD enclosure. Focus Recommended Drives are: Maxtor One Touch Series I (not series II), ComboGB (pocket drive), Fire 800, Acom Data Firewire Drive Series or Avid Media Drive RS. I emailed Jim Oslon of Focus Enhancement about updating the list of compatible drives as those which are recommended above are either discontinued or very difficult to get hold of. He replied back saying that the Focus Support was going to test some more drives and will update the list of FS-1 compatible drives but didn't gave any indication of when that was going to happen. It may take very long for Focus to update the list. There are many people on this forum coming up with various FS-1 problems related to HDD incompatability. It may be helpful to all FS-1 uses if a new thread is started on this forum where the users can leave information about the HDD they are using, the FS-1 compatibles and incompatible drives they have come across, any problems they might have faced and how they managed to solve it, for an example, firmware upgrade/downgrade or modifying the settings or any other way, etc

August 6th, 2005, 07:25 AM	#8
Dinesh Patel New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 11	Maxtor OneTouch I HDD resolves the distortion At last I have been able to resolve the blocky distortions that I was getting in FS-1 recording. I tried Maxtor OneTouch (first generation) 250Gb USB2/Firewire HD drive. At first, the FS-1 refused to recognise it but then it did work and now the recording is absolutely clean without any distortions whatsoever. The Focus Support felt that the FS-1 might have some circuitry problem and advised me to sent it for repair. Since, the recorder is no more under warranty, it would have cost me dear to get it repaired. Thanks to this wonderful forum, I came across someone who had the same problem which got resolved by switching over to to Maxtor OneTouch drive. With Mapower firewire hard drive enclosure that I have been using earlier, I had experienced most problems that have been mentioned by many users like FS-1 not recognising the drive, no disk error message, freezing up, blank recording , no audio/video, distorted recording, etc. I think the FS-1 is very choosy about the HDD but once it get cent percent compatible drive, it would work perfectly.

July 6th, 2005, 03:42 PM	#3
Sam Houchins II Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Fredericksburg, VA Posts: 282	I've had no reply from anyone but you. I've also tried contacting Focus' tech support directly by phone and email to no avail. When I get time, I'm going to try extra hard to be sure to avoid any possible interference from power cables. I've seen in their info base online that they recommend avoiding running power and firewire cables parallel within 6 inches of each other. When I tried capturing the first time, the FS-1 was in its carry case; however, I'll pay closer attention to the routing of the firewire cable, or maybe wrap the cable in aluminum foil to shield it?!?!?! I also have yet to try the 4 pin cable that I'd used in a different scenario without the FS-1, to see if it's the cable. I had certainly hoped one of their experts would have dropped me a line that would have instantly solved the problem. It seems unlikely that both the units I have suffer from some rare bad circuitry, but their silence leaves me to only guess at the possible solutions. Dvinfo is an awesome resource, the only thing I've ever been disappointed with is focus info's lack of communication re: my issue after they've been invited to host their own forum on this otherwise awesome site. Hardly up to the high, helpful, professional standards that have been set by other members / users / sponsors. If this is to be dead air space, perhaps it's wasted on them. User to user, if I guess the solution, I'll be glad to let you know!!!

July 7th, 2005, 07:55 AM	#4
Dinesh Patel New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 11	Many thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have tried many things to resolve the problem. I also considered interference from power cable and used the best possible 4-pin to 4-pin shielded firewire cable but it didn't click. Unlike 4-4 pin firewire cables, the 6-pin firewire cables carry electricity current as well which has now made me think that the power may not be causing interference within the cable otherwise 6-pin firewire wouldn't have been so much popular in use. But I am yet to try using protective sleeves around the inputs to prevent possible short circuit betwenn the two through the chasis. The firewire input and power input on FS-1 are just an inch apart where it isn't physically possible to set them 6-inch apart from each-other. I also painstakingly tried different video formats as advised by Focus support and also different DV input sources. One last thing I wish to try is using a different firewire hard drive enclosure. At the moment I'm using the Mapower enclosure with Oxford 911+ firewire bridge chip. I had to downgrade the firmware to make the firestore recognize the hard drive. I haven't come across any information on the net about incompatability between FS-1 and Oxford 911+ chip. Since you have two FS-1 having the same problem, may I ask you a question? Did you use both FS-1 with the same firewire hard drive or two different firewire hard drives and if they were different firewire drives, were they of the same make or different ones. My problem started when I changed my firewire enclosure. My previous enclosure is dead, so I can't confirm whether the artifatcs I am getting now in recording is due to a possible incompability between FS-1 and the new enclosure with Oxford 911+ chip. What firewire chips do your firewire drives have?

July 20th, 2005, 07:01 AM	#6
Sam Houchins II Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Fredericksburg, VA Posts: 282	I got my external FW HD enclosure from comp USA. It was free after rebate with the purchase of the 160GB IDE HD. How can I determine the firewire chipset and compare that to a list of non-compatables for FS-1?

August 20th, 2010, 04:14 AM	#9
Sam Houchins II Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Fredericksburg, VA Posts: 282	any modern HD's compatible? Is there any chance of a hard drive being available anywhere that will work with an FS-1?