Ext. Firewire drive Vegas compatibility update

johnmeyer wrote on 2/29/2004, 8:08 AM
I previously posted about how some external Firewire (1394) drives work with Vegas, but others do not. Here is a link to that post:

External Firewire Test, Conclusion-Some work, some don't

In that test, I wrote that my Western Digital WD800 drive would not let me view to an external monitor, nor would it let me print to tape from the timeline.

I then wrote to Western Digital about this problem. Somewhat to my surprise, they immediately wrote back and told me that the drive was defective, and issued an RMA for me to return it. I was somewhat surprised, because other than the problem with Vegas, it appeared to function normally. However, I figured it would be worth the $7 is was going to cost me to ship it, so I went ahead and returned it.

I now have the refurbished drive (identical model to the one I returned), and guess what?

IT WORKS!

This is just one anecdote and just one instance, but in my case it appears that the problem was caused by either a design flaw that has since been corrected by an ECO, or by a manufacturing defect of some sort. If you are experiencing the problems reported in my initial post, and you have a WD drive, you might want to contact them.

P.S. Here are links to other posts where similar problems were discussed:

Post 1

Post 2

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/29/2004, 9:49 AM
Thanks for the update, John. I'd never have thought that a drive would store, but not stream to an external monitor, etc....
rmack350 wrote on 2/29/2004, 11:23 AM
Most likely they're using a variety of bridge boards. Seems to me that an Oxford911 chip isn't the only factor since different bridge board manufacturers are building the and programming boards around this chip. The Oxford911 can wok flawlessly. But it doesn't always.

I bet WD swapped the board out.

Rob Mack
StormMarc wrote on 2/29/2004, 12:13 PM
John,

How is your chain set-up? Should the camera be on the end?

Thanks,

Marc
vicmilt wrote on 2/29/2004, 12:17 PM
Ideally, the camera shoud be on a separate input to the computer - you might want to invest the $35 or so to buy a Firewire board, if you don't already have two inputs to your computer. this also for the Canopus ADVC-100.
johnmeyer wrote on 2/29/2004, 7:04 PM
How is your chain set-up? Should the camera be on the end?

StormMarc,

I put the camcorder on a separate DV input (my board has two). I chain the drives. I have a second DV pair of inputs on my video card (Radeon 8500 DV) but I disabled it because I had all sorts of compatibility problems (not related to Vegas).
StormMarc wrote on 3/1/2004, 11:11 AM
Thanks John.