External Preview Firewire Problem - Non Typical

Firetoad wrote on 4/12/2004, 5:23 PM
First off, my system specs are as follows:
ABIT AN7 Mobo, BIOS Rev 15
Athlon XP 2400+
640MB PC2100 Crucial RAM
80GB Seagate Barracuda on Primary, Master IDE Channel
160GB Maxtor on Primary, Slave IDE Channel
Toshiba SD-R5002 on Primary, Master IDE Channel
Apollo 56K Modem (3rd PCI Slot)
Koutech Firewire Card (2nd PCI Slot)
Gainward GeForce Ti4800SE 8X, AGP Card
Windows XP Home SP1
TT Silent Power 420W PSU
TT Silent Boost Cooler

OK, I am having a small, possibly large problem. I edit video via Sony Vegas Video. If I am rendering out a video to an external preview via firewire, very intermittently (never in the same place either) the firewire signal drops. That is, it just quits for a half second or so and then resumes. It is acting like there is a bandwidth bottleneck somewhere. If I stream a video out via a program like DVIO, no problems whatsoever. No big deal I thought, the port works, just not with Vegas. I installed the Koutech Firewire Card and I get great streams with no drops, but now I noticed that I get some minor digital snow in the output (whereas the onboard firewire picture is crystal clear). This is not being caused by any external hardware (I have done extensive testing) and the CPU is not fully loading up either. Evidently there is a conflict somewhere with the onboard firewire and Sony Vegas. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance?

EDIT:
The snow problem was fixed. I swapped out the pricey Koutech Firewire card for a trusty old $10 pricewatch.com special card that has been beaten and dragged through the mud and still works. I still would like to figure the onboard firewire conflict out though.

Comments

Firetoad wrote on 4/13/2004, 4:53 PM
OK, I have been trying to figure this problem out with little, actually no, success. A little more information. All onboard mobo resources not in use have been turned off in the BIOS with no help. I uninstalled and reinstalled my onboard firewire hardware, but this was of no help. It appeared to work, but within a couple of tests, the problem started again. I can capture from tape and print to tape via vegas using my onboard firewire without a single problem. The use of the external preview is the only app/utility that I have that causes this problem. This occurs with DV-AVI compliant files in the timeline not requiring frame recompression or with a complicated project requiring frame recompression for external preview. The problem is not evident with the add-on pci firewire card. This is just annoying more than anything and I am at a total loss now. Any help would be appreciated.
Spot|DSE wrote on 4/13/2004, 7:34 PM
It's quite possible that your on-board card isn't OHCI compliant, or has other issues. Could be that there is a thermal fan that is using the same resource. Could be a leaky component. Could be a bad solder joint in the MOBO. The snow is the most baffling, as it's not susceptible to noise like an analog image is. It should be blocky or clean, maybe color shifted blocks or clean. Usually signal corruption shows up as grey or blue blocks, but not always. Is that what you mean by "snow?"
rmack350 wrote on 4/13/2004, 10:58 PM
True, Snow sounds like something induced after conversion to analog.

My advc100 puts some noise onto the analog output sometimes, for example. It's dirty power in that case.

For the dropouts you might also make sure that the 1394 networking interface is disabled. Then you might try the card in another PCI slot.

Rob Mack
woofer wrote on 4/14/2004, 6:40 AM
regarding the bandwidth bottleneck you mentioned, i was facing the same problem and nothing helped me whatsoever, but i tried alot of things and i'll tell you what did work......
your vga card has dual display function, go to the device manager and disable the secondary display adaptor you'll find and just keep the first one
That works perfect for me, hope to works with u too
Firetoad wrote on 4/14/2004, 8:21 AM
I do have dual displays going right now, maybe I will try disabling the second one when I get home tonight. Thanks!
Firetoad wrote on 4/14/2004, 8:48 AM
I swapped my firewire card for a different one and the snow was gone. The snow that I was referring to definitely looked analogue in nature. However, switching to a different card cured that problem. Very strange.

I tried with FW networking enabled, disabled and every flavor in between.

I am going to try woofer's suggestion below and then RMA the motherboard if nothing else.

Siddho wrote on 4/14/2004, 9:35 AM
Hi,
Which version of Vegas 4.0 are you using?
I had the same problems but vegas 4.0e (and 4.0d I think) fixed it.
(I use a dual display matrox card and external firewire output without problems now.)
hope that helps.
Sid
BrianStanding wrote on 4/14/2004, 10:34 AM
Bad firewire cable?
Firetoad wrote on 4/14/2004, 11:05 AM
I am using version 4.0e. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Firetoad wrote on 4/14/2004, 11:06 AM
Tried four different cables. Didn't help. Thanks though!
Firetoad wrote on 4/14/2004, 11:08 AM
Well, after a long night of testing, I have found that the add-on firewire is beginning to corrupt output too after extensive use. I have tried full uninstall/reinstalls of everything from hardware drivers to Vegas to Win XP. I have a feeling that my board is bad. I tried turning off, moving, uninstalling, reinstalling almost every piece of hardware, external and onboard, that I could and nothing helped. I am going to RMA the board and try a new Via Chipset board(which I have had no problems with before) in place of this new ABIT nForce board. Other than great quality sound, I found no advantages to it over the Via Chipset boards that I have run in the past in regards to what I do and the hardware that I utilize. My first impression of these "hyped" nForce boards was not a good one.

I wish that my old Soyo board hadn't died. It was solid and trustworthy while running, but I can't justify buying a new one for the prices that Soyo wants when mine died in about 13 months (1 month, actually 3 weeks, out of warranty!).
johnmeyer wrote on 4/14/2004, 11:17 AM
See if any of these suggestions help:

IEEE-1394 Controller card support

It's a little out of date, but you may find something there.
TVCmike wrote on 4/14/2004, 12:24 PM
Oftentimes your PCI bus is segmented along certain slots and has other devices attached to it that eat up bandwidth. This includes the onboard hard drive controllers. My suggestion is to first try changing slots of your Firewire card to the slot closest the AGP card, then furthest. Take your 56k modem out too. Then start disconnecting hard drives or disabling one of the hard drive controllers that isn't associated with the system drive, in addition to any other PCI-connected devices which you can find in your motherboard manual. This all assumes that you've installed the latest Nvidia chipset drivers.
Firetoad wrote on 4/15/2004, 5:15 AM
Well, thanks to everyone that tried to help. I have RMA'd the board and new Gigabyte board should be here tomorrow. I tried everything from disabling every piece of hardware that wasn't needed on the motherboard to swapping cards, etc. This motherboard is just not having it ;)

I will report back when the new board is in. Thanks again!