firewire output problems (PPT & external preview)

slambubba wrote on 4/27/2004, 10:29 AM
i'm having firewire output problems and have searched and tried everything i could think of. unfortunately, that wasn't good enough.

i noticed the problem while trying to print to tape. i rendered my project to ntsc dv avi and created a new vegas 5 project. i put the rendered avi on the timeline and did a print to tape. everything was looking good, until the camcorder periodically loses signal. this happens randomly and for only about 1/2 second. i cleaned the print head and tried different tapes, but same thing.

then i tried using video capture and doing a print to tape there. same thing happened and it was also in random spots.

i thought there might be a problem with the camera. i taped 5 minutes of video and had no problems. i used video capture to capture this and also no problems. firewire input seems to work just fine but output is having issues.

my next thought was maybe it was a bug with vegas 5. so i loaded vegas 4 and tried the PTT from there. same problems happen in vegas 4 also. i have successfully printed to tape several times on this system with vegas 4 and the same hardware, although it was probably 6 months ago. a few months ago, i formatted my hard drive and reloaded windows xp pro because it was having issues. same hardware as before but hopefully a cleaner, more stable system.

my next test was to try doing external preview. that was working just great, for a while. when the playing cursor got to the far right of the timeline and the next page of the timeline was loaded, the fireware output dropped. it played just fine until the next page had to be loaded in the timeline. so, every time the timeline had to be updated, i would temporarily lose the firewire output.

so, i thought, maybe video card causing problems? i kept decreasing hardware acceleration and doing external preview. it was as low as it would go and still problems. next i downloaded the latest nvidia drivers, uninstalled the current, and installed the latest. no luck.

finally, i decided to switch around PCI cards. i tried probably 10 different configurations and same ol' story. each time, i would uninstall the devices before shutting down and moving cards. my bios is the latest. i tried turning "PNP OS installed" off and on. didn't matter.

my system basically is: athlon xp 2000, 1gb pc2100, abit kr7a-133 mobo, nvidia ti4600 dual-dvi, maxtor 120GB & 80GB, sb audigy w/ firewire, linksys lne100tx nic, adaptec usb2/firewire combo card, sandisk imagemate 8 in 1, sony dru500ax dvd+-rw, liteon 52x cdrw, viewsonic vg191 & vg151 lcd displays, windows xp pro

i've tried using both firewire ports and both behave the same. both worked fine 6 months ago. i tried disabling my virus software. i tried disabling my second display. i keep my drives defragmented. pretty much, i am lost at this point.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 4/27/2004, 10:37 AM
1. Make sure "pass through" feature on your camcorder is disabled (i.e., the DV IN/OUT setting).

2. Disconnect any other devices (besides your camera) connected to Firewire.
Cheno wrote on 4/27/2004, 10:40 AM
Have you tried the firewire port on the Audigy card?

I'm not that familiar with the Adaptec firewire cards.. You want to make sure it's got an Oxford 911 chipset or you could be prone to problems using it with most NLE's. Someone else on the forum may have one and have some suggestions.

I'd say try the Audigy port.. see if that gives you problems too. .. if not, you've found your culprit.

Mike
slambubba wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:30 AM
the camcorder is my only firewire device. also, i've tried both the audigy & adaptec ports. i have used both of these in the past for PTT and both worked just fine.
Cheno wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:34 AM
You've got "OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV" turned on in your Video Device prefs?
You may want to check to make sure that didn't default to the Windows default....

I had the same problem awhile back but it was an IRQ issue.. just replaced the card in another slot. Looks like you've done this already...

mike
Firetoad wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:38 AM
Not that it helps, but I am having a very similar problem to yours. My external preview goes "bonkers" and stutters as soon as the timeline repositions during a long clip preview. Timline repositioning is also causing a minor pause/stutter in my on-screen preview window too, but not nearly as bad. However, if I zoom way in on the timeline, repositioning does not cause the problem for me then.

I never noticed the problem until my motherboard died and then I had to rebuild the system (although it may have been there before and I just didn't notice). I have done very extensive hardware testing on mine, but to no avail. I have tried several tweaks, etc., but nothing so far. I am still testing various fixes tweaks though.
slambubba wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:40 AM
cheno - i have tried changing that in the video device prefs and moved cards all around. i do have several IRQs that are shared. my google searches say that windows xp is supposed to handle this. also, it appears you can't manually set IRQs in windows xp.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:44 AM
slambubba,

Never heard back on the DV IN/OUT setting on your camcorder.
Firetoad wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:44 AM
I wanted to add... Try downloading DVIO and outputting to your firewire device/camera with it. DVIO is only like 32KB or something. Do a google search for it. All you do is load your AVI using the file button, hook up your camera and hit the Send to... button. This will test your firewire device very quickly.
slambubba wrote on 4/27/2004, 11:54 AM
john - i'm not at home but i'll check that when i get home. i've never seen that setting on my camera, but i might have changed it accidentally at one point. i do know that i've had both PTT and external preview working before with this camera.

firetoad - i'll do a google and try that.

thanks everyone for the advice. hopefully i'll get this figured out soon so i can get back to playing with vegas 5.
Firetoad wrote on 4/28/2004, 9:43 AM
Were you able to do anymore testing or figure anything else out?

Also, out of curiosity, what nvidia driver version are you running? I have downloaded about 5 different versions now and will try them tonight.
slambubba wrote on 4/28/2004, 12:10 PM
firetoad - after all the PCI swapping the night before, i decided to put all my cards where they originally were last night. now my drivers won't recognize the audigy sound card (which has a firewire port). also, sometimes when i reboot i get no output from my video card, even during the bios output. maybe i have a piece of hardware that is going wacky. so, it appears i have more problems now than just PPT & external preview.

i don't know if maybe my motherboard is having problems or maybe something else. i have been thinking about replacing my mobo with a newer one that has USB2, firewire, NIC, sound, etc. that will remove most of my PCI cards.

i'm heading out of town through the weekend, so i won't have any updates. let me know if you make any progress.
slambubba wrote on 4/28/2004, 2:47 PM
john - i checked and the pass through is disabled

firetoad - i tried that dvio and the problem is much worse with that than vegas.

man, am i lost with this one.
Firetoad wrote on 4/28/2004, 5:08 PM
I have a feeling that your problem might be something different than mine. DVIO or other programs run video just fine for me. I will let you know if I figure anything out though.
slambubba wrote on 5/14/2004, 8:15 AM
update after taking a few weeks break from this:

i couldn't get my sound card to work after swapping all the PCI cards. i put them all back in their original slots and it still wouldn't work. i decided to reload windows xp pro. when i loaded the soundblaster drivers, it wouldn't recognize my audigy card. also, the 1394 port on the audigy card had a yellow ! next to it in device manager. something wasn't right.

so, my thinking was my sound card was going bad. i put in a cheapo sound card and it works just fine. but, i didn't my firewire output test using my adaptec card, and the problem is still there.

print to tape works, but randomly dropped the signal for about 1/2 second. this never happens in the same area. also, external preview using the same firewire cable and camera also randomly drops the signal for a brief moment.

so, on a clean system, my problems and still there. my remaining ideas are:

1. try a different firewire cable
2. try a different camcorder

if neither of these fix the problem, then my opinion it could be the motherboard. any ideas on this? are there any utilities for testing a motherboard? what baffles me is firewire input (capture) works flawlessly.

hopefully, i can get this fixed soon because i have to use PTT to make some VHS copies in a few weeks.
ScottW wrote on 5/14/2004, 10:44 AM
This could be a chipset issue. I see that your MB uses a VIA KT266A; VIA chipsets have a known latency issue that will manifest in various ways - it wouldn't surprise me in the least if what you're seeing is something related.

Go to: http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/#PCI

And download George's PCI Latency patch. It worked wonders on one of my computers that had a VIA chipset.

--Scott
slambubba wrote on 5/14/2004, 10:31 PM
scott - you are the man! i downloaded that patch and BOTH my external preview AND print to tape works flawlessly! i owe you a beer, cocktail, whatever you want.

before i reloaded windows xp a few months ago, print to tape worked just fine. i wonder if newer 4in1 VIA drivers have this problem?