Problem capturing to IDE RAID Array

djmd wrote on 10/19/2002, 8:43 AM

OK, I wanna see if anyone else has run into this problem. First let me tell you what I'm running...

Athlon XP 2200+, Abit AT7-RAID (with Highpoint 374 RAID controller), and 2 WD 120 gig drives (8 meg buffer)

I first set the array up as "mirror" (mode 1) and tried to capture some DV from my Canon ZR-20. I immediately noticed that frames were dropping like mad (probably 10-15% of them) and after about, say, 10 seconds of this, VidCap craps out with a fatal exception. At this time I don't have the "dump" but will post it if anyone thinks that will help.

I figured that running in that mode (mirroring) was PERHAPS slowing down the array enough to where it couldn't keep up with the DV capture. So I changed the array over to mode 0 (striping) which of course is a lot faster, but still had the same problem.

Alas, I deleted that array and just let the drives sit on the controller as regular individual IDE drives. I quick formatted one of them, started capturing video to it, and had no problems whatsoever. So the drives are OK, the controller is OK, but as a RAID array, vidcap is having a major issue. I have the latest firmware in my RAID controller, BTW.

My old system has a highpoint raid controller in it as well, and I have never had problems capturing. This is not a show stopper, but I'm really curious as to why this is not working, so if anybody has any ideas, or needs more information, please post! Thank you very much!

Comments

jboy wrote on 10/19/2002, 11:59 AM

Does your raid array in 0 mode capture non-video files as it should ? I presume you've checked the obvious, jumpers, 80 wire IDE cables, etc. Also, I'd make sure BOTH drives are OK, not just the one..

djmd wrote on 10/19/2002, 2:49 PM

Thanks for the reply... Yes, actually while I was typing that message I thought I better check the other drive, and it works fine too. And I am able to copy captured video to the array without any problem, I mean, I haven't clocked the speed but it seems as if there's nothing wrong.

AlexB wrote on 10/19/2002, 4:42 PM

Did you optimize block size for video capture? You should use block size of 64 k, as recommended in my Promise manual. I have no problems capturing to a stripe set using an onboard promise controller on a MSI mobo. Anyway, if you have less trouble using the highpoint as a simple controller, leave it that way, it's safer than a stripe set. And the speed should be high enough if you don't need more than one DV stream.
Alex

djmd wrote on 10/19/2002, 5:22 PM

oh I agree totally there, but I guess I was unclear in my original post... sorry about that. My reason for buying the two drives was not to stripe, but to mirror. That's the way it was set up when I originally discovered the problem.

yeah, the block size is 64k. Thanks for your input!