Trouble capturing with external drive at DVinfo.net

Ray Coy · March 5th, 2007, 10:37 AM

i am using a macbook pro with external gtech drive connected via firewire 800. if i plug my capture camera (cheap canon) into the firewire slot of either the drive or the mac it can be controlled but displays no video and captures nothing.

if i plug it in without the drive connected it captures fine.

H E L P !

Ray Coy · March 6th, 2007, 04:03 PM

nobody has any experience of using an external drive with a laptop running final cut pro?

any comments appreciated

Liam Hall · March 6th, 2007, 05:48 PM

Ray,
I use external Lacie drives all the time with no problems (except for the fact that they're very fragile and have a habit of dieing on me).

Is your camera on the approved list of devices on the apple site?

You could try capturing short sections to your internal drive and then copying them across to the external drive, then reimporting them into your project. It's a bore but if you can't borrow a DV player or another camera it is at least an option.

Cheers,

Liam.

Rickey Brillantes · March 6th, 2007, 06:09 PM

What is the format of your external drive?

Is it Mac OS extended (Journaled)? If not, try formatting it that way.
I use to have that kind of trouble, and after reformatting it, no more issues.

Rickey

Nate Schmidt · March 6th, 2007, 07:11 PM

I was always under the impression that Journaling should be off for media drives and only enabled on system drives.

Boyd Ostroff · March 6th, 2007, 08:04 PM

IMO you should definitely turn journaling OFF on media drives. I've found that it doesn't have an effect on capturing video, but it creates a problem with dropped frames when printing to tape. FCP is very finicky about that for some reason.

Nevertheless, I don't think the drive's format would cause problems like you're seeing. There seem to be a lot of posts about firewire problems with FCP 5.1 and the Intel machines for some reason. Also realize that in spite of the different ports on your machine, all Macs only have one internal firewire bus and it supports both FW400 and FW800.

Also, there are known issues with Canon camcorders and Mac firewire. Not sure whether these are continue with the Intel machines and FCP 5.1, but in the past this was discussed frequently. The don't play nice with multiple firewire devices IIRC...

Larry Vaughn · March 21st, 2007, 10:01 AM

So there is some disagreement as to journaling. Anyone else have an opinion?

Thanks in advance.

Boyd, you said all macs support firewire 800? I have an I-mac 20" with Core2Duo and osx 10.4.9.

How do I get Firewire 800? Buy an enclosure that supports it or is this a software configuration?

Boyd Ostroff · March 21st, 2007, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Vaughn

Boyd, you said all macs support firewire 800?

No, that's not what I meant although it might be interpreted that way, sorry for the confusion. What I said is that all macs have only one internal firewire bus and it supports all of the machine's firewire ports. So if your Mac has both firewire 800 and firewire 400, then they are actually both connected to the same bus internally. If your machine doesn't have an FW800 port, and if it can't take some kind of expansion card (like a PC card on the PowerBook or PCI card on the PowerMac) then I don't think there's any way to add firewire 800 capability.

IMO this isn't much of a big deal however. Both my dual G5 and PowerBook have firewire 800 ports but I've never used them during the 3 years I've had those machines. Firewire 400 has always worked fine for capture and editing on external drives.

Kevin Randolph · March 21st, 2007, 05:06 PM

Ray, is your "cheap canon" one of the ZR series? If it is it will not work with any external firewire devices plugged into your computer at the same time. I recently bought one with hopes of using it as a deck to keep the wear and tear off of my XL2, and was sorely disappointed. I called both Canon and Apple about the issue. Apple said to run some test on the computer to make sure everything was in working order, I did, it was. Canon said that all ZR series camera will not work with external FW devices plugged into the same computer. On my ZR800, the bad news was on page 46.

Don't know if this will help you out or not, but it may be an explanation.

Boyd Ostroff · March 21st, 2007, 05:38 PM

If you have a PowerBook or a MacBook pro with a peripheral slot, then get a firewire card for it. I haven't checked out the new machines yet, but surely someone is making a firewire card by now? On my Powerbook I got a FW400 card for less than $30 at Best Buy. This gives you two independent firewire busses and should solve the problem with the Canon camera. It also speeds up big file copies between two firewire drives.

March 5th, 2007, 10:37 AM	#1
Ray Coy Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: hull england Posts: 50	Trouble capturing with external drive i am using a macbook pro with external gtech drive connected via firewire 800. if i plug my capture camera (cheap canon) into the firewire slot of either the drive or the mac it can be controlled but displays no video and captures nothing. if i plug it in without the drive connected it captures fine. H E L P !

March 6th, 2007, 07:11 PM	#5
Nate Schmidt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Welland ON Posts: 515	I was always under the impression that Journaling should be off for media drives and only enabled on system drives. __________________ "We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

March 21st, 2007, 10:01 AM	#7
Larry Vaughn Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Gainesville, FL Posts: 201	journaling vs non journaling So there is some disagreement as to journaling. Anyone else have an opinion? Thanks in advance. Boyd, you said all macs support firewire 800? I have an I-mac 20" with Core2Duo and osx 10.4.9. How do I get Firewire 800? Buy an enclosure that supports it or is this a software configuration? Last edited by Larry Vaughn; March 21st, 2007 at 10:04 AM. Reason: add info

March 21st, 2007, 05:06 PM	#9
Kevin Randolph Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 423	Ray, is your "cheap canon" one of the ZR series? If it is it will not work with any external firewire devices plugged into your computer at the same time. I recently bought one with hopes of using it as a deck to keep the wear and tear off of my XL2, and was sorely disappointed. I called both Canon and Apple about the issue. Apple said to run some test on the computer to make sure everything was in working order, I did, it was. Canon said that all ZR series camera will not work with external FW devices plugged into the same computer. On my ZR800, the bad news was on page 46. Don't know if this will help you out or not, but it may be an explanation. __________________ "... the drama is on your doorstep..." - John Grierson www.grvideo.net

March 6th, 2007, 04:03 PM	#2
Ray Coy Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: hull england Posts: 50	nobody has any experience of using an external drive with a laptop running final cut pro? any comments appreciated

March 6th, 2007, 05:48 PM	#3
Liam Hall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 969	Ray, I use external Lacie drives all the time with no problems (except for the fact that they're very fragile and have a habit of dieing on me). Is your camera on the approved list of devices on the apple site? You could try capturing short sections to your internal drive and then copying them across to the external drive, then reimporting them into your project. It's a bore but if you can't borrow a DV player or another camera it is at least an option. Cheers, Liam.

March 6th, 2007, 06:09 PM	#4
Rickey Brillantes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Ontario, California Posts: 309	What is the format of your external drive? Is it Mac OS extended (Journaled)? If not, try formatting it that way. I use to have that kind of trouble, and after reformatting it, no more issues. Rickey

March 6th, 2007, 08:04 PM	#6
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	IMO you should definitely turn journaling OFF on media drives. I've found that it doesn't have an effect on capturing video, but it creates a problem with dropped frames when printing to tape. FCP is very finicky about that for some reason. Nevertheless, I don't think the drive's format would cause problems like you're seeing. There seem to be a lot of posts about firewire problems with FCP 5.1 and the Intel machines for some reason. Also realize that in spite of the different ports on your machine, all Macs only have one internal firewire bus and it supports both FW400 and FW800. Also, there are known issues with Canon camcorders and Mac firewire. Not sure whether these are continue with the Intel machines and FCP 5.1, but in the past this was discussed frequently. The don't play nice with multiple firewire devices IIRC...

March 21st, 2007, 05:38 PM	#10
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	If you have a PowerBook or a MacBook pro with a peripheral slot, then get a firewire card for it. I haven't checked out the new machines yet, but surely someone is making a firewire card by now? On my Powerbook I got a FW400 card for less than $30 at Best Buy. This gives you two independent firewire busses and should solve the problem with the Canon camera. It also speeds up big file copies between two firewire drives.