A7V333 and firewire?

[chris]

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper 1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

 

[James]

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper 1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I used to have that board the jumper setting is for the on board
firewire (1394) I had to buy a module from asus that fitted on to a
slot at the back. I would think if your using a card for firewire
disable it on board also check to see if you have a 1394 header
connector for the on board module.

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

James

 

[James]

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper 1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if the
board supports firewire/is enabled

Also just thought look in device manager under network adapters with
your firewire card removed, if the on board on is enabled it should
show there something like " 1394 network adapter".

James

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

James

 

[Paul]

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper 1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

 

[chris]

Thanks Paul and James for the responses - it's given me something to try
....

cheers
Chris

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing
something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic
NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS
update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper
1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if
the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows
MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in
Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not
upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even
though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

 

[chris]

Paul,
Many Thanks
I have tried suggestions previously posted and found the following

a) more by luck than judgment I had installed the card in PCI slot4

b) I checked the IRQ's and found that IRQ 18 to which the card is assigned
shares the IRQ with a USB controller - BUT the card is a combo firewire and
USB2 card so I guess that explains that

c) the VT6202 chip is solderd on the motherboard but no pins for the jumper
en_1394 exist there are just the stubs where these pins would go ( hence
why I couldnt find the jumper) - not sure how significant this is.

Any other ideas let me know

Thanks Again
Chris

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing
something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic
NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS
update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper
1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if
the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows
MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in
Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not
upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even
though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

 

[chris]

Paul,

I have downloaded a small app called DVAPP ( digital Video Sample
appilcation and the capture seems to work fine - not sure what this means
though in terms of the other main apps hanging e.g. Windows Movie and
Pinnacle 9)

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing
something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic
NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS
update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper
1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if
the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows
MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in
Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not
upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even
though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Paul]

Paul,
Many Thanks
I have tried suggestions previously posted and found the following

a) more by luck than judgment I had installed the card in PCI slot4

b) I checked the IRQ's and found that IRQ 18 to which the card is assigned
shares the IRQ with a USB controller - BUT the card is a combo firewire and
USB2 card so I guess that explains that

c) the VT6202 chip is solderd on the motherboard but no pins for the jumper
en_1394 exist there are just the stubs where these pins would go ( hence
why I couldnt find the jumper) - not sure how significant this is.

Any other ideas let me know

Thanks Again
Chris

I think I got the wrong chip there. The VT6202 is a USB
controller. The chip above it is a PHY/LLC from TI. In other
words, an integrated Firewire chip. When Asus labelled it as
just a PHY, I ignored it, thinking the VT6202 was the link
layer controller.

It seems the A7V333 version without the Promise RAID chip
installed, is also missing that TI chip. The TI chip could be
TSB43AB21, but the pin count doesn't match with that chip.
At least, I think I'm seeing 72 pins in the motherboard
picture, but the TI datasheet shows 128 pins on the chip.

If the TSB42AB21 is missing, then there is no reason for the
en_1394 header.

Hope that straightens out the confusion.

Paul

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing
something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic
NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS
update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper
1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if
the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows
MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in
Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not
upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even
though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

 

[jroc]

Paul,
Many Thanks
I have tried suggestions previously posted and found the following

a) more by luck than judgment I had installed the card in PCI slot4

b) I checked the IRQ's and found that IRQ 18 to which the card is assigned
shares the IRQ with a USB controller - BUT the card is a combo firewire and
USB2 card so I guess that explains that

c) the VT6202 chip is solderd on the motherboard but no pins for the jumper
en_1394 exist there are just the stubs where these pins would go ( hence
why I couldnt find the jumper) - not sure how significant this is.

Any other ideas let me know

Thanks Again
Chris

I think I got the wrong chip there. The VT6202 is a USB
controller. The chip above it is a PHY/LLC from TI. In other
words, an integrated Firewire chip. When Asus labelled it as
just a PHY, I ignored it, thinking the VT6202 was the link
layer controller.

It seems the A7V333 version without the Promise RAID chip
installed, is also missing that TI chip. The TI chip could be
TSB43AB21, but the pin count doesn't match with that chip.
At least, I think I'm seeing 72 pins in the motherboard
picture, but the TI datasheet shows 128 pins on the chip.

If the TSB42AB21 is missing, then there is no reason for the
en_1394 header.

Hope that straightens out the confusion.

Paul

Hi,
first time I've tried capturing video so apologies if I';m missing
something
basic ...

anyway, I'm trying to capture video from my DV port on a panasonic
NV-GS15
to my PC
which is Asus AMD XP A7V333 1700+ with 512 Meg of Ram and recent BIOS
update
running Windows XP SP2 .

I am having real problems trying to capture anything on to the PC but I
noticed that according to the A7V333 manual there should be a jumper
1394_en
between PCI 2 and 3 on the mobo but I couldn't find it? How doI check if
the
board supports firewire/is enabled

The Firewire card I'm using is a new from suppliers Sumvision PCI to 1394
PC is about 3 years old

I have created a disk partion with around 9 gigs of free space.
I have also updated with Windows Update to latest updates but is on SP2.

My problem is that when I run any video capture tool e.g. windows
MovieMaker
or Pinnacle Studio V9 after a couple of secs the PC virtually freezes. I
seem to get many lost frames in Pinnacle and the only way I can capture
anything at all from the camcorder is in the most basics quality in
Windows
Movie Maker.

Is there something fundamental I'm not doing or is the PC spec just not
upto
the job?
I understood that this Asus motherboard could handle firewire even
though 3
years old?
Any tests I could try ?

Any ideas gratefully recieved

Cheers
Chris

Things I would try:

1) Place your firewire card in PCI slot 4.
That will give the card its own private interrupt line.
See the IRQ table in the manual - even though the word "shared" is
used, I don't see the "C" column connected to anything except slot 4.
Check your IRQ assignments while in Windows, to see if any
sharing is going on in software (same IRQ number assigned).

2) When you capture, try to use a disk drive connected to the
Southbridge. Avoid the use of RAID if you can. There have been
motherboards where a Firewire chip and a RAID chip did not get
along, due to poorly written drivers. It seems one of the drivers
used up too much real time or something, as the throughput was
"jerky". Even though in theory, you might think a simple single
IDE connection would give inferior sustained transfer rate, sometimes
the real time characteristics are superior, and will solve your
problem. As long as the drive is healthy, and is not stuck in
PIO transfer mode, it should work. (Windows will drop the
transfer rate to a disk, if CRC errors are being detected. A
duff drive will eventually end up at ~4MB/sec PIO mode.)

3) On the Firewire end of things, if you can "see" the device on the
Firewire port, that is 9/10ths of the battle. There are a number
of combinations of Firewire card and camera that don't work well -
before shopping, it pays to Google using your camera model number,
to see if certain chips have problems with your camera.

4) In terms of desirable characteristics:

1) You want the cards handling the data to have their own IRQ
number. A separate physical interrupt line (as shown in the
motherboard manual) is necessary but not sufficient to
guarantee that. That is why I recommended Slot 4 as special.

2) BIOS: PCI Latency Timer [32] is a good setting for the max
time any PCI device can be on the bus. Boosting that number
can cause unfair bus use, and jerky operation.

3) BIOS: Delayed Transaction [enabled] improves overall PCI
bus performance (more devices can share well that way). Your
mobo apparently has that setting permanently enabled, as
the "Concurrent PCI" feature. Nothing for you to do there.

If you aren't making any progress, the thing I'd try next, is
dig up a spare disk, and do a fresh Windows install on it.
Test with vanilla (non-updated Windows), then try SP1, then
try SP2, and see if the Service Pack has something to do
with the problem. It could be that some driver is not happy
with SP2.

With respect to the onboard Firewire, check to see if a VT6202
chip is soldered to the motherboard. Look in the manual for a
picture of the chips on the motherboard and their locations.
(VT6202 is located to the left of PCI slot 2.)

If the VT6202 is missing, then you don't need to worry about
the jumper. If the VT6202 is installed, go looking for the three
pin header, again using the picture in the manual. If the chip
is not installed on the motherboard, Asus will save $0.02 by
removing the header pins for the enable/disable function, and
you'll just see the copper pads on the board, where the header
pins would normally be soldered.

HTH,
Paul

The reason you have no pins to enable or disable..is because that Fireware
Option is not available to you,,,,if you didn't order it...its "Optional" and
that's why its greyed out on the diagrams.....'greyed out' means optional...if
you did not received the 1394 Header for your MB...then that's why...I got one
with mine......All you can do is install the PCI..with the proper Drivers..and
should work...and show up in the Device Manager.
"De Oppresso Liber"
From Oppression Liberate

jroc® 7th Special Forces Ft.Bragg N.C 18/Bravo
****only thing easy in life is failure****
*******so get tough*******

 

[chris]

OK - think I got to the root of the problem which is that the windows XP
SP2 driver is not very happy with VIA card I'm using for firewire - spotted
this in google groups somewhere so I reverted to the SP1 driver and the
video capture now works much better albeit a little jerky - but at least it
doesn't hang! but this may be down to some fine tuning of the PC/HDD etc.

Thanks to all for their info and suggestions!

Cheers
Chris

 

[jroc]

Glad to hear.

OK - think I got to the root of the problem which is that the windows XP
SP2 driver is not very happy with VIA card I'm using for firewire - spotted
this in google groups somewhere so I reverted to the SP1 driver and the
video capture now works much better albeit a little jerky - but at least it
doesn't hang! but this may be down to some fine tuning of the PC/HDD etc.

Thanks to all for their info and suggestions!

Cheers
Chris

"De Oppresso Liber"
From Oppression Liberate

jroc® 7th Special Forces Ft.Bragg N.C 18/Bravo
****only thing easy in life is failure****
*******so get tough*******

 

[James]

Paul,

I have downloaded a small app called DVAPP ( digital Video Sample
appilcation and the capture seems to work fine - not sure what this means
though in terms of the other main apps hanging e.g. Windows Movie and
Pinnacle 9)

Chris

Have a look here http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

It may be that your card driver my need updating please check that it
suits your card.


James