Posted by Ray S on 02/14/07 21:00

Gene wrote:
> LOL - not a tale, just the absolute facts in my case :-)
>
> Gene

Indeed, and clearly you found the conflicts to be....annoying!!


>
> "Ray S" <mail@mail.com> wrote in message
> news:2yJAh.2935$G23.2638@newsreading01.news.tds.net...
>> Gene wrote:
>>> I got a Belkin F5U503 PCI card in the mail a few days ago,
>>> and replaced an old VT6306 (VIA chip) PCI firewire card.
>>>
>>> I took a 1.5hr LP MiniDV tape & my old Sony PC100 camcorder,
>>> as well as two Sony D8 camcorders at 1.5hr LP and captured
>>> about 20 or so hours to disk with the Belkin F5U503 PCI card.
>>> I had "ZERO" freezes, hang-up, etc. It was a 100% success.
>>> With the old VIA card, it was constant crash.
>>>
>>> All of the programs like Roxio 9, Sony 7, Nero, etc. worked
>>> without incident. Zero problems. (I'm SURE some of these programs
>>> have bugs, but I did not find any during the tests.) With the VIA
>>> chip, I usually froze with all of these programs during capture to hard
>>> drive via the firewire cable.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> To make a long story short:
>>>
>>> If you are trying to get Sony camcorder data into a hard drive file
>>> on a PC with firewire (DV , iLink) and you THINK it's your software
>>> and/or
>>> a cheap iLink (DV or firewire) cable - it may NOT be that at all.
>>> It may be the logic in the firewire chip on your motherboard, or
>>> bus card. The logic in the PC VIA chip may be having a timing
>>> problem, etc. with the Sony camcorder logic chip(s).
>>>
>>> I SOLVED my capture problem by simply buying two used :
>>> Belkin F5U503 PCI cards on eBay for a whopping $0.99/USD
>>> each, plus shipping. That's two cards for < $17 total :-)
>>>
>>> BTW: I purposely chose a really cheap, and long firewire cable for the
>>> tests. I ended up using a 3' Belkin, but they ALL worked just fine.
>>> Additionally, I did not need any additional drivers, or software - my
>>> Windows XP Pro recognized the TI chip & all was well - just plug
>>> the PCI card in & re-boot.
>>>
>>> CAUTION: I would ONLY get the Belkin F5U503 PCI card, and no other
>>> card - not even another Belkin model. The Belkin F5U503 PCI card
>>> is the only one that I KNOW works, otherwise, YMMV. It is not
>>> 800, but I think the Sonys are only 100, so no big deal.
>>>
>>> LOL - hope this helps someone, and that you do not accept the "all
>>> firewire
>>> chips are the same" nonsense , as I initially did:-)
>>>
>>> Gene
>>>
>>>
>> A well stated cautionary tale.
>>
>> While it is true that 'generally' PCI firewire cards are interchangeable,
>> there will always be instances where one of the nearly infinite
>> combination of hardware, drivers, software and devices will produce the
>> most annoying conflicts.
>
>

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