Firewire and Windows 7

[ADBest]

I am now busily editing my first project shot using my Panasonic HC-X920 and editing on my recently upgraded PC with CS5.

What could possibly go wrong?

My last camcorder was a Canon Legria HV40 capturing HD quality to DV tape and I needed to incorporate footage from one of my tapes into my new project.

Well. My Canon can only export via Firewire and my ‘upgraded’ PC does not have a Firewire input.

I have worked around this by importing the footage into my venerable laptop using Studio (12 - I think) and then copying the .mts files to a USB stick and thence importing them into my PC and the CS5 programme.

I also have an even older Cam, (a Sony Digital , which also can only output via Firewire. This provides access to the mountains of carefully catalogued material on Hi8 tape both from the Digital 8 machine and the even older Hi8 machine.

Although I don’t access this material very often I do need a method of importing direct to the PC via Firewire without all the hassle with the laptop.
Sounds simple but when I Google ‘Firewire cards’ I find loads of horror stories about Firewire cards not working with Windows 7.
Has anyone out there had the same or similar problem and actually installed a Firewire card which WORKS with Windows 7? If so I would be extremely grateful for the specification.

Arthur

[Roy1]

I have 2 PC's using windows 7 and both work with firewire with no problem. I don't know the specs of the cards installed but since they were installed by a mutual colleague I suggest you get in touch with Billy Ellwood. Regards Roy Alexander

[TimStannard]

Like Roy, I've had no issues with firewire and Windows 7. However a bit of research is no bad thing and mine led me to ensure I purchased a firewire card with a TI (Texas Instruments) chip and the VIA chip can cause problems with some software. To be honest, with a firewire card costing £10-£15 it's worth trying. If you get te supplier to guarantee it'll work with Windows 7, you can always get your moneyy back if it doesn't.

But I bet it will

[col lamb]

Arthur

I have two PCs with added firewire cards, both with Texas chipsets and both worked well with Windows 7.

As Tim states just make sure they have Texas chipsets.

Fitting then is easy, open ip the PC, remove one of the rear slot covers, inset the card and boot. Just make sure the PC is plugged in but switched off at the wall socket and earth yourself before inserting the card.

[Peter B]

USB is now so common that you can get cables to connect almost anything to USB.
Amazon have quite a collection of Firewire to USB cables so it should be possible to find one that will enable you to connect your camera directly to your PC's USB port.

[ADBest]

Thanks everyone.

That's Texas Intsruments and Billy Elwood. I'll try both.

Arthur

[chrisk]

Hi Arthur,

When Windows 7 is first installed, the new IEEE1394 driver is installed by default and this does not properly support firewire capture. Also included within the Windows 7 files is the Legacy driver and if this is installed your problems will probably go away. I am running Windows 7 on two desktops with cheap firewire cards, a laptop with built-in firewire and a Lenovo Netbook with a cheap ExpressCard 34 IEEE1394a adaptor. In all cases the Legacy driver had to be installed and all work perfectly.

If you want to replace the driver with the Legacy version, you may find the following useful. Go to Device Manager (via Control Panel) and part way down the list you will find IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers. Open this up and it should show 1394 Compliant Host Controller. If (Legacy) follows, then the legacy driver is already installed and you have a different problem. and need to go no further.

Otherwise double click '1394 Compliant Host Controller' when a panel will pop up headed 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller Properties. Select the 'Driver' tab and click Update Driver. Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' then select 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer' to bring up a list of available drivers. Select '1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)'

Click 'Next' and the Legacy driver will install. REBOOT to bring the Legacy driver into operation and your firewire capture should now work.

Chris

[ADBest]

Thanks Chris

Nothing is ever quite straight forward with computers. I have had a look at 'Device Manager' and there is no mention of the 'IEEE 1394 bus host controller', even after looking at all the sub-menus.

My computer is unstable at the moment and, having previously struggled for weeks to sort it myself, I intend to leave it to the professionals. When I do, I will take Tim's advice and have a Firewire card fitted.

Cheers

Arthur

[col lamb]

Arthur

You will have to have the card installed before you will see it in Device Manager.

What Chris is advising is that the default driver that Windows installs may not work correctly and an older version which is the legacy driver is the one to manually select.......just follow Chris's very precise instructions.

[ADBest]

Hi everyone

Just to complete the story. Have purchased and installed the following firewire card:-

PCI FIREWIRE 400 CARD - IEEE1394a - TEXAS INSTRUMENTS - TI SINGLE CHIPSET

This was recognised by Premiere immediately but just to be safe I followed Chrisk's advice and installed the Legacy driver. Captured and batch captured footage fine.

Thanks to all, and hope this may be useful to others faced with the same problem.

Arthur

[Dave Watterson]

Thanks for the feedback, Arthur. All too often people forget to tell everyone else the end of the story.