1394b (FireWire 800)

ActiveDcam supports 1394b cameras that can operate at 800 Mbps. In order to run 1394b cameras at full capacity, you should use a 1394b (FireWire 800) PCI or PCMCIA card and 9-pin to 9-pin 1394b cable.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP1 support 800 Mbps through a built-in OHCI IEEE-1394 driver. However, with the release of Windows XP SP2 and SP3 Microsoft introduced a bug that limited the speed of 1394b devices to 100 Mbps. Microsoft later released a Hotfix 885222 that provided a partial solution to the problem:
Performance of 1394 devices may decrease after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2

Applying the Hotfix increases the speed of 1394 bus to 400 Mbps, but it still fails to provide 800 Mbps required for 1394b cameras. As a workaround to this issue, you need to "rollback" to 1394 OHCI drivers that come with Windows XP SP1. To perform a rollback, do the following steps:

1.	Make sure Microsoft Hotfix KB885222 is not installed. Go to Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, select Show Updates, and remove this update if installed.

2.	Rename sp2.cab (found in the C:\Windows\Driver Cash\i386 folder) to something like sp2_old.cab, so Windows will not find it. If you have Service Pack 3 installed, rename sp3.cab to sp3_old.cab.

3.

Unplug your 1394 camera(s). Right click on My Computer and click Properties. Select the Hardware tab and click Device Manager. Under IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers locate your 1394b card driver. It will typically be listed as OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller or Texas Instrument OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller:

4.	Right click on the device and select Properties . Choose the Driver tab and then click Update Driver.

5.	Select Install from a list or specific location and click Next . Then select Don't search, I will choose the driver to install and click Next . On the next dialog, click Have disk.

6.	Provide the path to ActiveDcam Driver folder where 1394.inf is located (typically C:\Program Files\ActiveDcam\Driver).Click OK :

7. From the list of the drivers select OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller and click Next . Ignore the digital signing warnings and messages about installing the older version of the driver.



8. Click Finish to complete the installation. To make sure the "rollback" procedure worked, go to Device Manager, right click on OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller, select Properties . Choose the Driver tab and then click Driver Details. Confirm that 1394bus.sys and ohci1394.sys files have file version 5.1.2600.1106:



9. Rename sp2x.cab back to sp2.cab. If you have Service Pack 3 installed, rename sp3x.cab back to sp3.cab. Plug in your camera(s). If DCAM-compliant 1394 camera does not appear under Imaging Devices, repeat camera driver installation according to Driver Setup section. You might need to restart the system for the changes to come into effect.

Note - you will only need to perform the rollback if you have Windows XP SP2 or SP3 installed on your system. Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP1 will support 1394b out-of-the-box. For 1394b support in Windows Vista you will need to install a special driver which can be provided upon request.

Note - Windows Vista does not natively support 1394b at 800 mbps. However, some third-party OHCI drivers compatible with ActiveDcam are available. Contact your vendor for more information.

Note - Windows supports 1394b at 800 mbps out-of-the-box. No additional actions are required to run ActiveDcam with 1394b cameras on Windows 7, both 32- and 64-bit versions.






































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