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FireWire 400 a thing of the past?

D

dpmusic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 20, 2008
17
0
Minnesota
With the release of the new MacBook Pro, it shows no FW400? Crazy. What about all of us who use external harddrives, or other hardware that requires FW400?

Will the new desktops come with FW400 also? Don't get me wrong, FW800 is twice as good ;).. it would just suck to have to buy all new external hardware after purchasing a new machine.

Thoughts?

PS - I didn't find this topic when I searched, sorry if it's already on another post.
 
Wtf

800 is backwards compatible. Just buy a $20 800-400 cord. Problem solved.
 
FW800 is backwards-compatible with FW400.

The cables are slightly different, obviously, but 9-pin to 6-pin cables exist. Without too much searching, I found this one, but a cheaper one could probably be had from monoprice or something.
 
I like FireWire 400 more than USB 2.0, but the latter won. However FW400 is still used for DV devices (even HDV).

They also sell FW 800 to 400 adapters (very cheap) so you should have this in your laptop bag just in case you don't have a FW800 to FW400 cord.
 
I love how people are deeming this connection dead just because Apple is no longer utilizing it on their laptops. Is DVI dead as well? :rolleyes:
 
Nikos said:
I love how people are deeming this connection dead just because Apple is no longer utilizing it on their laptops. Is DVI dead as well? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's totally different. DVI only has one use -- for a monitor. I have 3 sound cards and 2 external hard drives that only connect via FW400. I'm still trying to figure out if it's possible to daisy chain devices without issues.
 
Nikos said:
I love how people are deeming this connection dead just because Apple is no longer utilizing it on their laptops. Is DVI dead as well? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Firewire 400 is dead in the same way that USB 1.1 is dead. It's been replaced by a better and backward compatible technology. FireWire 800 is to FireWire 400 as USB 2.0 is to USB 1.1.

USB 2.0 is not the successor to FireWire 400.
 
Nikos said:
I love how people are deeming this connection dead just because Apple is no longer utilizing it on their laptops. Is DVI dead as well? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

400 is dead because its been replaced by a newer version, why accessory makers favor 400 I dont know.

Its ANCIENT in terms of technology, 14 years!
 
NT1440 said:
400 is dead because its been replaced by a newer version, why accessory makers favor 400 I dont know.

Its ANCIENT in terms of technology, 14 years!
Click to expand...

I had no idea it was that old! How is it that USB developed so slowly, so poorly, and sooo inferior yet it dominates the market???
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
I had no idea it was that old! How is it that USB developed so slowly, so poorly, and sooo inferior yet it dominates the market???
Click to expand...

licensing. apple required i belive a 25cent charge for every firewire liscense whereas usb had a one time fee. this lead to firewire adoption to be much much more costly than usb implementation

someone correct me if im wrong as im recalling what ive read in the past

edit: your new avatar is throwing me man lol. not used to it!
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
I had no idea it was that old! How is it that USB developed so slowly, so poorly, and sooo inferior yet it dominates the market???
Click to expand...

Marketing maybe? Idk much about the history, alot of people say apple invented it, I think they really just were the first to implement it.

:confused:
 
NT1440 said:
Marketing maybe? Idk much about the history, alot of people say apple invented it, I think they really just were the first to implement it.

:confused:
Click to expand...

Nah, Apple did indeed start the FireWire project and they were the ones to create the standard, but they made it an open standard in hopes that it would catch on. Apparently... it did not.

The Wiki page on it is pretty interesting.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
Nah, Apple did indeed start the FireWire project and they were the ones to create the standard, but they made it an open standard in hopes that it would catch on. Apparently... it did not.

The Wiki page on it is pretty interesting.
Click to expand...

I agree with dukey on the avatar man.

Sad that FW isnt working out like it could have, it was clearly superior:(
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
Heh, I guess I should change it back or something, especially since this new one doesn't really look much like me anyway.
Click to expand...
Well if you like it keep it, we were just thrown off because when scrolling quick i can usually tell whos who with avatars, well get used to it quick.
 
NT1440 said:
Well if you like it keep it, we were just thrown off because when scrolling quick i can usually tell whos who with avatars, well get used to it quick.
Click to expand...

Nah, I like my old one. I'm just very indecisive so it takes me a while to pick things like avatars, or page layouts in the web design classes I'm taking.
 
I remember back when you chose your friends on whether they referred to it as "IEEE 1394" or "Firewire."
 
NT1440 said:
400 is dead because its been replaced by a newer version, why accessory makers favor 400 I dont know.
Click to expand...

I've never seen a PC with FW800, though I've seen plenty of desktops with 6-pin FW400 ports and laptops with 4-pin FW400 ports.
 
Cheap PC Laptops are going to have to start reconstructing also.

You always see those with the itsy-bitsy 4-pin FW400 stuff. Time for a bigger port! OH NO!

But really, FW400 has been in great need of retirement. FW800 is vastly superior and daisy chaining works GREAT with tons of devices.
 
Of course Firewire 800 has no advantage over 400 for HDV devices, since it has to play through the tape anyway to capture, right?

Also, is it fully compatible? Someone noted somewhere online that the video was bad after using a dv to 800 cable. Then again, it could have just been the cable.
 
NT1440 said:
400 is dead because its been replaced by a newer version, why accessory makers favor 400 I dont know.

Its ANCIENT in terms of technology, 14 years!
Click to expand...

They favour the 400 because the connector is more robust. Something that accessory makers care about is how many times a user can plug the device in before the connector on their machine or the device begins to wear down or possibly break.

If Apple had of kept the same Firewire 400 physical shape but upgraded it to 800 Speeds (like USB2.0 and USB3.0) there would be no problem at all but they didn't do that, or they were unable to do that.
 
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