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New 17inch has only 1 Firewire Port.

C

Chaos123x

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Wow I was surprised today to see that the new 17inch unibody Macbook has only 1 firewire port, with all that space that could not fit one more 😕

Video Pros really need 2 firewire ports that are on a different bus each.

I guess Apple wants you to buy express card peripherals that hang out everywhere.

Plus no firewire 400 means you have to use a adapter for everything.
 
Chaos123x said:
Plus no firewire 400 means you have to use a adapter for everything.
Click to expand...

Or just use 9-pin to 4-pin/9-pin to 6-pin cables...it's not that hard and they aren't that expensive. I've been editing HD footage with my unibody MBP without any problems. FW-powered 7200RPM notebook drive into the FW800 port, then a 6-4 pin FW400 cable from the HD camera into the external drive. No more cables than usual...and no problems in FCP either.

Titanium Powerbooks had a single FW400 port. Never had a problem with that one either...
 
I still have an Oct 2006 Macbook Pro 15-inch model. I was holding out for the new 17-inch model, but the lack of multiple Firewire ports is a let down. It's pretty surprising considering my model has a Firewire 400 & 800 port, yet this new 17-inch model has only an 800 port.
 
Chaos123x said:
Wow I was surprised today to see that the new 17inch unibody Macbook has only 1 firewire port, with all that space that could not fit one more 😕

Video Pros really need 2 firewire ports that are on a different bus each.

I guess Apple wants you to buy express card peripherals that hang out everywhere.

Plus no firewire 400 means you have to use a adapter for everything.
Click to expand...

I don't think serious professionals will be cut 'n' paste video on a laptop somehow, mostly because HD content chews up loads of space! I have a 15min footage, it's taking up 80Gb (unedited). As far as Firewire goes, newer pro-consumers digital video cameras have adopted the USB standard, you'll only need the old FireWire400 interface if you have investment in miniDV and DV cams. And FW800 can handle most of that!!
 
Prosumer cameras do not use USB sorry.

Regular consumer cameras do.

The Prosumer models either still use firewire or use a Memory Card like a Express Card (Sony SXS) or PCMIA (P2 Panasonic).

My 2008 Prosumer HDV camera uses firewire, and I would like to use a firewire external hard drive to cut on, so once again I need to buy a express card firewire adapter to split the bus.


Having a split firewire Bus would make laptop editing a dream. Actually programs like Avid Media Composer require it.


True Pro high end equipment use SDI normally or old school analog component.
 
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