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Steve Jobs on Lack of Firewire in MacBooks
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All fine and dandy, untill you realise that the last generation Macbooks and even iBooks had Firewire, and that powerbooks, and (with one notable exception) had TWO FW ports. Add to that they downgraded (again!!) to an inferiour FireWire chipset causing people all sorts of problem.
You guys really need to stop running around acting all apologetic about Apple's behaviour. Differentiation? Go take a look at the previous generation MBs and MBPs, and then - for the love of god - stop thinking apple's products live in a vacuum. Go take a look at the competition, or even just last generation MBs and MBPs.
No, the thing is, Apple doesn't have a pro laptop anymore. the 15" MB is a high priced, sub-spec'ed consumer notebook.
Because Steve Jobs told them so and they let Steve do their thinking for them.
You forgot to include "Apple´s only small form factor & portable". Besides, don´t think only A/V people care about FireWire, other industries with the same wish for something small but powerful enough do to.
Haha, yes his thinking was propably that it was the name that did it. That it is "pro" because Apple markets it as such by way of the monicker.
- We should follow the will of Lord Steve and trust that he knows what is best for us the consumers/professionals.
First of all I'm a pro. Second its not about pro or consumer cams. Its about interface that works best. Why do you think all the pro stuff uses FW if SDI and variants are not used? Because its better then USB! Apple owns FW! There is no reason to cut it from their line of products. Third, I own many Mac's and if I'm on location shooting with Red I want the kit to be as light as possible. Macbook is lighter and smaller. Since there is no need for transcoding at this point I don't need lots from GPU or CPU.
Anyway, many of the cams on that site are prosumer. Not professional cams. If you can't use MacBook with a prosumer cam then what kind of crap shooter are you going to connect it with...
USB to FW convertion...
Just for fun i thought id give something a try to see i it was maybe possible to use firewire through the usb ports... I have a Lacie rugged drive which has FW400, FW400 and USB. When i have the drive connected to my MBP through the FW 800 port i can plug my cameras FW400 cable into the drives FW400 port and i am able to capture footage onto FCP as if it was plugged into the computers FW port... Anyways i though well if I connect the drive to the computer through the USB port then plug my camcorder into the FW on the external drive maybe it would work. So i tried doing that and it didn't work, FCP couldn't even detect the camcorder... So i suppose this kinda proves that the USB-firewire adapter idea doesn't have much chance of working.
Just for fun i thought id give something a try to see i it was maybe possible to use firewire through the usb ports... I have a Lacie rugged drive which has FW400, FW400 and USB. When i have the drive connected to my MBP through the FW 800 port i can plug my cameras FW400 cable into the drives FW400 port and i am able to capture footage onto FCP as if it was plugged into the computers FW port... Anyways i though well if I connect the drive to the computer through the USB port then plug my camcorder into the FW on the external drive maybe it would work. So i tried doing that and it didn't work, FCP couldn't even detect the camcorder... So i suppose this kinda proves that the USB-firewire adapter idea doesn't have much chance of working.
Well, let's just say that it WAS possible to have firewire over USB, why does connecting a camcorder to harddrive prove anything? it would have to have not only the wiring going from one connector to the other, but it would also have to have a "translater" inside in order for that to work.
Anyway, even if you bought a USB plug and resoldered your FW-cable it wouldn't work.
That has nothing to do with an adapter. Your enclosure is not an adapter.
And the right way would be a gigabit ethernet/FireWire adapter, which although it might be possible, it doesn't mean it would work acceptably for audio/video. Don't be surprised if such an adapter would go for at least $100, instead of the couple bucks a native port in the computer would cost.
FCP doesn't capture with USB. Nor will Avid.
EDIT: To make it clear you need FW to capture with FCP. If you want some higher band you need capture card with SDI etc. or use something like Kona IO which gives you SDI and connects to Mac using FW. Forget USB->FW adapters and all that crap. They don't work.
Right Apple will fail because they left out firewire on a Macbook, give me a freaking break.
Right Apple will fail because they left out firewire on a Macbook, give me a freaking break.
Let's just wait until MWSF in January and see if they bring back FireWire on the MacBook because of poor sales.
It was the best selling Mac not only because Joe Bloggs bought it, but because it was an ideal, compact yet powerful solution for many pros too, where the MacBook Pro was too over priced or too big to carry.
the problem of apple are its fanboys. I despise them.
I am not disappointed because of the FW, but because of the poor quality displays
I am not disappointed because of the FW, but because of the poor quality displays
What's a fanboy? Somone who denies Apple got it wrong even when they ARE wrong? I'm a huge fan of Apple products - but I'm also the first to criticise them if I'm not happy with something.
Mac's don't crash - right? (how many kernel panics did my Mac Pro have for the first few months before Apple updated the audio drivers...).
Actually, I find this a great example on how the sum of 1+1 amounts to a hell of a lot more than 2.
And allowing the machine to be as thin as possible. Apple doesn't maker computers for the above average user anymore. They make fads for the average consumer with disposable funds.
Apparently my 5 year old ibook is for pros.
Replying to myself, but good lord: LOOK AT ALL THE CHOICE WE USED TO HAVE. What happened?
Ive and Jobs letting success get to his head. That's usually when he screws up.
It was mentioned earlier. That the MBP is really not a "pro" machine. Apple tells us it's "pro", but in reality it is consumer grade like the MB. So then why did they leave FW800 on the MBP (a consumer product)?
Isn't that why Jobs was voted out in the 80's? Thinking he was untouchable while making a lot of stupid moves?
Right and just like they brought it back on the iPod because of poor sales or brought back the floppy. A few whiners on the net won't change Apple's mind or affect their sales. For every whiner out there, there are hundreds of thousands more who will buy these machines. Good luck on waiting for them to bring it back.