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What can I do with a firewire port?

yafflehk

yafflehk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2024
7
2
My Mac mini G4 has only 2 USB ports, but it also has a firewire 400 (6pin) port that I never use for anything. Are there adaptors or cables or hubs or something that I can use to make this port useful in the modern world? Just another USB port would be nice enough.
 
FireWire port is best for external storage. It may also be used for video input. And audio applications. Some TV cable boxes have FireWire output but I think those are being phased out?
 
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joevt said:
FireWire port is best for external storage. It may also be used for video input. And audio applications. Some TV cable boxes have FireWire output but I think those are being phased out?
Click to expand...

That was due to the FCC mandating set-top box manufacturers to provide FireWire ports on their devices so that consumers could access/record/transfer TV broadcasts. As a Brit, when I read about this I was extremely envious.

Amethyst1 said:
… and you can network two machines via FireWire.
Click to expand...

Yep and with two machines connected via FireWire, you can use one of them to install macOS on the other through Target Disk Mode. You can also daisy chain devices as well.
 
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Since the point I was going to mention are covered, I will just add this. Firewire 400 to 800 adapters are available, so this will also give you access to FW800 devices. Because of those adapters, I've also used my MacPro to clone drive images via TDM to PowerPC Macs.

Finally, there do exist FW400/800 cables.
 
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I love Firewire. I currently use Firewire 800 for backing up to and old EZ Quest 2-disk raid enclosure and Firewire 400 for an old MAudio interface.

The audio I/O options for Firewire are still some of the best recording gear you can come across, and dirt cheap too. I never liked audio production over USB, still have bad vibes from the high-latency 2 channel 1.1 days. Also, on PowerPC anything you can offload from the processor is a bonus; Firewire will always have an advantage over USB there.

I know AJA made a bunch of video I/O gear for Firewire as well, never had a chance to try it out. I really wish Elgato would have chosen Firewire over USB for their turbo.264 hardware. Oh, and if you have an older camera like a D800/D4/D3x then the Firewire CF card readers are great for getting those file transfers as fast as the card can go.

I never really took advantage of Firewire back when it was contemporary, I only ever used it for Target Disk Mode back then; I really appreciate it's independence from the CPU and bandwidth advantages over USB 2 nowadays though.
 
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davisdelo said:
I love Firewire. I currently use Firewire 800 for backing up to and old EZ Quest 2-disk raid enclosure and Firewire 400 for an old MAudio interface.

The audio I/O options for Firewire are still some of the best recording gear you can come across, and dirt cheap too. I never liked audio production over USB, still have bad vibes from the high-latency 2 channel 1.1 days. Also, on PowerPC anything you can offload from the processor is a bonus; Firewire will always have an advantage over USB there.

I know AJA made a bunch of video I/O gear for Firewire as well, never had a chance to try it out. I really wish Elgato would have chosen Firewire over USB for their turbo.264 hardware. Oh, and if you have an older camera like a D800/D4/D3x then the Firewire CF card readers are great for getting those file transfers as fast as the card can go.

I never really took advantage of Firewire back when it was contemporary, I only ever used it for Target Disk Mode back then; I really appreciate it's independence from the CPU and bandwidth advantages over USB 2 nowadays though.
Click to expand...

Somewhat off-topic, but I wish FireWire DACs were cheap. They are anything but.
Even DDCs are scarce and expensive (Weiss Int202/203).

DACs? A couple of legacy and very expensive Esoterics (D70 with a FireWire would be a dream, but I never saw it with an actual FW module
installed, and anyway it costs 2k+ and shipping of 30 kg), an old Mytek 192 (saw it once for about 600, skipped), Weiss again (1500+ or so), that’s about it, perhaps.
Metric Halo interface reportedly has a decent DAC with Firewire, but rare, not cheap either and requires custom cables, since it does not have any standard connects.
 
In the mid-2000s, FireWire was great for external hard drives. You can get yourself a FireWire-to-SATA enclosure and put a good large SATA hard drive in it for external storage.
Also, in addition to importing MiniDV or Digital8 tapes, if you have any analog home movies shot on VHS or Video8, you can get a FireWire digital video converter (such as the Canopus ADVC-55 or -110, ADS Technologies' Pyro A/V Link, Dazzle's Hollywood DV Bridge or the old Pinnacle MovieBox DV) to digitize the analog video. Or if you have a MiniDV or Digital8 camcorder that supports AV-to-DV passthrough, you could use THAT as a FireWire digital video converter.

FireWire is also great for Target Disk Mode on older Macs.
686358B7-E8F4-4F8F-B9BD-431CF667F921_1_105_c.jpeg

Since my retro iMac G3 for running old games is too old to get online, even with Ethernet plugged in, and since it currently just runs Mac OS 9, to share files I'll hook up a PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X (like this one running Tiger) to the iMac booted in Target Disk Mode via FireWire and use that to transfer files. (I can transfer files between the PowerBook G4 and my M1 MacBook Air over the network, though.)

But yeah, back in the 2000s, most Macs on the market had FireWire, while only a handful of Windows PCs did (usually with desktop towers you had to get a PCI FireWire card for them). And now history is repeating itself with Thunderbolt, the protocol that replaced both FireWire and MiniDisplay on the Macs (to the point where Apple came out with a FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adapter, and the aforementioned Target Disk Mode was revised to also work with Thunderbolt). All Macs currently on the market have at least one Thunderbolt USB-C port, while only some Windows PCs do (usually they'll have at least one regular USB-C port, but it's rarely the Thunderbolt variety).
 
Amethyst1 said:
… and you can network two machines via FireWire.
Click to expand...
I have an iMac G4. Just as Macmini G4, they only have 100Tbase ethernet port. If you share files over the network, it would be quite slow. If you have another mac with faster ethernet and a firewire port, such as Mac mini mid 2011, you can setup Internet sharing over Firewire. It's much faster transfering files over network (400Mbps vs 100Mbps).
 
barracuda156 said:
Somewhat off-topic, but I wish FireWire DACs were cheap. They are anything but.
Even DDCs are scarce and expensive (Weiss Int202/203).

DACs? A couple of legacy and very expensive Esoterics (D70 with a FireWire would be a dream, but I never saw it with an actual FW module
Click to expand...
At the low end, FW DACs are still cheap. The venerable Behringer FCA202 cost me about £10 a few years ago and can still be had at not very much more these days. I know it's just the FW equivalent of the cheapie USB DACs with Cirrus chips but at least it avoids the latency issues those had back then. I think I got it to try converting LPs to digital but I can't remember how I got on with it.
 
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weckart said:
At the low end, FW DACs are still cheap. The venerable Behringer FCA202 cost me about £10 a few years ago and can still be had at not very much more these days. I know it's just the FW equivalent of the cheapie USB DACs with Cirrus chips but at least it avoids the latency issues those had back then. I think I got it to try converting LPs to digital but I can't remember how I got on with it.
Click to expand...

I think there is nothing to gain over USB DACs in the low end now. I would love to have a FireWire DAC on several PCM63 :) Probably it never existed.
 
barracuda156 said:
Somewhat off-topic, but I wish FireWire DACs were cheap. They are anything but.
Click to expand...
See below.

Metric Halo interface reportedly has a decent DAC with Firewire, but rare, not cheap either and requires custom cables, since it does not have any standard connects.
Click to expand...
This is not true. I have several and they all have bog standard FW400 connectors. And they're not that rare ;)

barracuda156 said:
I think there is nothing to gain over USB DACs in the low end now. I would love to have a FireWire DAC on several PCM63 :) Probably it never existed.
Click to expand...
There are plenty of inexpensive FireWire interfaces out there and they all have SPDIF outputs. M-Audio comes to mind, but there are others too. Nothing precludes you to use any other external DAC in that kind of combo - they all will work, independently of what kind of chips they have - PCM63, 1704, TDA1541 or UltraAnalog. :D
 
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ojfd said:
This is not true. I have several and they all have bog standard FW400 connectors. And they're not that rare ;)
Click to expand...

What they do not have is an RCA/XLR output ;)

To use it as a DAC you either need to re-terminate RCA or XLR cables with that odd jack or get a custom ones. This is inconvenient, adds a cost and makes cables problematic to resell.

(To use it only as a DDC, yeah, standard cables gonna work.)

P. S. Sure enough, many things “will work”, but then any cheap Chinese USB DAC also works, if quality is not a top requirement.
 
barracuda156 said:
What they do not have is an RCA/XLR output ;)
Click to expand...
My FW interface is the little Behringer FCA202, no XLR there, but there seems to be gobs of firewire interfaces with XLR on ebay for next to nothing. If I need lots of XLR inputs though I just use my AJA KONA 3, it's got 8 of them standard (and cost me all of $40).
 
davisdelo said:
My FW interface is the little Behringer FCA202, no XLR there, but there seems to be gobs of firewire interfaces with XLR on ebay for next to nothing. If I need lots of XLR inputs though I just use my AJA KONA 3, it's got 8 of them standard (and cost me all of $40).
Click to expand...

Possibly; I was referring to Metric Halo in particular (in fact ULN-2, which is the only one within reasonable price range, AFAIK).
 
C'mon guys, lack of Cinch (RCA) or XLR audio connectors is a lame excuse.
TRS (Jack) connectors by Neutrik aren't that bad. What do you think mastering engineers are using, especially with ULN-2?
Or do you think they're all dumb and deaf? ;)
Also, if someone wants Cinch by WBT or Cardas or whatever on his ULN-2, it's a job for about an hour. There are plenty of space on the back panel, which is made from aluminium, btw.
 
ojfd said:
C'mon guys, lack of Cinch (RCA) or XLR audio connectors is a lame excuse.
TRS (Jack) connectors by Neutrik aren't that bad. What do you think mastering engineers are using, especially with ULN-2?
Or do you think they're all dumb and deaf? ;)
Also, if someone wants Cinch by WBT or Cardas or whatever on his ULN-2, it's a job for about an hour. There are plenty of space on the back panel, which is made from aluminium, btw.
Click to expand...

Well, I never said this is the only stopper. It was a matter to consider for me, because I did not want another set of cables which were incompatible with anything else, but yes, on its own it is not something to prevent it from being usable.
 
I think FW is still a solid option for affordable home studio DAWs where folks are trying to leverage early Intel or PPC box and era softwares. My own favs for home recording are Presonus fireboxes and fire pods. I used a firebox for years and years until it finally died so I went on eBay and bought another for $30 shipped because I push all my audio through the firebox and out my Krk monitors. Sounds great :)

I’m a big fan of TDM - super handy and I always thought that FW drives ability to be daisy chained together was/is very cool and still handy if you have a bunch of enclosures.

I do a lot of thrifting as a hobby and am on the lookout for a TOTC camcorder with FW. I’d love to find one of the smaller handhelds like this and push my lo-fi goodness to one of my EI/PPC Macs.

If you’re looking for something for that FW port to do, a FW enclosure could be a nice investment for the obvious storage but also as a bootable drive or as simple as using a FW cable for TDM. DAW would be cool but would entail additional purchases that can get pricey really fast like powered studio monitors, proper speaker cables etc. If you’re into audio however, pushing your sounds through this type of setup really does sound great, so may be worth the investment. It was/is to me.
 
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