Firewire Cables dilemma 4-4 or 4-beyond?
 

Hi. I have been capturing my xh a1 footage for the past few years with a firewire 4pin to 6pin cable into my firewire port on my desktop. I am thinking of degrading to a 4pin to 4pin cable and capturing to my laptop which has a 4pin input. Will I suffer any loss of quality? Is 4pin firewire cable good enough to handle the data transfer of my xh a1 and other hd camcorders? I am thinking of dropping the expensive tapes and capturing live to my laptop via Onlocation but with a 4pin firewire cable. Am worried about quality and the reliability.

Re: Firewire Cables dilemma 4-4 or 4-beyond?
 

There will be absolutely no difference in image quality.

Re: Firewire Cables dilemma 4-4 or 4-beyond?
 

Even if there was a difference in quality, you can only use the 4-pin out of the camera, so you would have been hooped from the very beginning. But as Chris said, there is no difference.

Re: Firewire Cables dilemma 4-4 or 4-beyond?
 

To be specific, the four pin Firewire cable does not carry power -- the six pin does. So the only possible disadvantage is a bus powered device such as a hard drive will not find the power it needs.

FW400
4 - 4 is data only
4 - 6 is data only
6 - 6 is data and power

FW800
always uses the 9 pin connection though you can degrade the speed (but not the 'quality') of FW800 by using cables that combine four or six pin ends.

Cheers,
GB

Re: Firewire Cables dilemma 4-4 or 4-beyond?
 

Thanks guys! I thought there would be no quality difference. I assume same thing goes for the 9 pin since the camera only outputs the 4pin.

BTW, any of you record tapeless to laptop via Onlocation? I am seriously considering it for wedding ceremony and reception since I can save up to $100 on tapes per wedding.