Problems with Firewire ports on powerbook?
 

Hello all,

Sure this has been covered in the past but still...want to connect Lacie firewire drive to my powerbook's FW800 and my Canon MVX25i dv cam to the FW400 to use in Final Cut Pro HD 4.5.
Read there have been some problems as they share the same bus.
What problems are there and can it be fine?

best
Sammy

Hi Sammy,
I have a nearly identical setup and have not had any problems, so this is just a guess, but I would venture to guess that potential problems that might be expected would be dropped frames due to maxxing out the thruput on the same bus. This might especially show itself as problematic if using the multi-cam function of FC Studio, but with single cam input via FCP 4.5, I wouldn't think you are going to have any such problems.

Like I said, I haven't had any problems with the setup at all, but other things that might add to it would probably be not enough RAM in your powerbook, running low on storage space on your scratch disk, or a slow drive on your LaCie external.....but I think most LaCies are 7200 RPM, and the newest portables are 5400 RPM. If adequate space remains on the disk for any requisite swap file management, you are probably good to go.

Sammy,

All current Macs share a single FW bus, even 400 and 800 share the same bus.

You might look into getting a PCA FW card for your PowerBook. Then you will have 2 discrete FW busses. They are relatively cheap, around $60. Same is true for the PowerMacs as well.

I have had issues capturing to a Lcaie firewire800 drive with a Camera connected to the 400 port. Basically, the computer didn't recognize the camera at all. I solved the problem by buying a firewire800 pci card and using it instead of the onboard 800 port.