Comments on: FireWire Finally Extinguished? Some Solutions and Work-Arounds for Apple Users

By: Giles Stogdon

Giles Stogdon — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:03:12 +0000

Looks like those of us in Windows world will also soon have this problem too. Put a new system together on an Asus P8Z77-M Pro mobo. No Firewire 400 port. Not even a header on the mobo. I tried installing a PCIE to IEEE 1394 card but it causes boot failure. I’m hoping this is just because it’s a dud card, but I need FW400 to use my MBOX2 PRO with Pro Tools….

By: Apple’s Mac Pro Discontinued in Europe, Here’s a Modular Design That Could (But Won’t) Replace It - NoFilmSchool

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:56:55 +0000

[...] to take this route, or even one like it. I say ‘unlikely’ because, well, Apple just don’t do Fi’Wi no more, for one thing. And beyond that, saying a totally air-tight flat screen PC is ‘for the pro in [...]

By: Joseph

Joseph — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:22:25 +0000

LOL
You are definitely not in the pro recording industry.

By: ken pressagh

ken pressagh — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:27:53 +0000

What about all the people who currently own firewire cameras,who capture DV via firewire. Also those of us who were waiting for the new i-mac to upgrade. I was seriously thinking of buying a new mac,but now i am not so sure. If the thunderbolt to firewire adapter had been both way the i would place my order today. I am now thinkin about buying another high speck laptop running windows7 , at least i know i can do my video editing.

By: fogmaker

fogmaker — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:50:24 +0000

lol

Your’re obviously not in the recording industry
Firewire has been on its way out for year

By: $250 Matrox DS1 is Your New (or First, At Least) Apple Thunderbolt to Multi-Peripheral Hub - NoFilmSchool

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:04:28 +0000

[...] is steadily abandoning its own FireWire standard, continuously simplifying the ports on its machines, and pushing for the growing acceptance of [...]

By: Lisa Gygax

Lisa Gygax — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:53:48 +0000

I agree. Apple has become the new Microsoft. New operating systems don’t work with what we use and contain things most of us never even try to use. The new operating systems are retro-escapades not upgrades. The changes only impress Apple. None of the systems have been anything I wanted or needed after OS 9.2 because before that, every program I ever bought worked when I “Upgraded”. OS X is fine but the changes are frustrating me and I reluctantly have switch to adobe and may go to a PC to avoid having programs and hardware go obsolete. I would switch everything (audio, video and graphics) to Adobe but they put out disks with bugs and search your computer all the time. I am tired and angry of junking things I like, I use, and are working fine but for Apple’s arrogance. I am no longer loyal to Apple and they are not longer the best.

By: Daniel Mimura

Daniel Mimura — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:28:54 +0000

Argh…it’s frustrating—I was just about start looking at another iMac (to replace my less-than-year-old one b/c I need the NVidia card b/c of CUDA instead of ATI—for RED without a Red Rocket card) when I saw this…I have thousands of dollars in hard drives on firewire. Yes, it’s becoming old…yes, thunderbolt is the future…but we’re not there yet! I haven’t bought thunderbolt drives b/c there aren’t enough options yet and they cost too much for what they do. I’d rather have many terabytes more for the same money. Yes it takes a little longer, but having both an imac and a laptop, I just transfer onto whatever I’m not actively using. Or start a transfer/backup/render/whatever when I’m going to bed.

Mac famously dropped the floppy from the iMac when it first came out, and it was unsettling to some people, but it was really time…but it’s not time yet with thunderbolt. They’ve only now put on USB 3. I get that they weren’t behind it b/c they wanted thunderbolt to take off, but realized they had to, that USB is sort of a standard now, so they put it in. Well, who does that punish? It punishes the mac faithful who’ve been on mac for years and don’t have anything on USB 3, specifically b/c we’ve had firewire and transitioning into thunderbolt. So now I have drives that’ve served as backups that are not obsolete. They’re changing too fast for their own good.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:02:54 +0000

Apple is changing OS and hardware configurations so rapidly it is getting hard to keep up. Personally, I don’t really want to spend money on new gear or OS when the old stuff still works perfectly well. The 3 to 6 month upgrade cycle that Apple has instituted will eventually disgust enough people that it will begin to hurt sales. I was a committed FCP user until the FCP X fiasco… I’m switching to Adobe CS6, and might do something I didn’t think was possible, buy a PC…

By: Shawn

Shawn — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:38:57 +0000

I do a lot of legacy/archival work on the side. So, I still need to capture HDV, DVCAM, BetaSP, 3/4″ UMatic, Hi8, and even VHS.

My Hard Drives, I’m not too concerned about those, I could easily figure out a way to transfer data. When I purchase new drives I get the multiple interface types so I will be able to connect to different machines. My concern is for my decks/players and AJA IO. I need to be able to communicate with those and capture video. I just hope the drivers and kexts continue to get developed in one form or another.

At home, I’ve got an i7 / GA-Z77X-UD5H hackintosh and my firewire 400 port on the motherboard won’t work in Mountain Lion but will work in Ubuntu. I could always go to a pci-e card like nofilmschool recommends in their tutorial (I followed the Lion tutorial when it was still up but adapted for ML…THANKS!!). If the drivers/kexts stop getting developed, I will have an issue….I guess I hope that some of my older MacPros and iMacs don’t die on me.

By: Gavinabe

Gavinabe — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:37:18 +0000

It is sad to think that Apple , forces users to follow there way of thinking with very or no room to move left or right. Asus many others manufactures did the same to all there PC Motherboards removing the fire wire port from their MB , but they still leave slots available for after market cards, Asus has realized they made a mistake by removing FW400 and have been active on some of the forums asking user if they want FW400 back on the MB, the answer from all have been yes. Apple and even many users of Mac forget that there are still many users of fire wire out there that are used on a daily bases, not just for editing but other applications, due to the stable transfer of data. And yes ,I moved to the Darkside (MS) and which I have not regretted, yes I do miss my Mac, but I have more freedom and options to hardware, software and cost , I do not have one company controlling the software or hardware I use. Apples BIG Brother approach forces us to follow their way of thinking in the end we loose our freedom and choices which effect our creativity., I am not making this a MS vs Apple, Even though Apple and many Mac users think the world revolves around them, I have news for them ,it does not , there is bigger world out there.
That is my 2cents , Ok, time to kill the blasphemer, now let the flock of sheep trample me to death or the followers stone me.

By: Varek

Varek — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 05:40:59 +0000

It seems like they’re not really marketing to creators any more. As Apple removes the options that artists have in choosing peripherals many will just move on to other platforms. Some won’t, I know but the ones that don’t want to be dictated to will. It’s sort of like telling a painter that s/he must use a certain canvas/paint/brush combination. Most would tell you to go * yourself and use the tools that are the best fit for them.

By: Dewidgit

Dewidgit — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:30:36 +0000

They seem to be turning their back on the Audio industry in a big way. FireWire is pretty much the standard for a lot of studio audio interfaces. Mac Pro and MacBook Pro have been staples in both recording studios and Mobile recording for years. A lot of very loyal engineers have stayed by Apple for years. Loyalty seems to only go one way lately.
Agreed that the forcing new technology approach has accelerated over the last few years as well as seemingly walking away from the pro arts in favor of pushing consumer dazzlement. It seems arrogant and self serving to try to force other manufacturers into obsolence. Maybe one day they will turn a corner too fast and find theirselves all alone…..

By: Walter

Walter — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:05:35 +0000

Oké. ..no FireWire anymore on Macs and the Thunderbold connector only works one direction..
…anyone an idea how to use our €30.000,- phase one digital backs tethered in the studio in the future?
Thanks again Apple ( just like the advice at the Amsterdam Apple store to use an iMac like all ‘the other photographers’ . Have you ever tried to calibrate one? Gosh, my high end Eizo screen costs more than two imacs)
Sorry bit of topic but i get so fustrated how Apple deals with the creatives that supported them for al long time.
Time to make hackintoshes ;)

By: Dave Kendricken

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:56:58 +0000

Hi over9000, thanks for the comment. NoFilmSchool attempts to give credit where credit is due, and again, I freely admit that I defer to Mac World’s expertise in the areas covered in this post. As such, I hope I have given sufficient attribution to that site’s original article.

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–Dave

By: ben

ben — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:10:34 +0000

i edit with i7 hackintosh. i have firewire 400/800 usb3.0 / 2.0 and an esata port. my macbook is for emails. the machine is for work. got a 27 inch monitor with a non reflective screen. 15€ for the mountain lion is enough money to spend to apple. they earn enough with apps:)

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:22:15 +0000

Cool, thanks Gabe. Didn’t know.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:51:03 +0000

Actually USB 2.0 is technically a bit faster than FireWire 400 (480Mbps vs 400Mbps) and USB 3.0 is a lot faster than FireWire 800 (5Gbps vs 3.2 Gbps).

USB can’t sustain data rates in a particular way required to stream video data, so that’s why FireWire had to be used for capturing from tapes. But for just transferring files, that’s not an issue.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:50:39 +0000

USB 3 isn’t as fast as 800 firewire, is it? Now I’m sure it beats the hell out of 200, but you can’t be talking about 200. 400 is faster than USB2 and I assume that 3 beats 400 but I didn’t think it was faster than 800

By: ThunderBolt

ThunderBolt — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:49:38 +0000

I gave up on Firewire earlier this year in getting a new 17″ MBPro. I opted to Promise Pegasus 12 TB and increased my performance exponentially. Wicked fast.