Express 34 Firewire 800

Is one available yet? If so where?

You shouldn't believe everything you hear!
Here's a link to the FAQ on the ExpressCard Site:
http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp#14
And here's a quote:
Speed. ExpressCard modules use serial (PCI Express and USB 2.0) data interfaces rather than the ISA (16-bit PC Card) or PCI (CardBus) parallel bus interfaces, improving bus speed in data transfer while reducing the number of signals needed in the interface (2.5 Gb/s [PCI Express] or 480 Mb/s [USB 2.0] for the ExpressCard interface vs. 132 MB/s maximum theoretical throughput for the CardBus interface.)
2.5 Gb/s will have no issues running Firewire 800. Personally, when I next buy an external drive, it'll be an eSATA.

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Employee at the Genuis Bar told me to get pci-express firewire 800 card

told me any card would work in my new.......well it WAS new till they announced upgrade, 2x3ghz quadcore xeon.
I want to add another firewire 800 bus since I have the AJAHD hooked to the existing bus.
So I went to Fry's and got the "PCI-express firewire 800/1394b controller card 3 ports".
put it into one of the empty slots, rebooted, and got nothing, just some dull chimes, that don't stop.
it fit within my macpro, but it was a lot shorter than the SATA card, that had no problems.
So I guess I need to know exactly what type of firewire 800 card to I have to get.

I installed 1 of these in an 8 core OS 10.4.11 FCp 6.0.2 QT 7.3.1 dedicated to io HD
don't recall a driver disk for mac, however I rarely if ever use the supplied driver disk for anything anymore 'cause it's almost always out of date. go to mfg site and get drivers etc.
this is the first link I saw googling siig
http://www.smalldog.com/product/42566/atfgc
by the way it worked great. needs a 1 lane slot. you'll need to check expansion slot utility. typically goes in slot above gfx card or slot4 (top) slot

Slow large file transfer speed with LaCie 1T firewire 800 drives

I am transferring two large files (201gb and 95gb) from one LaCie 1T firewire external drives to another one (using separate connections to a PCI Express firewire 800 card in my Quad G5. The transfer time is incredibly slow – over for hours for the 201gb file and over 2 hours for the 95gb file.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is so slow or what I might try to speed up the transfer rates?
Thank you.
G5 Quad 2.5 8GB DDR2 SDRAM two SATA 400GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)

You posted this in the Powerbook discussion forum. You may want to post it in the Power Mac G5 area, located at http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=108

NitroAV FireWire 800/1394b Express Card (34)

After some foot dragging by FireWire direct, today I finally received the NitroAV FireWire 800/1394b Express Card ordered almost a month ago.
First Impressions: Unimpressive at best.
According to the FireWire direct rep, it is supposed to work using the Mac OS built in drivers and require no additional driver....
Upon first insertion, my MacBook Pro promptly went into a kernel panic.
NOT a good introductory performance!
Upon restart, I did get the thing to work, "sort of".
First, it requires AC power even with a 2.5" external drive meant for bus power. Bummer, but so be it. However, less acceptable: it is VERY fussy about sequence, reminding me of evil SCSI voodoo rituals from the past century. Seems it only likes to work once- if I remove the card, it requires a reboot to recognize anything attached to it subsequently.
Functionality is intermittent. Sometimes I can mount and unmount a drive several times in a row, sometimes just once before it fails to recognize the drive and requires another reboot. One drive it took a long time to recognize but eventually it did- only to freeze up rock solid soon thereafter requiring an uncomfortable long push on the power button to shut down- nothing else worked. That drive was a known to be working Lacie, the first a known to be working WiebeTech and both are totally reliable on my G5 and previously completely reliable on the MacBook Pro using the integrated FireWire 400 port.
Unscientific results so far show a modest speed increase transferring a few large files, nothing like double the FireWire 800 speed hoped for. In any case if it ain't reliable it ain't gettin' used. Hoping for a driver solution in 10.4.7? (Wishful thinking)
No one likes a fussy device, much less one doomed to corrupting directories with that kind of behavior. I'm disappointed with Apple for omitting the FireWire 800 port on the 15 inch model and leaving us with this cheesy "solution".
I am not a big fan of dongles, or things like Express cards which are just asking for trouble by introducing intermediary third party connectivity issues exactly like these...
Oh yeh, and the little metal door on the Express Card slot tends to hang open and not snap closed- just to add insult to the whole process.

Well, after two days of use I have a bit of data regarding the NitroAV (and Apple's implementation of ExpressCard/34).
First some general observations: like bigwheel, there are a few too many rough edges to be fully pleased. After inserting the card, a menu bar icon appears next to the Airport icon. On mouse over, the drop down shows "Unknown Vendor" and "Firewire Controller" are greyed out, while the 3rd "Power off Card" is selectable but does NOT power down the card. Looks like I have to shut down the MBP, then eject the Nitro card.
I also can confirm intermittent unmounting and remounting. My latest experiment is to leave the drive mounted and then have it wake up after sleep. So far it's worked once, but will post if it continues to find my FW 800 drive over time.
One major design flaw of the ExpressCard implementation - to engage the card you push in until it clicks, while to disengage the card you merely push in a second time. But how are you supposed to ATTACH FW800 cables?? I find I have to try to hold the ExpressCard firmly so it doesn't go in while fumbling with the FW800 connector. WAY too fussy...
OK, here's some actual test data, involving transfers of 1,000 MB of files (147 Canon RAW files, approx 7 MB each).
I used three hard drives for various transfers -
1. Internal stock 100 GB - 5400 rpm (TOSHIBA MK1032GSX)
2. FW 800 / 400 500 GB - 7200 rpm (Seagate 3500841A in OWC Mercury Elite case)
3. FW 800 / 400 250 GB - La Cie 7200 rpm drive
All test are transfer of 1 GB of files from HD to HD-
Test 1: Internal to FW 400 - 68 seconds
Test 2: Internal to FW 800 - 65 seconds
Test 3: MBP built in FW 400 daisy-chained - 54 seconds
Test 4: Nitro FW 800 daisy chained - 43 seconds
Test 5: Nitro FW 800 port A to Nitro FW 800 port B - 43 seconds
Test 6: MBP built in FW 400 to Nitro FW 800 - 35 seconds
So it looks like there is some speed increase, but I was surprised that mixing the FW 400 and FW 800 ports gave the fastest transfer speeds! The Nitro card is dependent on Apple's implementation of buses, and this seems to be the winning combo. Not that intuitive that shifting one of the FW 800 devices down to FW 400 will speed things up, but that's what my simple test seemed to imply.
I didn't test read times only, but it would seem that these should speed up (and hopefully speed up my primary application of Aperture).
MBP 2.0, 2GB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Express card firewire 800

I need an extra firewire door on my MBP, I v the first 15" only with one firewire 400. Can any one advice on which model is working fine?
Tanx a lot

Well. The bottleneck can be anything. It may be your external HDD. Firewire 800 just means that the maximum rate of transfer would be 800Mbps. The MBP has the PCI express 1x speed. That can support upto 2000 Mbps. So the expresscard wouldn't be a problem.
Sridhar.
Message was edited by: Srisri

Hi. I have a Macbook Pro Model 5,5 with one 800 firewire port. I need to create two firewire 800 ports but only have an SD card slot (this is for video interface with 2 cameras). Is this possible or do I have to have an express card slot in order to do

Hi. I have a Macbook Pro Model 5,5 with one 800 firewire port. I need to create two firewire 800 ports but only have an SD card slot (this is for video interface with 2 cameras). Is this possible or do I have to have an express card slot in order to do this?

Hi Jessica,
No, the SD slot will not work, you need an ExpressCard/34 slot.
I do not know if it works with cameras, but with two or more HDs, if the first one has two FW ports, you can "daisy chain" one or more additional HDs from it.

Firewire 800 problem? cant see my Panasonic camcorder on Final Cut Express

Hi
I have a new IMAC 27 in, intel dual processor (which I love) and its running the lastest version of snow leopard. I got it for video editing (dec 09) and I'm fairly new to macs and the firewire 800.
I have a panasonic 3ccd camera nNV-GS500 and after finally figuring it out I got a new cable - a brand new firewire 800/400 cable. However nothing can be seen when I start up Final Cut pro express or imovie.
I have tried turning off mac, unplugging it, then turning on camera before turning on imac.
Looking at some of the threads it seems there are some issues for seeing camcorders with firewire 800 and that a firmware? (is this a download for hardware update) is an update is due - can anyone confirm what i should do.
thanks in advance

Cathy, welcome to the Discussions group.
Here is the list of camcorders supported by iMovie and Final Cut Express. Your camera is not in the lists but may still work.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2948
When you are using the camera are you running it from its battery power or is it plugged into its own power source (same question would apply to your external drive which may have a problem if its not using its own power supply depending upon how much power it would draw from the computer and how much power it needs to be reliable). You should be running the camera from its own power supply.
When you are having a problem, isolate the sources of potential conflict. Make sure no other devices are plugged into the computer. That means you'll be transferring your video to your internal disk. You can always copy or move it later to an external disk if that's where you want to store it permanently.
Follow the instructions in your camera manual carefully and we hope that works. If it doesn't work, then be creative. If the manual says to start the camera first in PLAY mode, start it in RECORD mode but then switch to PLAY mode to jumpstart FCE or iMovie to recognize there's a camera installed. That hint was provided in another thread on this topic and worked for that person. You can vary starting the camera before FCE or iMovie and then try starting FCE or iMovie first followed by the camera. Just a few variations and hope again one works.
All variations fail, and the vendors web site indicates it should work, then maybe your Firewire port on the computer has a problem. Look in "About This Mac" to see the status of the Firewire service with different devices plugged in. It's not a common problem but can happen.

Adding Firewire 800 PCI Express Card to G5

I wanted to add a Siig Firewire 800 3-Port PCI-express card to my G5. One of the requirements was connecting a 4 pin power y cord to an available 4 pin power connector for reliable power output. I can't locate an available 4 pin power connector in my G5. Is there one available? Where is it? Which slot is best for the installation?

#1 zapping PRAM/NVRAM has to be from a cold start, and done thru 2 reboots (don't need to go crAZy with 3-5).
#2 Open Firmware is thorough, efficient, and can be done on any type of startup.
#3 "reset-nvram" - as I mentioned above, should be first step in hardware troubleshooting or anytime after changing hardware and getting a kernel panic on first restart.
(whoops)

Firewire 800 to VGA?

Hey guys and gals. I've run into an issue. In September, I bought the 21.5" iMac (Mid 2011) which of course has Thunderbolt. I intend on getting a 21.5" Dell Display to accompany my awesome new iMac. (insane machine. renders 1080p like a beast) I've decided to get the Dell display since it has HDMI, which I will use with an Xbox 360.
This is all relevant, since I also want to purchase Blackmagic Design's Thunderbolt HDMI Capture Card, the Intensity Extreme to record gameplay. As you may know, the 21.5" iMac only has one Thunderbolt port. For the display, I'd need to use it for Mini-DV to VGA, and for the Intensity Extreme, I'd need to use it since it uses Thunderbolt.
So, is it possible to use Firewire 800 for the display? Is there a Firewire 800 to VGA adapter on the market? Or alternatively, Is there a Thunderbolt hub or any plan to make one?
Thanks guys.
To answer any questions:
1. Blackmagic doesn't make a USB or Firewire capture card, only PCI Express and USB 3.0, neither of which the iMac support.
2. I don't want to settle for a different capture card like, say, the Hauppague HD PVR. Sure the quality is nice, but Component cables are very messy and the Dell display that I'd like is HDMI. Very handy.

So, is it possible to use Firewire 800 for the display? Is there a Firewire 800 to VGA adapter on the market? Or alternatively, Is there a Thunderbolt hub or any plan to make one?
Nope this will not work, there is no such adapter. Regarding a hub I was able to find this article:
http://michael.olivero.com/post/2011/09/16/Thunderbolt-Hub-Has-Arrived!.aspx
However I don't know if it has been released yet, I'd recommend contacting Belking to inquire.
Had you gotten a 27" iMac they have two Thunderbolt ports, you could easily connect one to use a minidisplay port adapter to the Dell display and the other for another Thunderbolt device.

Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 Adaptors... any available?

Hi all,
I'm probably going to buy a 15" Mac Book Pro whenever they are released later this year and have a strong suspicion that Apple will drop the Firewire 800 port in favour of Thunderbolt. I guess this really comes as no surprise but hopefully I'm wrong and they keep it. Anyway, in the event that they do remove it I'd still like to be able to keep using my external FW800 HDD so was wondering if any cheap adaptors are on the market yet? I've looked around but can't seem to find anything. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Thanks in advance.

The adaptor from Sonnet is for an Express34 card and it does not read SXS cards for Sony cameras!
I do not find a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 on the Sonnet website. Found this, however, but it won't be released until this summer:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/belkin-details-thunderbolt-express-dock/
It seems that Belkin will have the solution for all USB and FireWire devices that you will want to connect with the new 15" MacBook Pro coming out, supposedly at the end of April:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11861907-2012-macbook-pro-redesign-on- its-way-to-apple-stores
I'm in the same boat as you, so hopefully this helps.

FireWire 800 questions

I have a few FireWire 800 questions:
Do all FireWire 800 connections use a 9-pin connector cable? Can the FireWire 800 with 9-pin connector also be used to power devices just like with a FireWire 400 port using a 6-pin connector? And lastly, what type of devices are generally used with a FireWire 800 port?

As far as I know yes.
You can get Firewire cables with changeable ends so that you can use the same cable 3 ways: 6 pin to 6 pin, 4 pin to 4 pin, and 4 pin to 6 pin. But never seen any that changes any of the above to 9 pin.
I have a Maxtor 300GB external HD that uses Firewire 800. It is just a bit faster and nowadays with the express cards even if you have the 15" MBP you still can use this option as opposed to FW400.
Hope this helps

Sonnet Firewire 800 Expresscard/34

The Sonnet firewire 800 express card doesn't work with latest mac os 10.5.2 update, I try also on another macbook pro (same hardware config.) with 10.5.0 and doesn't work either. I think problems are Mac os X 10.5.x drivers, because the system mount the card and in System profiler I can see the PCI Express line 3/4 hosting the firewire controller and PCI controller, but plugging any hardisk resoult in nothing mounted on desktop. The card is ok tested on a Windows laptop.
Does anyone know a solution?
Thanks

Hi All,
I solved the problems with Sonnet's FW800 card on my own MacBook Pro/10.5.2 system so wanted to post here for the benefit of others using 10.5.x and the Sonnet card. There are at least two potential sources of the problem:
1) From Sonnet tech support -- Try this trick and see if it helps:
Delete and empty trash for the three (3) following files and directories:
/System/Library/Extensions.mkext (a file)
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches (a directory)
/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.romextensions (a directory)
The last directory might not exist so don't worry about it if it isn't there. Restart after you do this so OS X will rebuild some of the files.
2) TCP/IP networking -- simply disable it (Off rather than DHCP or Manual) on one or both of your Firewire interfaces in System Prefs/Networking. This is what made things start working for me on my own system.
Good luck!
OS X can get confused if you add in peripheral cards that are duplicating function that exists already. The above often cures that problem.

Firewire 800 Daisy Chaining

Hello, I need to purchase an external firewire 800 hard drive for recording from Logic Express. (I was looking at the LaCie D2 hard drives and have heard of some problems with reliability).
However there is only one fw 800 port on my powerbook and this is being used by an audio interface (M-Audio Firewire 400).
Can anyone tell me if connecting both these devices to the one port on my powerbook will work reliably. Also, will an appropriate throughput be maintained while a. recording audio through the audio interface and b.simultaneously saving to the external hard disk....on the same firewire bus.
Many thanks for any suggestions!
PS I've got 1 Gig of RAM, perhaps this is not enough.

Hi
I have a similar set-up to you.I have just bought a MY Book Pro 250GB external drive for my 24" Intel for audio and samples.It seems fine so far and has USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 and 800.
Does your laptop not have both 400 and 800?
I am also running an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile from the 400 port (drive on the 800) and although both ports are actually on the same bus,it seems to be ok.I had the same concerns as you regarding this.
I guess its just a case of trying it out and if its no good putting the drive on USB 2.0 or using a digital sound out from the computer (if it has one).
And yes,you could get by with 1GB of RAM,but if your arrangements grow 2GB is always a good idea.And cheap at the moment.But not from Apple!
Cheers
Duncan
iMac 24" 2GB/ Black Macbook/ G4 MDD 1.42 Dual. Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Firewire 800 HDD

I wish to add an external drive to my iMac for time machine backup (at least 1TB) of my movies and music. My firewire 400 port is for my audio interface and the USBs are for printer, camera etc. I work with Final Cut Express and Logic Studio so my hard drive is quickly filling up! I assume the firewire 800 will be the one to choose for speed - any thought or recommendations?

There are three popular manufacturer's and models of FW 800 drives on this forum, each are high quality products and all have similar feature sets. Personally I use option #2 however option #1 seems to be the most popular one here.
1. OWC Mercury Elite series
2. Lacie Quadra D2 series
3. G-Tech G Drive Series
Regards,
Roger

Lacie firewire 800 and powerbook

I am having trouble tranferring Final Cut Express and iMovie files over to my LaCie firewire 800 250GB Extreme. I get an error -50. Any idea what is wrong? It seems to only be those files.
thanks

David, yep that's the exact drive I was looking at!
So you chain two of 'em together with FW 800?
"Uses the ExpressCard/34 flash card slot for ingesting."
I presume you mean the new SxS cards go in the ExpressCard slot? I was aware that was the case, which is cool!
Will that FW800 connection be quick enough to edit from? It is with my current DV workflow, but with HD content?

Express 34 Firewire 800

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