MacBook Firewire limitation - Daisy chaining Firewire

Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster. I purchased a MacBook, Canon ZR800 and a LaCie drive in hopes of playing around with some basic video editing. I didn't take into consideration the single firewire port on the MacBook. Currently I have the Canon ZR800 hooked up to one of the FireWire 400 ports on the LaCie drive and the LaCie drive connected to the Mac via the Firewire 800 port on the drive. This setup is not working as the Mac doesn't see the camera at all.
I realize that silly to route the video through the LaCie only to send it back but I'm not clear on what my options are.
I'd prefer not to capture directly to the system drive. I've read that the firewire hubs are junk and I know that USB doesn't have the bandwidth. Is my only option capturing directly to the Mac then moving it to the LaCie for editing?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am going to commit a heresy and tell you to connect your LaCie to your MacBook with the USB 2.0 socket!
It is quite possible to capture and edit using USB 2.0 with no problems.
Give it a try and see how well it works for you - you will probably be pleasantly surprised. Obviously you will plug your camera directly into the Mac.
I wouldn't advise anyone to go out and buy a USB 2.0 HD, but if you already have one there is no harm in testing it out.
Some people, depending on their equipment and editing circumstances, do have problems. If you have any, you can always return to FW.
Ian.

Similar Messages

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    Can 2 daisy-chained firewire-800 drives be connected to 1 Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adapter?

    Nightwatch (NL) wrote:
    Thanks Steve!
    One more question: Stayed throughput speeds more or less the same as original Firewire (since all my movies are on external disks) or has it become significantly slower?
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  • Flickering video when daisy chaining firewire devices - HELP!

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    When you say 'flickering' what do you mean?
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    I have exactly the same problem !
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    Using Multiple FireWire Devices at the Same Time
    Power Macintosh computers can transfer perfect digital video (DV) on FireWire when no other devices are using the FireWire bus. If you have problems transferring digital video, make certain that no other FireWire devices are being used at the same time. Turning on a DV camera that is already connected may cause a FireWire hard disk to stop working. If this happens, turn off the camera and verify that the hard disk has recovered. Then unplug the FireWire cable from the camera, turn the camera on, and reconnect the FireWire cable to the camera. Check with the hard disk vendor for a possible firmware update to prevent this problem.
    here:
    http://www.2ndwave.com/firewire.asp
    At the moment I can't upset what I'm doing to test it but I intend to do that as soon as I finish copying transferring...
    I have the following device attached to different firewire ports:
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    I thought I would give u a head start

  • Daisy Chaining Firewire HDs

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    To address an earlier comment you made. You can not hook up a drive to your Mac with Firewire then daisy chain other drives off that drive's USB ports. There isn't a Firewire to USB bridge in there. You are either using Firewire or you are using USB. Which ever one you are NOT using is a dead bus on the drive.
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    If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
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  • Does daisy chained firewires make performance drop?

    Hi all, just looking for a quick answer by someone who knows what they're talking about. Will daisy chaining firewire 400 drives together on a Mac or PC create a performance drop? I'm editing a project using 2 daisy chained drives at the moment with media on both. My co-worker claims it will slow down the computer's access to the media, I say it won't. Neither of us has any hard evidence and a quick google search doesn't turn up anything substantial either. What I'm looking for is hard engineering evidence. Thanks!

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  • Only One FireWire Jack on MacBook Pro - will daisy chaining work?

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  • Connecting 2 Firewire Drives daisy chained on a MacBook Pro Retina:  1rst FW8-Dr is ejected by OSX 10.8.2 as soon as I power up the 2nd FW-800 Dr.

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    Hi Mate,
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    Agree that Apple expansion options are expansive - However, at least they're working on getting the software reduced, Logic X being an example of that.

  • FireWire 800 Daisy Chain Problem

    Hello everyone, I have three firewire drives. Two 2TB 3.5" drives and one 2.5" 1TB drive. All three are connected to my MacBook Pro 13" via the one firewire port in a daisy chain. I usually always have the 3.5" disk connected. When I add the portable drive to the daisy chain, it crashes the desktop drive, and I get the "do not disconnect drives without ejecting" message. Is this normal? I am thinking of purchasing the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter, only to avoid the crashes of the other drives in the Daisy chain.
    My Mac is an early 2011 13" MacBook Pro i5 2.3GHz with 16GB RAM.
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    Sorry for my late answer.
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    If you have Thunderbolt you should try to use TB discs. I know they are expensive but there is a trick which I like to use... have a look here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Aa3BXmQVpc 

  • Daisy-chaining firewire 400 and firewire 800?

    I would like to daisy-chain two Western Digital MyBook Pros to a Macbook:
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    (If not, I'll buy a 'Premium' which has 2 x FW 400, and 1 x USB..)

    JoeyR wrote:
    I'm not sure if the hardware in the first drive, that's connected by firewire 400 is "smart" enough to jump the data over to the FW800 connectors for daisy chaining.
    Just pulled this from the WD site. I would say this indicates it would work. You won't get more speed but they should work daisy chained. This indicates the drive is smart enough to do this.
    +Question: Will Western Digital FireWire 400 (1394a) external hard drives work connected to a FireWire 800 (1394b) port?+
    +Answer: The FireWire 800 Specification (1394b) states that FireWire 400 devices will work while connected to a FireWire 800 (1394b) port. The FireWire 400 cable (4-6 pin or 6-6 pin) will not connect to a FireWire 800 port (9 pin) therefore you will need to connect the hard drive using a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable (1394a to 1394b cable). These cables are available at most computer stores.+

  • Has anyone been able to use an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire to daisy chain a dozen or more FireWire drives?

    Ever since I realized that I was not able to connect my FireWire daisy chain to my brand new Retina MBP there has been problems. Four months down the road, I am still unable to use my FireWire drives and have experienced terrible problems whenever I connect my FireWire daisy chain to this new Mac.
    I have bought two of these adaptors from Apple now and both do the same thing. The daisy chain has been working perfectly for years with my older MBP and still does! There are no problems until I connect to the new Mac.
    I have 15 various hard drives in NewerTech and DatOptics enclosures for over 22 TB. When connected to the new Mac, I would have multiple apps just hang, sometimes just Apple apps, sometimes 3rd party. I will not be able to force quit them and they will keep relauching as you can watch them in the Force Quit window. The Finder will hang and there is no relaunching it. I am having to do a force shutdown twice an hour which leaves no time for work!
    After four months of this, now I am being told that Apple will buy back my Mac at full price. But I have basically lost the good part of four month’s worth of work because of constantly fighting the new Mac. This is cost me all my savings and I am about to lose a client. It certainly seems that releasing Thunderbolt1 was a huge, huge mistake.
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    TIA,
    R

    Yes, my first post is all about how darn iffy the adaptors are and I have two of them to return now.
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    Both of the Apple branded Thunderbolt to FireWire adaptors chocked BIG TIME on this and it works no problem on my older MBP. You basically can not use a new Mac when you are connected to a daisy chain like this!
    Just checked the Apple website and indeed, I can get a new MBP with FireWire 800, just not with the Retina display! I wish that I would have known this five months ago before this all started!

  • Daisy-chain Firewire 800 versus USB

    Hi.  I have an external drive (drive A) connected to my MPB via Firewire 800.  I have my iTunes media library on this drive (movies, TV shows, music etc).  When I watch a movie on my Apple TV, the content is being streamed from this drive via my MBP to the Apple TV.  This works fine.
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    2. If I am watching a movie on Apple TV (streaming from drive A) at the same time that I am backing up drive A to drive B, will option #2 affect streaming of the movie?
    Thank you

    Have you Shut down your Mac and disconnected your firewire cable from both ends and let it sit about ten minutes then reconnect and try. Also, it is important to disconnect the AC power to your Mac, this helps to reset the FireWire port(s).
    Have you checked to see if Disk Utility sees it/ can mount it?
    Do you have TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior, both of which you could use to try to mount it.
    It is also possible that you have a bad cable or a bad port, do other FW devices work?
    -mj

  • Thunderbolt to firewire adaptor does not work when daisy chaining firewire devices

    Hi,
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    Has anyone got firewire daisy-chaining working with a thunderbolt adaptor? (just to clarify I am not refering to thunderbolt daisy chaining, as the adaptor is an end-of-chain thunderbolt device).
    Thanks

    Yikes, that's sad to hear.
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  • Daisy chaining Firewire 800 drives

    I am considering daisy-chaining a pair of WD My Passport Studio drives off my mid-2007 iMac's Firewire port.
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    Daisy chaining FW 800 drives works just fine, I did it for years before upgrading.

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