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Firewire
I have been presented with a gift since I returned from a 2 1/2 week on-location shoot: an 8 Core 2.93G Mac and a Blackmagic HD Extreme. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth (oooh, look! a stack of $100s on the floor, but I don’t want to bend over to pick them up!!!), but I have an issue that maybe someone out there can offer some help.
With the new FW800-only Macs, I still need a FW400 port to be able to dump SD programs out. Understand that I am part of a marketing department and we can not/will not go beta/digibeta/anything beyond the DVCam DSR-11 or HDV HVR-M10U, so that’s not an option. The vendor we use wants large case tapes, so for the most part use the DSR-11. Both decks are hooked to a FW400 switcher because when I hooked two decks to the Mac, it totally freaked the computer out. I am completely tapped out of PCI slots, as I have my dual monitors, an eSata card for storage, and the Blackmagic card all taking up my slots and all are necessary.
I’ve seen FW400 male to FW800 Male cables, which is what I’d need to do, but I was wondering if anyone else has had the same issue that this cable has solved. I do have one other option, though it will be time consuming- hook the decks and switcher to my MacBook Pro and print to tape there. I don’t WANT to do that, but it just may be what I HAVE to do.
Any insight on the cable or an adapter would be extremely helpful and appreciated.
Thanks,
ScottScott
OSX 10.5.5
Quad 2.5Ghz
8.5 GB RAM
Final Cut Studio 6.0.4
HPX 2000 -
2 Replies
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I have a couple of 400 to 800 converter cables which work fine for connecting drives to my MacPro (same spec as yours).
However, I don’t connect to a DV deck so can’t comment on compatibility there. The cables are relatively cheap so would be worth buying one, even if they can only help with drive connects in the future. Let us know if they work.
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I just did a quick test with a small Mini DV camera I had lying around and that usually connects to the FW400 port on one computer. I plugged into the MP with an adapter cable and everything was seamless. Don’t take this as proof of anything, since the devices involved are not the same, but I’d imagine the adapter cable should work in your situation as well. I have trouble imagining a reason it wouldn’t.
As said above, considering the price of the cable it’s worth a try one way or the other.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com
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