[MacDV] Firewire question

[Ron Woodland]

The beige G3 will accept a plug-in Firewire and/or USB card and work 
just fine.  The PCI architecture used on that machine's motherboard is 
version 2 of the standard.  My wife has a 300 MHz. model.  It has 
extended the useful life of that machine another year or so.  I've even 
tried capturing video on it, using a second Maxtor 60 GB hard drive set 
up as a slave to the original, smaller hard drive (6 GB, I think). 
Works great.  No dropped frames in either capturing or printing to video.

Older Macs, such as the 7100/7200/7500, 8500/8600, and 9500/9600 models 
also had PCI architecture, but they were built to version 1 specs.  They 
will not work with a Firewire/USB card.  You can install the card, but 
the system will not be able to see it and the drivers won't work.

Ron Woodland


KathyMac! wrote:

> I'm running a Beige G3 Tower which I love (it's a workhorse). These were the
> last G3s made before USB and Firewire became available as built in ports.
> I've since added a USB card which works great.
> 
> However, I notice that iMovie "specs" and FCP "specs" on the Apple website
> all claim to require a Mac with built in Firewire in order to transfer DV
> footage.
> 
> My question is simple: Is that completely true? If I added a Firewire card
> would it not work fine?
> 
> They used to make those claims about USB too..."must be built in ports" but
> my USB card has always worked with everything.
> 
> Is it more a marketing ploy to get you to upgrade to a new system? My bets
> are on the fact that a Firewire card would transfer DV footage just fine but
> I wanted to know what others may have learned about that with their own
> experiences.
> 
> Thanks,
> Kathy


-------------------------------------------------
Ronald Woodland -- St. George, Utah  84770
-------------------------------------------------
"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but
it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as
if they were great and noble."  -- Helen Keller