How do I use a 1394 input on a laptop?

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DavidD

Well-known member
How do I use a 1394 input on a laptop?

I have a 2 port firewire cardBUS for my LAPTOP, but I did notice that there is a 1394 input as well. But problem is, it is the same input that is on my mini-dv camera end. So can I hook a DV cam to it? Is there a mini DV 1934 to minDV 1394 cord? I guess it would be a 4 pin - 4pin, but why would they make it this way for a laptop? Seems backwards... Thanks
 
Yeah I guess so. I just thought it was weird that a firewire card has 6 pins, but the laptop has an input for 4 pins...any ideas why?
 
DavidD said:
Yeah I guess so. I just thought it was weird that a firewire card has 6 pins, but the laptop has an input for 4 pins...any ideas why?
Click to expand...

i believe a 6 pin connector can supply power to a device whereas the 4 pin doesn't. perhaps the laptop only has 4 pins to conserve battery power. either way, it's still compatible. just get a cable with 4 pins on each end.
 
Windows PC laptops pretty much all have 4-pin connectors. The 4-pin connector is roundly hated and is, overall, rather silly, but it does have one big benefit -- it doesn't blow up camcorder firewire ports, like 6-pin ports can do. So connect the camcorder to the laptop using the 4-pin, and use your 6-pin card to connect external hard disks.
 
Barry, I know the extra 2 pins on the 6-pin carry the power. And the 4-pin port not carrying power and not blowing up cameras makes sence... EXCEPT, the cameras have a 4-pin port. Doesn't that mean that the power spikes are beeing carried to the camera by the Data/Ground pins, not the power pins?

I'm curious, what's with this? Care to go into a little more detail?

- Mikko
 
I wonder what happens when you plug a 4 pin > 6pin cable between a camera and a 6pin expresscard 34 fw card, seeings how the 6pin card adapter isn't powered either unless you have theoptional external power source. At least on the one I have which is a SIIG.
 
I don't know, but I know that the landscape is littered with blown-up firewire ports, usually from people plugging into Macs, never from people plugging into 4-pin PC laptops. Occasionally from people plugging into PC desktops, which also use 6-pin. So whether it's grounding or power or what, the 6-pin-to-4-pin seems to be the volatile combination.
 
You know my dad had a computer with a pci firewire card and for some reason it didnt have the power plugged in. But it worked fine (on externally powered drives). I wonder if this would make the 6 pin on a desktop "safe"
 
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