Firewire PCI Card for ipod??

[chiwawa626]

I just bought a 5 gig ipod off ebay, and i am assuming i need a firewire port to connect it to my computer. So i was planning on buying a firewire pci card, but had the quesiton: are all firewire cards created equal? I looked on ebay and saw some going for less then 10 bux...can someone reccomend me something, or do u think anything will work?

 

[chiwawa626]

Hmm howmany pin card do i need for ipod firewire

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Hmm howmany pin card do i need for ipod firewire

4 Pin. I believe that 6-pin is for Firewire800.
Instead of getting everything you need off eBay, Do you have a CompUSSR or any Apple reseller in your area? They should be able to give you a deffinite answer on the firewire needs.

 

[Vegito]

I only see VIA and TI chipsets.. never did a comparison of it.. I only use TI.. standard firewire plug is 6 pins, my sony digital camcorder uses mini firewire, they look like 4 pin.. so 2 of the 6 doesn't get used.. dunno which 2..

 

[hjo3]

If you can't do Firewire-800, you might as well go with a USB 2.0 dock connector instead of a whole new PCI card. Firewire-400: 400 mbps. USB 2.0: 480 mbps. It ought to be cheaper.

 

[tdawg]

1) To answer your questions, any firewire card should work. I bought a $10 IBM firewire PCI card or something like that and it works fine.

2) The Ipod uses standard 6 pin connectors to transfer music / charge the battery. It does come with a 6-pin to 4-pin adapter, so you will be able to use it with either size firewire port. However, I don't know if it will charge the Ipod battery if you're plugged in to a 4-pin firewire port.

Enjoy!

tdawg

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

2) The Ipod uses standard 6 pin connectors to transfer music / charge the battery. It does come with a 6-pin to 4-pin adapter, so you will be able to use it with either size firewire port. However, I don't know if it will charge the Ipod battery if you're plugged in to a 4-pin firewire port.

Huh, Learn something new everyday.. Maybe next time I should look at the back of my Mac and check the pin count. d'oh
EDIT: yup, it's 6-pin.

 

[XBoxLPU]

6 pin is powered
4 pin i un-powered

I think Apple now offers a USB 2.0 cable ( not for sure if it is for older models ). Software is available now

 

[screw3d]

What about the built-in firewire in my 8RDA+? It's the six-pin and I assume that they would work (charging too) but could anyone confirm this?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Yes it works

I have an Epox 8RDA+ and 15gb Ipod.

 

[Pariah]

You always want 6pin. 6pin is powered, 4pin is unpowered. If you have a 4pin device you can get a 4pin-6pin cable. If the device is 6pin and needs the power, having a 4pin port would be useless.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

I think Apple now offers a USB 2.0 cable ( not for sure if it is for older models ). Software is available now

The USB 2.0 option is only for the new Ipods, which now use a proprietary connection on the Ipod end (sucks since I used the cable from my old Ipod with my camcorder). The older ones use a standard firewire cable on both ends (standard 6-pin port on top of Ipod and standard 4-pin/6-pin on computer end). This is nice because if you ever loose that cable, you can just get a cheapo generic cable anywhere instead of an Apple-sold cable, which is most likely overpriced.

tdawg

 

[0roo0roo]

last i heard the cable cost 40 dollars. u might as well just get a firewire card.

 

[chiwawa626]

Well on ebay i can get a firewire card along with a 4 to 6 pin cable for 15-20 bux, and its VIA chipset, so mabey ill just do that.

 

[hans007]

i've got a spare ti firewire card....



lucent i think makes some too. people always said TI was better, especially at first because some movie editing programs only recognized that chipset. but now , it really doesnt matter.


400mbps firewire is still faster than 480mbps . the firewire protocol is better and sustained is higher. plus firewire, has much more power on it, than usb . thats why you can charge an ipod on it, whereas they will never be able to do that with usb2.0