Originally posted by: DaSkiBum
Yes, on paper, the Spec for USB 2.0 is faster than Firewire (1394a) 480 Mbps vs 400 Mbps. But in reallife, USB 2.0 can be up to 70% slower. See Techtv's test at :
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/story/0,24330,3393571,00.html
or
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,847716,00.asp
Now that Firewire II (1394b) is out, it's no contest. Currently at 800 Mbps, will scale up to 3200 Mbps this generation. Will support both copper based and fiber optic media.
USB for slow, low-bandwith apps. (ie. Keyboard, Mouse.....)
Firewire for fast, high-bandwith apps. (ie. Digital Video Camera, HD, DVD)
There are firewire port on high-end HDTV box and receivers, can you see USB there ?
1) Benchmarks between a first gen 2.0 storage chipset vs. at least 2nd gen 1394 storage chipset. Not exactly a fair fight. Having used both of these devices, I personally find the numbers a little hard to believe. This test should be redone when 2nd gen 2.0 devices are available (I think now, but it's pretty dang hard to find chipset info for those external drive boxes).
2) While 1394b may be "out", you can't do a damn thing with it. Ok, you can connect two incredibly overpriced powermacs to each other. BFD. Yao. Yo. Even at the launch, Apple only had 2 vendors there to show their products. Both were HD's, and surely they were both using the same Oxford bridge. Seems like there's plenty of room left in the 1394b bandwagon.
3) USB 2.0 has the bandwidth for all of the things you've mentioned. You will see USB 2.0 DV cameras this year. You already have USB 2.0 HD's and DVD burners.
4) While there may be some 1394 STB's shipping today (after being demoed for YEARS, they started to drip out towards the end of last year), I don't think you can do anything with them, can you? Do they plug into the D-VHS machines? I didn't think they could plug into the TV's yet and actually display a picture. I could be wrong, but I thought I'd been following that stuff pretty closely.
I checked out apple's site to see if 1394b was even shipping yet. They have an interesting article discussing the fw vs USB.
Link
Here's what they say about USB 2.0: "1394b is more advanced than USB 2.0". WTF is that supposed to mean? They go on to diss the "short" cable length of USB 2.0 (5m per segment compared to 4.5m per segment for 1394). They completely ignore the earlier section of their own doc that points out that the S800 and higher speeds will ONLY happen on these short lengths (or on really expensive glass fiber cable;not a consumer option). The ability to connect nodes over cat5 cable has been touted as one of the big advantages. If you can't get more than S100 out of it, what's the big deal? Just more FUD from Apple.
They also mention the master/slave arrangement as a negative because you need a PC. Well ya know what? In most cases you DO need a PC involved! Try connecting your DV camera to a HD lately? Doesn't work too well, does it? (At least it doesn't on the cameras I've seen). Then they talk about the benefits of powering your devices over 1394, esp. for people w/ laptops. Of the few non-apple laptops I've seen that even come w/ 1394 ports, they've all been 4 pin connectors...you know...the ones that DON'T supply power.
The most touted uses of firewire (home A/V) have been "on the horizon" for years. To date, only a few VERY EXPENSIVE devices include it. This includes some TV's (starting at $2500), HDTV STB's (I think the ones w/ 1394 start at $1000), a few D-VHS VCR's ($1000+ for a device that records onto tape...very 1980's), and a new DVD-recorder (unknown price, and I think you can only plug DV cameras into it). I'm pretty sure that's the extent of it, other than DV cameras (an area they dominate and will continue to dominate into the forseeable future).
In case it's not clear, I prefer USB 2.0 to FW. BUT I still think there's a place for both technologies. I would KILL to have just a couple of cables connecting all of my A/V equipment. I'd also love to have it all controlled by a PC. Why have 10 different companies try to write UI for a device...connect them to a PC and let someone write some generic UI that can control everything. There are specs for this today (HAVi?), but to date only Mitsubishi produces the devices.
Adoption of 1394 into additional CE devices is being halted by discussions on copy protection. Until that battle is solved (maybe this year finally?), you won't see widespread adoption of this new standard. 1394b isn't going to do ANYTHING to bring this stuff to market faster. Bandwidth was never the issue. But since we live in a "biggerbetterfastermore" society, it will be on every geek's must-have list. That is until they start seeing gigabit ethernet on their motherboards. If that happens before 1394b gains critical mass (and that seems likely since 1gig ethernet is already appearing and is a known quantity with consumers), I think it's dead in the water. Just my opinion though.
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