IEEE 1394 vs USB 2.0?

  • Thread starter Thread starter William W. Plummer
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W

William W. Plummer

Is there any point to Firewire now that USB 2.0 is all over? That is, is
there some sort of device (video camera, etc) that is available with only
IEEE 1394 and not USB 2.0?
 
William said:
Is there any point to Firewire now that USB 2.0 is all over? That is, is
there some sort of device (video camera, etc) that is available with only
IEEE 1394 and not USB 2.0?
Click to expand...
I think most video cameras are Firewire and not USB of any kind. There
is Firewire 800 too for a lot faster speed. A very small point for most
people, but those of us with PC and Mac it's nice to have Firewire
peripherals that plug into both. Yes, the newer Macs have both Firewire
and USB 2.0, but mine doesn't.

Clyde
 
William said:
Is there any point to Firewire now that USB 2.0 is all over? That is, is
there some sort of device (video camera, etc) that is available with only
IEEE 1394 and not USB 2.0?
Click to expand...

I think the main point is with video cameras because Firewire supports
the synchronisation of video and audio signals which USB does not.
 
Howdy!

William W. Plummer said:
Is there any point to Firewire now that USB 2.0 is all over? That is, is
there some sort of device (video camera, etc) that is available with only
IEEE 1394 and not USB 2.0?
Click to expand...

Yep, there's a lot of video equipment that's FireWire only.

Plus, for disk drives, due to the USB 2.0 overhead, FireWire is
faster in total throughput.

So - the optimum solution is to have BOTH.

RwP
 
Ralph said:
Howdy!



Yep, there's a lot of video equipment that's FireWire only.

Plus, for disk drives, due to the USB 2.0 overhead, FireWire is
faster in total throughput.
Click to expand...

Is there -any- advantage to USB over firewire? Maybe cost to manufacture?
 
Intel had a major influence on the prevalence of USB 2.0. Firewire was an
Apple technology initially.
Peter Cowie.
 
Howdy!

Is there -any- advantage to USB over firewire? Maybe cost to manufacture?
Click to expand...

USB is an Intel backed initiative. FireWire is backed by Sony and
Apple.

USB is more flexible, being as how it's much stupider at start,
needing a driver loaded to even pee (as it were). The USB spec includes
loading SOME of the driver portion, BTW ...

FireWire makes certain assumptions about the devices, so is not as
well suited to a vast number of different devices.

Currently, I prefer USB for mice, keyboards, scanners, and printers,
and FireWire for video and mass storage devices. Doesn't mean that I
turned down a USB 2/ FireWire combo case, which I usually use with the USB
port (USB being more common than FireWire).

RwP
 
Yes, just like USB went from 1.1 to 2.0, Firewire is going from
1394 to 1394b. So, there certainly is still life in Firewire.

Did anyone think that Firewire stand still, and not respond to
the USB's increased speed?

"IEEE 1394b upgrades the prior standards by allowing for gigabit
signaling and by extending signaling distance to 100 meters (vs.
4.5 meters in IEEE 1394)in data storage, home network backbones
and other systems."
 
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