Firewire 800 to 400 Converter

[Movies]

Has anyone had any experience with these?

I'm thinking of picking up a new Mac, but, of course, they all come stock with FW 800 and everything I have is 400.

Thanks!

[Pappy725]

Got mine when I got my new MBP. Works great, but my MBP only sees my 828mkII if my 8pre is FW'd in first. Not a deal breaker, but a minor annoyance.

Pappy

[Movies]

Thanks, Pappy.

We'll see what happens when a Firebox tries to talk to a new Mac-mini.

[nick danger]

Is there really any conversion going on? Or is FW800 just backwards compatible with FW400, and it's just a matter of making the right connections?

[HCMarkus]

Is there really any conversion going on? Or is FW800 just backwards compatible with FW400, and it's just a matter of making the right connections?

No conversion. Just an adaptor to get the pins lined up. Try MONOPRICE.com for your cable/connectors. Great prices and low cost shipping to boot.

[mhschmieder]

That's right; these are simply cables that change the pin arrangement to be compatible. There is no conversion going on.

The only thing you need to be concerned about is daisy-chaining in the correct order, if you have a combination of FW400 and FW800 devices, so that the FW400 device doesn't pull the FW800 device down to FW400 rates.

[ericsvizeny]

Go to your local mac store, they have them there for about $15 bucks and work great!

[Pappy725]

OWC has an adapter for $9.95. I'm thinking about getting one so I can use the 15' cable that came with my 828mkII all those years ago. The one I got from the Apple store is only 6'. Didn't realize how short that really is.

Pappy

[nick danger]

I've got a 400-800 adapter, which allows me to continue to use the many FW 400 cables I have lying around, but my complaint is that it inadvertently disconnects too easily. Since every firewire device is disconnected from my iMac when that happens, that can be a little annoying.