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Showing posts from April 12, 2009

It's official: firewire can burn you.

Most users of Firewire products like DVCam decks and cameras are unaware of the fact that this is NOT a hot-pluggable system! If you don't power down your PC/Mac and you device (camera/deck) before attaching or detaching via firewire, you stand the chance of frying the firewire controller on the deck/camera, or the firewire port on your computer, which in the case of a Mac is on the logic board (the "motherboard"). This is expensive and time-consuming either way you look at it. It's not covered under warranty, and as a facility owner I can personally attest to the fact that sooner or later, it will happen... I have burned chips on 2 Sony decks and one Mac. Sony recommend the following procedure: 1. Switch off all equipment, including external drives which may be attached via firewire to the computer. 2. Attach firewire cable to camera/deck/drive 3. Attach firewire cable to computer 4. Power up computer 5. Power up devices (can be during boot-up) BTW, the solution ...