Date:         Thu, 10 Oct 2002 15:43:24 -0700
Reply-To:     Steve Firebaugh <firebaugh@RAINCITY.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Firebaugh <firebaugh@RAINCITY.COM>
Subject:      Re: Video Display Question
In-Reply-To:  <000001c27080$5819b600$6600a8c0@cpds.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

I'm a first time poster and have been following the list silently for a
bit, amazed at the knowledge held by the group as a whole. I do not know
much about the mechanical innards of Vanagons, but I do know a little
about computers, especially Macs, and admit bias.

I would like to correct a common misconception. FireWire, which is also
referred to as IEEE 1394 and i.LINK, was invented by Apple in the mid
1990's, remains an Apple technology, and IS the industry standard. It is
in wide use by many digital peripheral companies, particularly Sony,
Canon, JVC, Kodak and others, is the fastest available current standard
in peripherals, and is very unlikely to disappear. Apple publishes the
reference standards along with core source code available to peripheral
and consumer electronics manufacturers. USB will see future generations
of that technology, and improvements; so will Firewire. I would not give
up on either one, but in its current incarnation, USB is just too slow
for digital video.

The Mac is the dominant platform in graphics, video editing, and music
editing. That technology is easy to use. It would NOT be a mistake to
consider one for mobile digital media uses. Any currently selling Mac
will be plenty fast enough. For my Westy (87 with new Tiico) theater, I
personally use a Mac Titanium Powerbook with 15.2 inch screen, plugged
into my Westy sound system via an in dash CD input. Movies look and
sound great. If cost were no object, I could plug into a 23 inch Apple
Cinema Display for which I am lusting.

Thanks for the opportunity to share.

-Steve Firebaugh



On Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 10:13 AM, Dana Showers wrote:

> Don't give up on USB yet.  I have noticed a ton of new USB 2.0
> (480Mb/sec) devices that are at least as fast as Firewire (400Mb/sec).
> In my humble opinion, most notebooks will have USB 2.0+ in the future
> instead of Firewire.  I base this opinion of two things:  the fact that
> USB is cheaper for manufacturers and Firewire (Apple product) is
> slightly different than the IEEE standard.  The standards difference is
> minimal but I have read that this sometimes causes some functionality to
> disappear when the device is installed on a Windows machine.
>
>
> Better would be a 1Gz P4 processor.
>
> Also USB will always be somewhat limiting.
>
> Just can't get a lot of data thru that pipeline.
>
> A better approach might be Firewire.