iSight with External Drive or Firewire Hub

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Level 1

75 points

iSight with External Drive or Firewire Hub

Hello,

I am interested in purchasing an iSight for multiple reasons. I have been reading in the forum that iSight may not work with certain firewire devices which is unfortunate since I utilize external firewire devices on a daily basis and it would not be beneficial to disconnect them to utilize iSight.

I have a external firewire DVD burner which is connected to my miniStack, which in turn is connected to my Powerbook. I also boot off of the miniStack and do not want to change that fact.

I can't seem to find a straight answer to this question, "Will my iSight work with the firewire hub in my miniStack?" If not, will it work with a powered firewire hub? If so, what hub is recommended, or at least is know to work very well?

If iSight will not work at all in my situation, can anyone recommend a camera that works well with iChat, iMovie, and Skype.

Hopefully I am not beating a dead horse with this subject!

Thanks

Powerbook G4 1.33 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 5G iPod, Airport Express, Airport Snow

Posted on Jul 26, 2006 4:09 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 26, 2006 4:27 PM in response to Akuma

I don't think anyone is going to be able to give the correct answer. Your best bet may be to borrow an iSight camera for testing with your particular setup.

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Answer 2

Jul 27, 2006 3:01 AM in response to Akuma

Hello Akuma,

I strongly recommend Belkin Hubs. My experience and that of others that have posted indicate that they work well w/Mac's 25V power.

That said, there is no reason for you to replace the miniStack, which seems to play well with the iSight: however I'm baseing that on reports/conversations w/others; not personal experience.

The iSight is designed to work w/Mac and the chances are that you have a better than 50/50 shot at it working w/your particular "flavor" of other non-Apple FW devices. The only way you will be able to tell for sure is to try it. The final outcome, good or bad, really can't be qualified as it seems to be dependent on what non-Mac FW devices use for their logic chip (Oxford having proven to work in most cases).

James A. Weston's suggestion is correct and a lot simpler than mine. Let us know if you do try, and the results so others may benefit. Good Luck.

Respectfully,
Bill Gallagher

ps-I'm in WI a lot, and would be glad to let you try my iSight if you can't find a friend or neighbor w/one.

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Answer 3

Akuma Author

Level 1

75 points

Jul 30, 2006 7:55 PM in response to Bill Gallagher

I actually think that there is something wrong, er lacking, with my miniStack. I plugged a Mini DV camera into the miniStack to use with iChat and it did not work. I plugged my mini DV camera directly into my Powerbook and it worked fine.

Perhaps I will just buy one of the powered Belkin Firewire hubs. I noticed when I had both my DV camera and external DVD burner plugged into the miniStack, the DVD burner would act as if it was just turned on after I disconnected the DV camera. Odd. Maybe a hub would take the burden off the miniStack and perhaps increase my data transfer rate.

Thanks for all your advice!

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