| I think it's worth mentioning that FireWire is better for HDs than USB 2. Despite the fact that USB 2's theoretical max speed (480mbps) is faster than FireWire's (400mbps), in practice FireWire is faster, because it's just more efficient. This shouldn't be too surprising when you consider that USB 2 has the same design as USB 1, which was not designed for such devices. It was made for low-speed, one-way devices like keyboards and printers. FireWire comes much closer to realizing its theoretical max speed than USB 2 does, especially with two-way devices like HDs.
However, since you're taking data from a FireWire camera, it's possible using a FireWire HD would strain the FireWire bus.
You might be able to see if you have more than one bus in System Profiler (in /Applications/Utilities). I'm really not sure how to read it myself, though. It seems to think my system has 3 USB buses and 1 USB high-speed bus, even though I only have two USB ports. I really don't know what to make of that. |