Computer Info – January, 2005

 

 

Deltona Library Computer Class

 

The Deltona Library is having a Very Basic Microsoft Word Class on January 20th (Thursday) from 10:30 am to 12 (noon).

 

 

I.Link and Firewire

          We just learned this and thought we would pass this information on to the group.

 

            IEEE-1394 --- Firewire --- iLink --- Lynx  are all names describing various manufacturers names for calbes belonging to the IEEE-1394 standard.  These connections are primarily used for multimedia devices such as camcorders and other digital audio recording devices.

            There are three types of cables used for 1394:

A 6 conductor type using two separately shielded twisted pairs for data and two power wires in an overall shielded cable with 6-pin connectors on either side.

The 4 wire cable using two separately shielded data cables without power wires in an overall shielded cable with 4-pin connectors on either end.

The third type of cable uses either type of actual cable, with a 6-pin connector on one side and a 4-pin connector on the other side of the cable.

There are two different connectors used for IEEE-1394.

There is a six position connector (6-pin) and a four position connector (4-pin).

 

            To determine the proper cable, you need to know what connector your camera (or other device) has and what connector your computer has.  The 4-pin connector is more common on digital video camcorders and other small external devices because of it’s small size, while the 6-pin connector is more common on computers and external hard drives.

 

            We learned about the iLink connection when we offered to transfer someone’s video that they had recorded on their Sony DCR-IP5 digital camcorder and put in on the computer.  Their cable had the 4-pin (iLink) connector and would not fit our 6-pin firewire connection on our computer.  Checked our laptop computer and found that it had the 4-pin (iLink) connection.  Then we ran into the next problem – we couldn’t get the computer and software programs to recognize the DCR-IP5 camcorder.  After checking the internet, we are assuming that Windows XP has a problem with this camera’s drivers – so you see, nothing is as simple as they say.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get any video off of the camera.