Comments

LarryP wrote on 3/15/2003, 2:23 PM
I'll risk an engineering answer (I am an engineer) here because this can be religion to some.

Firewire is a digital signal and it's basically on or off. As such the cable won't improve your fidelity. There are differences in the quality of cables when it comes to mechanical areas like how many times it will flex before breaking or how well the connectors are put together.

Personally I buy the $7 generic brand and they have worked just fine. At that price I buy a couple and throw one in the drawer.

Larry
Former user wrote on 3/15/2003, 3:31 PM
I second Larry's opinion. In the analog world, a cable can make a lot of difference in the quality of the signal, but in digital, it either works or it doesn't for the most part. At least that has been my experience.

Dave T2
rextilleon wrote on 3/15/2003, 4:25 PM
I think that Larry and Dave have it right--I do however think that most firewire cables have one thing in common---they are not made very well!
wcoxe1 wrote on 3/15/2003, 7:32 PM
They are not particularly well made, but don't need to be as well made as a good analogue cable. They DO need to have a ferrite core filter on them, though, because they don't usually have adequate Radio Frequency shielding most of the time. If they don't have one or the other (core or shielding), they can occasionally pick up stray RF signals and that CAN mess up even a digital signal.

The only time you really need a "Good" 1394 cable, as opposed to an ordinary run-of-the-mill one (with only a ferrite core), is if they are over about 2 meters long. They make GREAT radio antennas, the longer, the better. That is when really good RF shielding is a good idea, and having a ferrite core filter on one or both ends isn't a bad idea, on top of the RF shielding.
frank_jarle wrote on 3/17/2003, 5:52 AM
When i used to work with networking namely TP (Twisted Pair) it was important to have good cable, especially when you roll out 200m (600+ feets) in one stretch.

But when it comes to this kind of cable, it shouldnt matter if you buy a 10 or $40 cable, what is more important is that it got a good shield and the soldering for the pins is good.

The cable lengt shouldnt be too long, i use a short lengt cable from Belkin which have done a very good job, no loss in signals

Frankie
Singapore