Firewire To HDMI

Is There Such a Thing as a Firewire To HDMI cable?

We discuss here the connection of Firewire to HDMI cable, adapter, or converter (3). Firewire, iLink, and 1394 are the different names for a bus for serial data transfer (2) (4). 1394 is the name of the IEEE standard (1). FireWire is the corresponding trademark of Apple (9), while ILink is the trademark of Sony (10). Firewire was mostly used in audio and video technology (professional audio and video cards) (5), but also to connect external mass storage devices (8) such as DVD burners (7), hard drives or to connect consumer electronics components (6). On the other hand, HDMI is an interface developed since mid-2002 (11) for digital image and sound transmission in entertainment electronics (12). It standardizes existing procedures, can produce higher quality, and also has a coherent copy protection concept through DRM (13). Therefore, is there something like a Firewire to HDMI connection?

The answer is no. There is no FireWire to HDMI cable or Firewire adapter except for Smart TVs as they have an input HDMI connection. The solution is to utilize an expansion card like a PCI-X card, an output device with SDHC / SDXC memory cards, or built-in Firewire in the receiver device.

Firewire to HDMI Cables

While the FireWire port is usually for the export and import of data, the HDMI port found in a computer is an output-only port and therefore it may not receive data:  it can only send data to another device. For this reason, you will need a FireWire to USB converter.

There are no cables that connect a Firewire port to an HDMI port, so no Firewire to HDMI cables. The two connections have different purposes that cannot cooperate in one arrangement.

Data is transported via Firewire in a similar way to via USB, it doesn’t matter what kind of data it is. Only pictures and sound are sent via an HDMI connection.

Firewire to HDMI Adapter

HDMI slot in your computer is for display output. However, there is HDMI input on a television or a smart TV. 

The Firewire to HDMI connection can only be done with Smart TVs with an adapter. While Smart TVs have an input HDMI interface, laptops have an output HDMI connection.

This adapter will perform a conversion of the FireWire digital video to the input HDMI format that is understood by the Smart TV or television. It looks similar to a cable but it is called an adapter.

If you want to connect two devices via Firewire and HDMI, it is not possible even with an adapter from Firewire to HDMI. We’ll tell you why that is and what alternatives are available.

 Many people used to transfer their videos via the firewire interface, nowadays they all use laptops that do not have a firewire input but an HDMI input. 

Also, this is a problem for music composers that want to transfer digital information from their usual composing hardware to their laptop in particular some Cakewalk products like the Sonar Power Studio 

Modern laptops only have an HDMI connection, Firewire is slowly dying out. If you still have a somewhat older laptop, you can retrofit a Firewire connection with such an Expresscard . With desktop computers, the connection can usually always be retrofitted with a PCI Express card .

Solutions To Transfer From FireWire Devices

A Firewire Expresscard is the best solution for old cameras. I recommend an FW800 card right away because it is twice as fast as USB 2.0 and is compatible with FW400. You then only need a cable that goes from FW800 to FW400 with 4Pin.

HD cameras or memory cards are standard these days.

Real-time recording via FireWire or HDMI is not really a must if you just want to edit videos – get a camcorder that records to SDHC / SDXC memory cards, and then insert the cards into the notebook’s card reader. As an alternative, these cameras usually also allow video transfer via USB.

Nowadays you can safely ignore Firewire for new acquisitions in the video sector.

Otherwise, an external PCI slot can cost $10 and you will also need a FireWire PCI card that can cost something like $20. Likewise, you should have a mini PCI slot available on your computer to perform the connection with the incoming device.

Another solution is to take Pinnacle USB500, download the latest Windows drivers from the Pinnacle homepage. Then leave the analog inputs on the left (do not use, for DV tapes the worse way compared to Firewire. if you still have VHS, you require a converter here as well). Then plug the camera into the Firewire port at the aforementioned box. There is no conversion of the video material, the Firewire port is nailed through 1: 1, so that pretty much every Firewire device should run. At least with camcorders, it works perfectly, including the camera control from the recording program. In other words: In addition to the AD converter, the device also has a USB Firewire bridge in it.