Problems with New MacBook Pro and FireWire port on Duet

[Beothuk]

Hello there, I have a little query in which I need some suggestions. I am planning to buy a new Macbook Pro for myself which I want to use for recording music using Apogee Duet which runs on firewire 400 port. The audio will be directly recorded on a Glyph Portagig Hard drive which works on firewire 800 port. The problem is that I have heard that new Macbooks which are to be launched will not have a firewire 400 port on them and will only have firewire 800 port. So I am not sure if the Apogee Duet will work on firewire 800 port. So if anybody has faced Problems with New MacBook Pro and FireWire port on Duet then please share some information about the topic. Thanks in advance.

[Gavisht]

The new Macbook pro's which you are talking about are not going to be released soon. So if you buy a Macbook Pro now, it will definitely have both firewire 400 and firewire 800 port on it. Still to be sure, you can check the official website of Apple and check all the specification of the new Macbooks which are available and then decide which Macbook to buy depending on your needs.

[Panchu]

Even if the new Macbook does not have a firewire 400 port installed on it, it will not make much of a difference. The new firewire 800 ports are backward compatible which means you can connect a device which is using firewire 400 port on the firewire 800 port. Hence I think there would be no compatibility issue with the firewire ports on the Macbook and Duet.

[Beothuk]

You have mentioned that the firewire 800 port is backward compatible with the firewire 400 port but I think it will still create some problem while recording audio using the Duet connected on a firewire 800 port as the bandwidth of the device and the port will not match. So is there any alternate way to make the device work properly on the firewire 800 port? Please help.

[Gonzo]

Backward compatibility of the device means all the earlier devices will work. Hence there will be no problem in using Duet on a Firewire 800 port. As Duet is configured to work with Firewire 400 port, it will only use half the bandwidth of the port. To connect the Duet to the Firewire 800 port you will require a 400 to 800 converter cable.

[Beothuk]

You say that the Duet will work properly on the firewire 800 port if the converter cable is used but What if there is only one firewire 800 port on the Macbook? How will I connect the hard drive for recording the audio from the duet as it is also connected to the firewire 800 port. Please provide some insights on this problem.

[Gonzo]

Normally any device which is having firewire connectivity will have more than one firewire port which will allow you to connect more than one device to the computer. Even if there is only one firewire port, you can connect multiple devices by using Firewire extensions which are available easily. You can attach upto 4 devices to one firewire port.