That was the gist of two recent emails regarding using firewire for linux surveillance: Warning, wrong path!

Seems there are definite issues with cable length and repeaters vs standard CCTV cams or even USB2.

Also, apparently there is not yet (Nov 2005) a frame-capture driver that rips from /dev/video1394/0 devices to regular jpegs. We looked at CORIANDER, but that seems to be mainly a GUI.

Also, the iSight (vs even a logitech quick cam pro 4000 -- google for isight versus logitech) doesn't fare well in low lighting, precisely because it "thinks too much" with auto-everything.

Sooo...unless we hear or find some good news in the next few days, we will probably be changing to a safer route, which seems to include cctv cams and ituner spectra/8 or linuxmedialabs cards.

Now for a midnight turkey sandwich!

Thanks for the post. If you ever do manage to get a FireWire camera working under Linux just let us know and we can take a look.

Phil