Andrew Kershaw wrote: > >Anybody have an opinion for what the best TV tuner for a > 7600 or 9600 PCI > >based Mac would be? > > > > I've got an iXMicro TV Tuner that works ok, but not great. I think > that virtually all the PCI card based TV tuners out there for Macs > are based on the same hardware, just rebranded (or slightly > modified). In my experience, the tuner really kind of stinks. You > can watch TV alright, but pushing raw video over a 33MHz PCI bus ... > Well, it's not pretty. And that doesn't include encoding and > compressing it in real time while writing the compressed stream to > disk. Don't bother with your PCI Mac, even if you've got a fast G3/4 > upgrade in there. You'll need other hardware too, like a video > capture card (ignore an internal TV tuner and just go this route with > an external tuner) that supports hardware compression, and a FAST > disk/controller. > > The best on-screen quality is probably found in the ATI XClaim VR and > XClaim TV (external pod) solution. It will capture to disk, and it > has decent on-screen display (I think the video being input gets > written directly to the frame buffer and bypasses the PCI bus and CPU > - not true for other most PCI based solutions). I don't know about > how configurable the software is, though - but I bet you could set a > schedule to record certain programs. Also, I think it supports > Motion JPEG-A hardware compresion... > > Apple's own video capture hardware for the 5000/6000/7000/8000 series > is pretty good, too. At least as far as on-screen quality is > concerned. The TV tuner is only available on the 5000/6000 series, > but it's pretty slick. The software isn't as configurable as ATI's, > AFAIK, and I don't think it supports hardware compression without > some sort of assist from a 3rd party capture card. Plus, with the > 5000/6000 series, you can control the Mac, TV, FM radio (if installed > also), CD playback, and overall volume with an IR remote control!! > How cool is that?! > > The best solution by far is to use an external box like the Formac > Studio DVR. It will take analog video (or a TV-antenna type source) > and convert it to a DV stream which is easily written to disk. Of > course, you'll need FireWire, a big hard drive, and a beefier CPU > than a 604(e) to do anything with the DV...
This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you! --> Russ -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
