[PJ G4]

I need some comments on the Formac Studio TVR. I need a way to watch and record TV on my Quicksilver 800. I would like the best recording quality available. I have read this forum on the various options available such as Eye TV and a new product from Germany sold by Dr Bott.
My main concern is the reputation of Formac. I have read that their customer service is awful. Anyone care to comment. Thanks

[coitus]

The link below is a quicker way to summarize what some customers of Formac Electronics' Support.

http://macintouch.com/formac.html#aug29

When I last looked there were around ten negative reviews. One of them is mine and I have yet to even put to use the Studio TVR, which I purchased to use in conjunction with a Devideon.

coitus

[Link]

since you have a tower the smartest thing to do would be to get a melenstein (am I right on spelling), televio card.

http://www.televio.com/

It's about as functional except that you use the CPU for tvr instead.. but yeah.

[Volanges]

In all fairness when you read those negative comments note that many of them (though posted recently) are about experiences some time ago with Formac.

I have read other comments that state that Formac has made an effort to improve the customer service.

I first bought at Formac DV/TV convertor a year ago through ClubMac or one of those catalogues. Then, around February of this year I also purchased their Devideon DVD-R drive after they had upgraded their software and were now using the Pioneer DVR-A05, which received a lot of good press at that time. As I own an iBook this was really the only option at the time for burning DVDs.

Around April Formac came out with a significant upgrade for the DV/TV convertor unit in response to the upgrade by Apple with iMovie, as the audio interface didn't work well. Unfortunately, if your Formac convertor was something like two versions old you couldn't just download the new software to upgrade your unit but, instead, had to pay around $50 (plus shipping TO Formac in California) to have your unit upgraded. This also involved their well-documented overly burdensome RMA form and faxed disclaimer b.s. but I bought the upgrade anyway. However, in rather fine print Formac states that the RMA return number EXPIRES after 15 days, and I didn't get my unit back in that amount of time because I never saw this statement. So once I sent it back in (maybe a week later than that 15 day limit) they refused the delivery and had the package sent back to me!

I complained, and threatened to blast them on every message board I could find, and also provided them with several links of pre-existing negative posts of others with their customer service. Rather instantly I began to receive GREAT customer service. They apologized for their RMA time limit, issued me a new RMA and allowed me to return the unit again and all seemed well.

THEN, they emailed me my return shipment tracking number via Airborne ground service which is what they evidently always use. Stragely, for an electronic product worth around $300 Airborne ground requires NO receipt signature of delivery, and the package NEVER arrived to my apartment. Airborne had on record after I inquired that they had left it on my doorstep. I live in a "marginal" area of Brooklyn where it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize you don't leave packages on a doorstep so obviously my repaired unit was stolen. I filed a complaint with Formac and they IMMEDIATELY dispatched a BRAND NEW unit to me, so in the end I suppose I got a better deal.

Not to mention the new units are the nice white casing that matches my Devideon (and the two units are stackable) as well as matches the white cover of my iBook.

It was all a royal pain in the ass but I will go on record that Formac was VERY responsive when things went wrong and never once tried to pin blame on me and then desert me, as seems to have been their practice per the link provided above. I must then assume that they have made a big effort to provide better service.

I've also sent them a few tech-oriented questions via email and, while sometimes not really fast, they do eventually get back to you. The times I've had to actually pick up the phone they have always been courteous.

They've also sent me several emails inquiring as to how I found their support and subsequent customer service.

Aside from that most postings regarding their products that are CURRENTLY being marketed seem to be positive. They have a new Devideon listed on their website that now uses the Pioneer DVR-A06 that also adds DVD+R. The old DVR-A05 is still listed as well and is $100 less than when I paid for it. (FYI: Formac recently announced a new release of theirDevideon DVD Authoring software. The new release detects and incorporates chapter marks inserted in Apple’s iMovie™ 3 editing software, and is the first DVD Authoring software to support both Pioneer’s A05 as well as A06 mechanism. The Devideon X.2.5 software is downloadable for free from our website at www.formac.com.)

They are also selling the TVR and Devideon TOGETHER for a special price of $599.

[biscool]

I have a non-upgraded rom unit, that was 3 months old when they announced the upgrade. I complained but they said tough luck, I now use a freeware app called Vidi that works a lot better than the formac crap ever did and it supports the radio tuner and radio recording! The latest formac software doesn't even support that....

[Volanges]

No, but isn't your audio screwed up when you try and use iMovie 3 with your non-upgraded Formac DV/TV? That was the purpose of the upgrade. In addition the upgrade adds digital audio recording capability with up to 48 Khz at 16 bit.

Also, a whole new feature of the upgrade is the new Audiomaster software. Allows you to record audio in high-quality DV audio
format; three digital audio modes, allowing user to determine the quality of audio by adjusting bit rate and sample resolution.
Standard setting for the DV audio is 32 Khz at 12 bit. You can choose between two high-quality settings: 44.1 Khz and 48 Khz at
16bit. You can, for example, record analog vinyl albums/songs then import into iTune and convert tracks to MP3.

[biscool]

No, my audio has never been messed up with imovie 3. If it was I would have been even more pissed out with formac for charging me to make the product to do what it was suppose to do. My unit was 2-3 months old when the upgrade was announced. It has the newer white shell. I have no use for audio recording. I use my studio as a Tivo for TV and radio and to record movies, etc and dump them to divx. Vidi gets the job done, and it's freeware!

[Volanges]

Only people who's Formac had an EPROM version of 1.05 or lower needed the upgrade where you had to send your unit back in.

Those with 1.06 or higher merely had to download the software upgrade available on Formac's website.

I would think if yours had the white covering you may fall under the latter.

Or are you implying that yours WAS 1.05 or lower and still works fine and Formac was full of bullshit?

[biscool]

Just fired up the crappy formac software to double check- the ROM version is 1.0.5. It has the white casing, which is cool 'cause it matches my imac and ipod

edit- I consider Formac to be full of bull****. I will never be another one of their products again. It's a shame that I dropped US$400 to have to rely on some freeware developer to provide software. DO NOT BUY FORMAC. Before I got the studio/tv I remember reading warnings from proTV card owners complaining that formac lied about OS X support. Formac has and will screw their customers over, look elsewhere, AVOID FORMAC

[Volanges]

And I merely made a point of stating that I didn't have a bad experience with them.

Their CURRENT products function perfectly fine, and perhaps it is a sign that the company has learned from their past mistakes.

However, I hope that due to your strong feelings towards their company that you let them know of this IN WRITING. And if you feel financially slighted you should "cc" the local entity that deals with consumer grievences.

I would, and I'd address it directly to their CEO and also call them and find out the name of the head of their customer service division and "cc" them on it.

At any rate you stated your convertor is working fine with iMovie so I'm not quite sure what you are complaining about if you don't feel like you need to change your software and are happy with the Vidi interface (not to mention only with the Vidi program can you access the radio tuner function, the radio has now been deleted from the current TVR and Formac provides no software for the tuner, NOR did they ever when it was part of the convertor and advertised as so. THAT is my one complaint with the unit. But frankly I don't listen to the radio so I don't care accept on prinicple.)

I often feel dumb saying I like the way certain electronics look, but hey -- that's part of Apple's appeal and I will say that Formac's products also look better than their competition, though I like the current LaCie drives (as well as their last line of D2 external hard drives).

[Diggory Laycock]

Good device, bad support.

Both I and a friend got faulty devices first time round, and had to get them replaced.

Their website is awful - Looking at the UK site it would appear that to upgrade the FirmWare I would have had to send the device to the USA.

Not true - As a phone call to Formac's UK number confirmed.

I get the feeling that this company is totally fragmented - Someone designs and makes pretty good hardware, then they delegate a bunch of clueless idiots to run the rest of the company.

[legionare]

I had to go through BBB to get the $90 rebate from them.

[Volanges]

(posted on Formac's web site)

Studio TVR 3.03 (OSX)

Software requirements:
> OS 10.2 or later
> Requires a studio dv/tv or studio TVR with EPROM versions of 1.06 or higher

Version 3.03 offers the following new features:
> Adding chapter marks (recognized in Formac devideon DVD Authoring software)
> Adjustment of Audio Gain level (Studio hardware revision 3.1 with firmware 2.03 required)
> Integration of Studio manual (please download separate Manual installer)

[Volanges]

10/24/03
Studio TVR 3.04 (OS X.3)

Latest Studio TVR Software for Apple OS-X 10.3 (Panther)

http://www.formac.com/files/software/StudioTVR304.dmg

[jsevier14]

Originally posted by Volanges:
In all fairness when you read those negative comments note that many of them (though posted recently) are about experiences some time ago with Formac.

Well, with all respect, here's a story that is more recent.

I purchased a Formac Studio TVR from the Apple Store in Cincinnati a little less than a month ago. I purchased it at the same time I grabbed Panther. I installed Panther, then installed the Formac software, and everything worked great. Well, everything except the one thing I was really interested in: Exporting video. Export to MPEG crashed the app. Export to Quicktime crashed the system. Export to TV worked fine for about 90 seconds, then slowly over the next 10 minutes or so the picture would deteriorate to the point that it was unrecognizable, filling the screen with progressively growing digital artifact distortion until the picture was completely distorted. Same pattern every time too... first, a long, thin, horizontal line near the top, then a big square, then a bigger square... It was obvious there was some sort of a hardware problem. So, I logged on to Formac's website, went through their troubleshooting FAQ, and after answering two questions was summarily thrown into an RMA request page. A request was submitted, and I waited. And waited, and called them then waited, and called them again, then again.. there wasn't even a voicemail, just... nothing. I wasn't even sure they were still in business! This went on until I downloaded the Panther specific software update from Formac's website. At least then I knew they were still developing software... I thought at the time the update would resolve the problem. This took me past the 10 day return period at the Apple Store. The new TVR software did NOT solve the problem however, So I requested another RMA and went through the process again. This time though, I did manage to stumble into at least a voice message that promised a return of my phone call within 90 minutes. Progress? No. Three days and three messages later I gave up calling them and seriously considered filing a case with the Better Business Bureau in Berkeley. Researching that, I found they have 20-something odd cases filed against them in the recent past, a few of which have not been resolved yet. In fairness, most of the cases have been resolved, but... 20+ cases in the time frame referenced was very scary to discover. I made one last ditch effort at getting a response from them through help@formac.com. After the promised 24 hour response period elapsed, I finally decided I'd fooled around with it long enough. 2 RMA requests, countless unanswered phone calls, and 3 voice mail requests for assistance later, I'd decided that I had better things to do with my breaks at work. I took my sad story back to a manager at the local Apple Store some 28 days after the purchase and I am very happy to report he bailed me out of this mess. Formac had just been so completely unresponsive that I had nowhere else to go. The manager I spoke with made an exception to the 10 day return policy for me and I am happy to report my hearty endorsement for shopping at the local Apple Store.

In the end, the Formac Studio TVR is a fine device and it gets great reviews and its a very interesting gadget. I liked that it integrated readily with iMovie. The picture quality in watching TV on the Mac was outstanding. Its a shame the hardware failure was met with such stony silence by the Formac. I really wish I could report that Formac's a great company to deal with, but, based on my story and all the other stories very much like it posted in these forums and around the web, well... you be the judge.