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USB or FireWire TV Tuner?
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Doylestown, PA
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I need a relativly cheap USB or FireWire TV tuner that has mac support. I found a couple firewire input type things but they were all way overpriced, I need something cheap, like what the ATi TV Wonder USB was on the pc. If there is something that has both mac and pc support that would be an even bigger plus, but mac support is primary.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Syracuse
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Parker, Colorado
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Originally posted by Abit667:
I need a relativly cheap USB or FireWire TV tuner that has mac support. I found a couple firewire input type things but they were all way overpriced, I need something cheap, like what the ATi TV Wonder USB was on the pc. If there is something that has both mac and pc support that would be an even bigger plus, but mac support is primary.
Yes, FW tv tuners are more pricey than their USB counterparts, but keep in mind that a FW tv tuner is going to move skads more bandwith than the USB version.
the USB EyeTv is moving bandwith to your screen at, what, 12 Mbps. The FW version of EyeTv would have a theoretical top end of 400 Mbps, even tho I'm sure it's not even running close to that. That works out to 1.5 MBps for USB, 50MBps for FW. Mo' bandwith is mo' better. Higher transfer rate SHOULD mean higher quality picture.
And feel free to jump on me if my figures are off. It's been a long day.
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Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2000
Location: northeast PA
Status:
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Originally posted by Abit667:
I need a relativly cheap USB or FireWire TV tuner that has mac support.
"relatively cheap" pretty much limits you to one of the USB tuners.
...like what the ATi TV Wonder USB was on the pc.
That was sold as the ATi XClaim TV USB for Mac. It's identical to the ATI TV Wonder USB. I use to own one and it worked great in OS9. But the software was never updated to OSX. It doesn't work in Classic either, that's why I sold it.
If there is something that has both mac and pc support that would be an even bigger plus, but mac support is primary.
For the money, the previously mentioned EsKape Labs products (MyTV, MyTV2go) and EyeTV USB are your best choices. MyTV costs less and the myTV2Go is small and extremely portable like TV Wonder USB. But the EyeTV USB has the best software and no dropped frames.
Your best chance at cross platform Mac/PC support would've been the XClaim TV USB. But ATi didn't allow you to purchase or download the software separately which pretty much meant you had to buy both versions. Or have a friend with that bought the opposite version. But the lack of OSX support means that's not a practical option unless you have an older Mac and run in OS9 exclusively.........joe
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2000
Location: northeast PA
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by Rev-O:
Higher transfer rate SHOULD mean higher quality picture.
True. The USB tuners all top out at 320*240 res while the Firewire tuners run from 640*480 to 720*480. Having owned both USB and FW tuners I can verify the difference in picture quality is very noticable. That's probably the reason the FW TV tuners cost more.......joe
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