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WOPR · Apr 7, 2005, 09:08 AM

I've just seen this in the UK for �99 + VAT which is the cheapest video capture device I've seen. I have loads of stuff on VHS I want to convert to DVD so has anyone have any experience of the Formac range, or ideally this model in particular? It may well be too new but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I assume it's just a cutdown version of their other products so any comments on those would be appreciated. I'd be capturing using iMovie HD.

King_Rat · Apr 15, 2005, 09:54 PM

I have a firewire formac studio DVR from a few years ago and hate the thing. I had herd a number of good things about formac so I bought it. However, it has a number of problems:
-It tends to get the sound slightly out of sync with the video
-The viewing application is a bit buggy (random crashes, display problems, etc). I updated to the newest version about a year ago; it did not help.
-Something resets the color setting every so often (thus giving me a pink screen)
-The reset button on the unit tends to get stuck
-The hole in the case for the S-video port is too narrow; it prevents me from plugging in most s-video cables. I ended up having to trip the plastic wrapper on the cable in order to plug it in.
-formac did not give me any useful tech support.

Anyway, for the $200 that I paid for the thing and I am very unhappy with it. I do not know if the new models have the same problems; mine is 4 years old. Unless you can find some evidence that they have fixed all the problems I would buy something else. I would gladly pay $100 more for something that actually works.

Josh Reid · Apr 20, 2005, 02:46 PM

Also, it no longer works with the new iMovie 5 HD. It had audio problems ever since iMovie 3, which Formac released patches to fix. However, they have not been able to release a fix for iMovie 5. They suggest using their own software to import video, and then play/edit the DV file in iMovie. However, when I tried to use their software importer, there were major audio problems with clicks & pops.

I paid $399 a few years back for this piece of hardware. Very buggy, never worked at 100% easily. However, it may be a necessary evil if you don't have a newer DV camera that has pass-thru.

WOPR · Apr 20, 2005, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by Josh Reid

Also, it no longer works with the new iMovie 5 HD. It had audio problems ever since iMovie 3, which Formac released patches to fix. However, they have not been able to release a fix for iMovie 5. They suggest using their own software to import video, and then play/edit the DV file in iMovie. However, when I tried to use their software importer, there were major audio problems with clicks & pops.

I paid $399 a few years back for this piece of hardware. Very buggy, never worked at 100% easily. However, it may be a necessary evil if you don't have a newer DV camera that has pass-thru.

Thanks Guys. But bear in mind I'm talking about a new product that's been out for less than a month.

King_Rat · Apr 21, 2005, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by WOPR

...I'm talking about a new product that's been out for less than a month.

True. However, our point is that we have had problems with the products predecessors and with formac tech support. As such, I would recommend against buying anything from formac unless there is some reason to believe that they have improved. I have a friend that recommends eyeTV, but I don't have any personal experience with them so I can't say much about them. Maybe you will be able to find someone around here that has the newest thing from formac, but I doubt it.

WOPR · Apr 22, 2005, 02:53 AM

OK fair point. But at �115 in the UK I'm prepared to risk it. If it's crap it'll go on ebay!

Oh and EyeTV are a superb company with the best tech support I've ever experienced, to the extent that they're going to be adding a feature that I suggested!

Macpilot · Jul 21, 2005, 05:27 PM

I was thinking of this unit ($300 US) to transfer a bunch of VHS and Hi 8mm to my Mac using iMovie HD.

Some of you say that a new camcorder with "pass-through" will work?

How does that work?

My old 8mm camcorder has an S-video port on it. Would it involve hooking up both cameras together, then to the iMac?

Thanks in advance!

webraider · Jul 28, 2005, 10:06 AM

Plextor PVR for the Macintosh....I purchased this with rebate for about $180 and it came with the EYE TV Software and you can plug in A/V cables so you'll get a good picture from your VCR. You can export directly to i-movie with no re-encoding (just re-muxing) and then use i-DVD, or you can edit the movie in Eye TV and use a free DVD authoring tool called Sizzle which works very well. Save it as a disk image and then burn it to DVD with Apple's Disk Burner.

Now you should be able to buy the PC version of this... and purcahse the EVE TV software seperately although it's about a $80 investment in the software. The software will support the PC version an you can probably pick one up on Ebay.

This doesn't have a remote but you can add the ATI Remote Wonder and it will work fine. This does have a hardware encoder in it and it will pause live TV (time shift) etc... Mine works with no problem and I use my computer to watch TV all the time. I hope this helps. The Plextor works just like an Eye TV 200 except that it is USB 2.0 instead of FireWire... It has it's own power chord and supply and Doesn't come with remote control. I'm using it with a PCI USB 2.0 card with OS 10.3.8! If I could have afforded an Eye TV 200, I would have probably gotten that as I can imagine it works just as good if not better than the Plextor... But the Plextor works very well.

No Sync Problems, No heavy CPU load...Slim Design.. sit's on top of my VCR. Great TV picture on my Macintosh