[Dgysy]

Other than the Formac having a built in harddrive (and looking cooler), is there any other reason to get it over El Gato Eye TV?

I

[KeilwerthSX90R]

Based on what I've heard, the Formac studio cannot perform advanced TV Tuner functions. So the Formac would be great for DV quality capture of a TV show you are watching, or from another source such as a VCR. On the other hand, it cannot operate as a Digital Video Recorder because you cannot schedule broadcasts to get recording.

EyeTV is Digital Video Recorder for the Mac. It schedules programs to record and the TV Tuner looks more integrated than the tuner options for the Formac. Something to consider is that EyeTV saves files as Mpeg1 and uses USB while the Formac uses firewire and DV quality for better quality recordings.

Personally, I'm looking for good software that will allow me to use the Formac studio as a DVR so I can schedule it to save programs. Another things about the Formac is that they have one version of the studio for $399 (?) w/o the HD, and the one w/ the HD is $999(?). If those are the actual prices, you could get a cheaper and larger Firewire HD and use it with the cheaper version of the Formac Studio.

[joe]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by Dgysy:
<strong>Other than the Formac having a built in harddrive (and looking cooler), is there any other reason to get it over El Gato Eye TV?

I</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Resolution, video quality, speed, hardware based DV compression (real time), audio video i/o (instead of output-only), composite and S-video ports, Firewire, OS9 and OSX software... Those are what I can think of off hand.

On the downside, only the Formac Studio DV/TVR ($999) has the ability to do scheduled recording. And it hasn't been released yet (est July availability). The lower model Studio DV/TV ($399) does not have the scheduled recording feature. That is a big plus in the EyeTV's favor. If El Gato would offer a higher end Firewire version of their EyeTV with higher resolution, it would definitely give the Formac Studio a run for the money.........joe