Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

FozzieUK · Dec 6, 2003, 01:10 PM

I want to import TV and video through S-Video and write DVD's of the files.

I tried it at 320 x 200 while using a PC with TV card and thought it was cr@p. The DVD side worked well with Roxio software, it was just the imports were bad.

Got a DP 1.8 G5 now so want to do the same but at full DV resolution. The Formac Studio DV seems perfect for it but on searching the forums it gets a lot of slagging off!

Anyone say anything positive about the Formac or recommend anything else? I like it cos it's bus powered and audio locked. I dont need a TV Tuner and I think that the 'eyeTV' will give similar poor quality to TV card in PC. I have seen the new DV eyeTV's but they don't have video inputs

TIA

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 6, 2003, 02:28 PM

I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what I know from my experience.

I own the USB VideoBus I from Belkin, and it's just like you say, it's crap. But the EyeTV will be orders of magnitude better, because it compresses to MPEG-1 in hardware before the limiting USB step. MPEG scales up very smoothly. It will be a real pain to convert to MPEG-2, but it's also within spec to burn MPEG-1 to DVD, El Gato has instructions for this (I've heard), and that would let you put like 12 hours of footage on one disc. A few hardware DVD players probably ignore that seldom used part of the DVD spec, though.

I also own the firewire Dazzle Hollywood DV bridge, which I assume is much like the Formac product (though DV codecs vary in quality as much as any other codec I imagine). The Dazzle is not bus-powered, but it was cheap, and I fully recommend it (I've heard bad things about their tech support, but I've never had to call it, which does mean something...).

Finally, what I currently use is the Televio PCI card, which I got from DrBott.com, but I guess it's changed vendors (and become cheaper!) since then. This is my favorite product of the 3. It's cheaper than any Firewire product, and it has a tuner in addition to the Video (RCA) input. Also, DV is compressed and lossy (just not very much), but the Televio card imports in the Component codec, which is lossless. My demands aren't that high, so I compress to DV in software while capturing, but it's nice to know the extra quality is there if I need it. I don't know what "audio-locked" means, but I've captured with it for over an hour straight and never had any sync problems (nor with the Dazzle product).

k_munic · Dec 7, 2003, 06:16 AM

i own a formac studio with tv tuner and i'm very happy with it!

it does what it does meant to do, quality is ok (i liek to record tv shows, the tv tuner is a little� weak

but, i dont like to record on my video, then transfer with the formac and then burn dvds....

)

it is expensive, but the dv stream is very good - for me! i'm not a video pro!!!

coitus · Dec 8, 2003, 12:48 PM

I would not wish a Formac product upon my worst enemy. I purchased both the Studio TVR and a Devideon this past June and have endured nothing but problems and hideous customer service/support.

For starters, my Devideon arrived dead straight out of the box. It took me nearly 4-months to get the problems sorted out. I had to pay shipping on it (twice) to send it in for repairs. On the initial repair they took the firewire bridge (the apparent source of the problem) out of my brand new model and replaced it with a firewire bridge from one of their former models. I had to threaten to call the Better Business Bureau before they conceded to sending me a new "unopened" unit.

To add to my discontent, once my Devideon was returned and fully-functioning I decided to try out my Studio TVR only to discover that it won't work with ANY sort of consistency.

I really only want to record TV shows so I can then watch them while traveling. As a result, I want them in QT format (6 GB for each half-hour of video) rather than DV format (approximately 1 GB per minute of video) because my TiBook has only a 40-GB drive.

The Studio TVR software will not record a full 60-minute program. I am recording on my G4 dual-processor tower with 90-GB of empty space but it doesn't seem to matter. The software stops recording but doesn't post any error or cause for stopping. Over 90% of the time it fails to record for even 5-minutes before quitting. This happens regardless of if I use one-touch recording or if I've downloaded programming from Titan TV.

I've tried for a month to contact customer support but have yet to receive a response via email. I've tried their phone support but NEVER have reached a person or had a phone call returned. There are recent reports on MacinTouch about their offices in California unexpectedly shutting down. A few have ordered products and have been billed but have no word of if their products are shipping or will ship soon. It is impossible to contact them...

In short, avoid FORMAC like the plague. Save your cash and your sanity...but another product.

coitus

FozzieUK · Dec 8, 2003, 01:04 PM

Thanks for your input. I have decided to get a Miglia Director's Cut 'Take 2'. In fact it should be here Tuesday so I will report back.

Any decent Personal Video Recorder software out for Mac? This box just streams DV/Audio into firewire socket. I could use iMovie, anything more Tivo like? I have Toast 6 for burning...

Thanks again...

Diggory Laycock · Dec 8, 2003, 06:29 PM

Try Vidi - the newest version allows any firewire video source - not just TVRs any more.

http://www.mitzpettel.com/software/vidi.html

FozzieUK · Dec 9, 2003, 12:27 PM

Well I got my Miglia Director's Cut 'Take 2'. It works ok on PC

on my G5 though the audio isn't there, I just get loads of static.

In iMovie the preview is fine with audio. When I playback a recording I get all the static noise again.

Tried Vidi, again the picture is good but the audio is messed up... just loud noise.

Help anyone...

TIA

FozzieUK · Dec 9, 2003, 03:51 PM

Sorted iMovie out... extract audio... D'oh!

msuper69 · Feb 10, 2004, 10:38 AM

Originally posted by coitus:
...I really only want to record TV shows so I can then watch them while traveling. As a result, I want them in QT format (6 GB for each half-hour of video) rather than DV format (approximately 1 GB per minute of video) because my TiBook has only a 40-GB drive...

Recording in DV using the Formac Studio TVR uses approx. 205kb/min. I'm not sure why your setup is taking a gb/min.

If you have QT Pro you can convert to mp4 and gain a considerable reduction in file size w/o losing too much quality. Might be just the thing for watching on the road.

Originally posted by coitus:
...The Studio TVR software will not record a full 60-minute program...

I've recorded over 2 hours of TV w/nary a problem.

Sorry you are having such bad luck with yours. I am completely happy but I suppose that could change if the hardware breaks.