[bens1901]

Hi all.

I've seen a few posts about getting video onto the mac, but I haven't seen EyeTV 200 compared to the others.

Here's what I'm looking to do: take my VCR tapes and feed them into my mac, then burn the video onto DVDs.

2 questions:
-is there hardware/software on the mac that is affordable and capable of performing this function
-if such a thing exists, what would you recommend and how much is it?

I know that this topic has been discussed quite a bit in the past, and I apologize for brining it up again. I now have some money to spend, so I'm interested in hearing what people think about the most up-to-date products out there.

Thanks in advance.

-Ben

[grovberg]

I'll share that I was considering purchasing the EyeTV for this very purpose, but if you have any heavy editing in mind, the advice I found here on this very forum was to use another solution. Most of the other boxes mentioned here import in DV format, but the EyeTV uses the MPEG-2 format natively (which is the same format you will need for DVDs). I am currently using a Canopus ADVC-100 (which should definitely be on your short list if you do go the DV route), and was considering the EyeTv as a means of eliminating the rather long render times for DV -> MPEG-2. However, editing an MPEG-2 file is the very definition of frustration. Even on a very fast machine (I've tried it on a Dual 1.8 G5 at work), in a standard editor you will get frustratingly long delays when you access the video for editing, making it basically pointless.

On the other hand, the EyeTV comes with an editor that I would have to assume works better than that (I'm not willing to buy the deck to comfirm or deny that...anyone else out there already have one willing to give a report?), so if you editing needs are light (ie just removing commericals), then it might not be a bad way to go since it will save you the render time (I was considering spending several hundred dollars to get around that if that tells you how annoyingly long it can be). EyeTv also has some really nice features like a TiVo-ish EPG, streaming to their EyeHome boxes in your home theatre and to other machines (including live TV to Mac and Windows PCs with the third party CyTv).

Just my $0.02
-Grover

[hoopz]

I think that the EyeTV software is technically free to download; if you want to see what the editor is like, why not head on over to http://www.elgato.com/support and check it out?

(I know the links say update, but the download is actually the full app.)

[tr]

bens1901, i've been doing similar things to what you want to do. i use the ADS Instant DVD for Mac(it's about $179 here). it's sort of like the eyeTV 200, except that it's USB and it doesn't have PVR features. i capture television (either from cable box or from VCR) in mpeg-2, edit the mpeg-2 file using their included editor. to make a DVD, i just take the edited files, and drop them in Toast Titanium 6, and hit burn. the ADS box does come with an iDVD-like (Pixela CaptyDVD-a poor man's iDVD) application to author DVD's; you can make menus and buttons and backgrounds and such. i really don't care about that stuff, my main goal is to get the shows onto DVD. if i let Toast make the DVD, it makes menus automatically, and puts in chapter markers. they aren't the best menus and chapter markers, but they work for me.

i used to use a Canopus ADVC-100, but it was too damn slow to capture in DV, then convert to mpeg-2. since i was working on my piddly G4 450, i needed a way to capture directly into mpeg-2 so i wouldn't burden my processor with the conversion. with the ADS box, i capture mpeg-2 in real time.

check out these topics about the ADS Instant DVD:
http://forums.macnn.com/search.php?s...der=descending

hoopz, i didn't know el gato had the software for download, i'll have to try it out, to see how it compares to the Pixela Capty software.

tr