[pasha]

I moved up from a 8500 to a 9600/350. The machine is great to work in on under... Even when UPS shipped the damn thing and dropped it a number of times, I was still able to reassemble it & go to work. The point: I miss those connectors for Audio & Video on the 8500. A lot. I went so far as to try & put it in the 9600 when I got it. I notice that there is a place on the motherboard where that connector COULD go. I write wondering if anyone out there went to the trouble to procure the connector & such to install the A/V Ports on the 9600, by means such as soldering. OK, well I am also interested in a more practical solution, say a PCI card that has those same connectors, I would still take the chance to add to the motherboard. (Heck, its been banged around & fiddled with so much by now that NO warrantee would ever cover it...)

Thanks...

Saudering sounds, for one thing, a rather risky procedure. I'm not sure if there's even the right connections on the 9600 board to do it. If the cost of a new Media 100 board or other PCI card with a video in/out is not prohibitively expensive for you, it is probably your best option. The 9600 was designed for expansion, and for people that needed better video input than the 8500 video in was capable of. Hence, Apple expected users of the 9600 to buy a 3rd party A/V card if they needed to work with video. Firewire is also quite expensive if you don't have a video camera that supports it. If you plan on getting a firewire ready video camera (one from Canon or Sony) Firewire cards are availible for ~ $169, cheaper than the cost of a Media 100 setup. Best of luck.

[zac4mac]

Pasha,
instead of buggering up your new 9600 motherboard, consider putting in an ATi Xclaim VR 128 in a PCI slot. It supposedly has AV in/out and 16Mb VRAM. I was and still am considering putting one in my 8500, although i gave up waiting for it to come out and installed an Orion. If you need more than the Xclaim can deliver, be prepared to cough up some serious bucks, but it should be a significant improvement over stock 8500 in/out.