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ajtpolo · Jul 25, 2000, 05:20 AM

I'm looking to purchase both a TV tuner/card for my new G4 and a CD-RW drive. I am looking for a cheap solution for the TV tuner, any suggestions?

For the CD-RW drive, I am looking to conserve money, but I also don't want to buy a drive that will only burn 1 in 10 disks successfully. I have worries about going USB at all for this. Suggestions? Is USB acceptable (and if so, what kind of record do they have for successful burns?) or do I definately need to go firewire. If firewire is a must any suggestions for keeping costs down?

Thanks,
-ajtpolo

Cipher13 · Jul 25, 2000, 07:16 AM

If you can avoid USB, avoid USB. Go firewire if you have to, but personally I'd recommend SCSI. Most people in here will say "SCSI? No way! Go firewire!", but I'd still choose SCSI over firewire, even if it means buying a SCSI card.
FYI I have a Yamaha 8424 SCSI external burner, and 100% success rate. Brilliant burner.

Cipher13

ajtpolo · Jul 25, 2000, 02:27 PM

Unfortunately, for cost reasons, SCSI is probably out of the question (gotta buy SCSI card first - then expensive drive). Has anyone had experience with the USB drives, i.e. how bad are they? I'd like to go for a relatively standard drive like QPS' Que or a LaCie or something. Thanks for your help.

-ajtpolo

Jul 25, 2000, 03:13 PM

I have a Que! 4x2x8 usb working with my slot imac very nicely. Had it for a few months have burned about 100 disks. 100% success rate burning high quality media, though only writes audio at 2x. Manufacturer claims this is inherent to usb?! Why audio is different than data I don't know, anyone else?

Evangellydonut · Jul 25, 2000, 04:33 PM

ajtpolo, definitely get a SCSI. First, USBs are infamous with slow burning speed limitations of 4x and 2x for music cds, and second, it has a higher failure rate than SCSI.

If you ordered a built-in SCSI card with your G4, it would've been US$50 (happy, cipher13?), but buying one seperately from Adaptec would cost US$80...Then US$20 for a SCSI cable, and 'bout US$225-300 for 8x-12x external (internal 'bout $50 cheaper, and you can get the IDE version too) CDRW...Also I think Philips has an internal IDE DVD/CDRW (4DVD/4CDW/4CDRW/32CD?) for about $250 that you can use to replace whatever you currently have in your drive bay.

Personally, I have a 6/4/16 Ext SCSI CDRW from Yamaha which I bought before their 8x drive came out, and burned 'bout 100 CDs with no failure! (4 'failed' because I didn't know how to copy VCDs and get around other forms of copy protection at the time, but none due to burner)

On the other hand, if you buy USB, it'll probably run to 'bout $250-350 for an external, but you'll have to wait longer for each cd to burn, especially music cds...
As for firewire, hell no! I'm not sure the current state of firewire, but last time I heard, there isn't a whole lot of "true" firewire yet. Mostly its just IDE with a firewire adaptor casing...at least that's the case with all the external FW HDs.

Evangellydonut · Jul 25, 2000, 05:05 PM

oh, forgot 'bout your TV card question...I have no clue what's currently avilable as far as TV card for the Mac is concerned...a while back, I got an ixMicro TV/FM tuner...since then, they went out of business. ATI made an all-in-wonder Rage128Pro, but never released for the Mac...I haven't flipped through a Mac catalogue for some time...but I think that's more less of a void for the time being.

There is a mention of an USB TV tuner of sort, but it's very limited by bandwidth. What I'm wondering is if Apple will have USB2.0 on their machines soon, that'll eliminate almost all of the problems regarding USB currently. (burner speed problem, tv tuner problem, etc)

ajtpolo · Jul 25, 2000, 05:42 PM

as far as the TV card g is concerned, my latest macwarehouse catalog has a product, from the company Formac, called ProTV which sells for about $99. anyone have any experience or suggestions about this?

PatGmac · Jul 27, 2000, 05:57 PM

Originally posted by ajtpolo:
as far as the TV card g is concerned, my latest macwarehouse catalog has a product, from the company Formac, called ProTV which sells for about $99. anyone have any experience or suggestions about this?

I'm very happy with the quality of the ProTV but the software could be better (partly Apple's crappy video API), keeps reverting back to PAL, just a bit annoying. Still recommended, looks great at full screen 640x480.

Aug 1, 2000, 10:19 PM

Avoid the Sony CD-R drive...they can't burn 80 minutes CD. And they have a poor helpdesk.

pdot · Aug 2, 2000, 01:48 AM

Actually, I got the Sony Spressa USB to burn a 700 MB disk. However, I was not making a audio disk. I have to admit though, the software for it is very beta-like. I can't reboot my comp (except w/ the lil' button in front of my G4) thru software.

Aug 2, 2000, 10:05 AM

Yes you can burn 700 Megs disk if the content is smaller than 686 Megs or 78,5 min. If you try to burn a file of 690 Megs...the burn will fail when the CD-R try to finish the session. And Sony give no support for 80 minutes CD. I don't recommand this drive to anyone. Its a waste of money!!!

blizaine · Aug 2, 2000, 10:09 AM

I have a graphite/Ice QPS 8x4x32x firwire CD-RW and it is AWESOME!!!! I have had it since about mid Feb. and I use it several times a week and I have NEVER had a bad burn (coaster). This drive is great!

I used to have a 2x SCSI burner that would give me a coaster ever 4 burns or so. And when you have to wait 30 minutes for a burn to complete, that's a real pain. (Granted this was one of the first generation burners. Basically before anyone even new that burning a CD was possible at home. It cost me $650... crazy!)

Go Firewire, and go QPS. Not only do they perform perfectly, they look great next to your Mac. (oh yeah! and it will burn 80 min disks. That's all I ever buy.)

later

[This message has been edited by blizaine (edited 08-02-2000).]

luap82 · Aug 3, 2000, 01:40 PM

"if you ordered a built-in SCSI card with your G4, it would've been US$50 (happy, cipher13?), but buying one seperately from Adaptec would cost US$80...Then US$20 for a SCSI cable, and 'bout US$225-300 for 8x-12x external (internal 'bout $50 cheaper, and you can get the IDE version too)"

not true. There are a number of SCSI cards that you can buy, and you can get an Adaptec for 50 bucks (another for 100) but it isnt any cheaper when you BTO.

I have a SCSI 4x yamaha as well as a SCSI scanner and i am buying a new G4 and i finally decided to sell my scanner and cdrw to my brother, who will be using my old computer, and get a usb scanner and firewire drive. I ordered the QPS Que! drive (it comes today i cant wait! even though i cant use it until my backordered G4 comes in) but anyway, thats my story, advice and whatnot.
-LUAP