[Ricci Adams]

Hello all,

I need a device to watch TV on my Mac. I have read the other threads regarding this topic, but my situation is a bit different: I get my cable through a digital cable box that has both coax and RCA outputs.

Because the end device will always be on channel 3, this makes the eyeTV's PVR features worthless to me. In addition, I have no need for the TV tuner portion of the eyeTV or the Formac Studio DV/TV.

This is why I am currently looking at the Formac Studio DV for $289. It has RCA input for the signal from the digital cable box, and it can go to firewire via my computer.

The big concern I have is CPU usage and software. What software can I use to view the firewire TV signal coming from the Studio DV; also, will it eat up a lot of my CPU?

Thanks!
Ricci Adams

[MikeD]

I'd like to see some of the same answers. Does it just go into iMovie or FCP??

[GORDYmac]

The general consensus seems to be the following:

EyeTV: Excellent software, great for TV/PVR capabilities. Video size is 320 x 240 MPEG1 (1 hour 600+MB standard quality, 30 minutes 600+MB high quality). High quality looks okay on TV (via VCD), with a slight blur. Great for editing recorded shows. Seamless VCD creation with Toast. Cumbersome process to use recorded shows in other applications (iMovie, FCP, etc.). Recordings have to be demuxed and audio & video reattached in a new format. Great support from El Gato, numerous improvements since its release. I have EyeTV. Love it! It never seems to take up more that 30% CPU with the viewer open. Much less with it closed. There is talk of El Gato releasing a dongle to change channels on satellite and digital cable.

Studio: Excellent quality, software needs improvement. Captures in DV--huge files compared to EyeTV. This is a better option if TV/PVR use is not paramount. Recordings are easily incorporated into other apps.

[Diggory Laycock]

I use the formac studio with Non-formac software - Vidi (http://mitzpettel.com/software/vidi.html)

It is still in Beta - but it has a cool feature - where you can record in the background - so CPU usage is much less than normal (23% vs. 78% on my 400MHZ G4 tower)

The quality on the formac is amazing - you are effectively ripping analogue video signals to DV (so it takes up a lot of space. - about 3.5MB per Second)

- when you stream it back out to the tv later - it's like watching normal TV (except that it's only Stereo instead of Dolby)

[joe]

I agree with Diggory, Vidi is totally amazing with my Formac Studio dv/tv. Aside from some very convenient and unique features (like always recording at full 720*480 DV spec regarless of viewer size), Vidi's GUI seems to be smoother and faster overall. And it's been updated 3x since it was released only a couple of weeks ago (more or less). This is ESPECIALLY cool, I wish Formac's software was updated that often as more frequent updates would cure a lot of StudioTVR's problems. About the only problem I'm having with it now is with full screen mode - sometimes it goes into a sort of stop-action security camera like mode. Other times it's perfect. This just happened with the most recent update - not sure if it's related to the new float feature (which kicks ass). No biggie as I usually watch it in a small window while multitasking other apps.

It's the extra attention to detail in Vidi that make it stand out. Like automatically using the forward/back thumb buttons on my Logitech MX500 to change channels. Or allowing individual volume settings per TV channel. Vidi is going to be real sweet when it's finished.......joe

[biscool]

I too want to post praise for vidi. I talked to the developer and he said he has FM radio support running but there are still some issues to be worked out. But vidi won't work with only the formac studio, it's need the tv version. The formac studio/dv will work with imovie, etc as a firewire input device. The problem will be getting some pvr functionally, you could use quikkeys x or something to automatically record something via imovie. The non-tv formac does not have any software in the box, you have to use imovie or something else and it works with pc's...

edited to add:
remember you can output stuff back to your tv, which the eyetv can't. The only problem is the files must be in dv format, so you can't encode them into a smaller file format and expect to play them back. But you can convert other video files to dv and play them back on your tv. The halo 2 trailer looks a lot better on a tv

[joe]

Originally posted by biscool:
edited to add:
remember you can output stuff back to your tv, which the eyetv can't. The only problem is the files must be in dv format, so you can't encode them into a smaller file format and expect to play them back. But you can convert other video files to dv and play them back on your tv. The halo 2 trailer looks a lot better on a tv

Or you can just burn it to a DVD instead I made a 4.29gig data DVD of most of my DivX stuff. Of course, that won't play in a standalone DVD player. But using the Devideon DVD burner software can encode a video DVD up to 6 hours long that will play back in modern DVD decks. A 2 hour video DVD is more compatible with older decks though. Either way you can offload those DV files from your hard drive and still keep the higher res and longer run time. I bought a Devideon burner, but with more new Macs coming with Superdrives this seems like a good choice. Burning to DVD in particular is why I like the Vidi feature mentioned above - record at the standard video DVD res of 720*480 even when the Vidi window is at a smaller size. Of course it would probably be a good idea to make that feature optional in case someone wanted to record at 320*240 on occasion.

It's the little Vidi extras like this that convinces me Vidi author Mitz Pettel uses a Formac DV/TV on a regular basis (compared to StudioTVR author). Mitz just KNOWS how to get the maximum benefit from the Studio dv/tv and he knows what features we've been wanting. Formac ought to hire this guy to redo their Studio software IMHO. It's not that Formac's StudioTVR doesn't have a lot of the same features. It's that Vidi has those little extras that make it more useable AND it does everything faster, better, and smoother IMHO. Personally, I think Formac did a much better job with their Devideon software than their studio software - though Devideon still needs one last feature to make it perfect (chapter markers)........joe