Digital Video Recorder

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I just bought a new dual 2.8 G5. I would like to be able to watch tv and record tv/video on my mac. I have been looking at the Elgato Eye TV 200 and the Formac Studio TVR. I just wanted to know if anyone has any of these or has heard anything about them. Thanks for your time and any info regarding this is much appreciated.



-Jordan

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JordanEatWorld

    I just bought a new dual 2.8 G5. I would like to be able to watch tv and record tv/video on my mac. I have been looking at the Elgato Eye TV 200 and the Formac Studio TVR. I just wanted to know if anyone has any of these or has heard anything about them. Thanks for your time and any info regarding this is much appreciated.



    -Jordan




    Dual 1.8 you mean.

    I was planning to buy this Mac too, with a Miglia PCI card.

    I am curious which system offers the best picture quality...
  • Reply 2 of 10
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,561member
    I have the original Formac Studio. It is not bad. However, I would be very interested in the El Gato Eye TV 200.



    Both have FW interfaces. The Eye TV 200 compresses videos to MPEG, the Formac works best when just recording to DV format. DV format is nice but consumes 200MB / minute.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    yeah sorry i meant 1.8.



    so which would be best?



    -Jordan
  • Reply 4 of 10
    Everyone I know who's used the Eye TV loves it. It's got the ease-of-use like turning your computer into a mini-Tivo and comes with the software to schedule recordings, etc. If I didn't have a Tivo, I'd probably look into it.



    The Formac's more like the Dazzle Bridge isn't it? A video capture device, but not anything that's going to set up Six Feet Under for you.



    Alex.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    I have an Eye TV USB and just recently got an Eye Home to pipe the video to my TV. I love it.



    My only complaint is that they *still* haven't come out with a blaster to change the channel on the cable box for you.



    Edit: I should also note that I'm going to get either the 200 or the 500 once they come out with the stupid blaster.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    I have read that the USB version has not the same picture quality as the PCI and the firewire version. But perhaps the quality is better if you hace USB 2.0?
  • Reply 7 of 10
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac Hammer Fan

    I have read that the USB version has not the same picture quality as the PCI and the firewire version. But perhaps the quality is better if you hace USB 2.0?



    The USB version records only as MPEG-1 (a bandwidth limitation of USB), and so you get MPEG-1 quality video (looks like an old videotape). The real advantage of the Eye TV, as opposed to the Dazzle or other units, is that the encoding is done as the video is captured. By the time you see the video on your Mac (a 3 second delay), it's been encoded to MPEG-1. With most other units, if you want to store video or move it around, you'll need to convert it to something smaller than DV, which takes lots of time.



    The newer units (the 200 and 500, I believe) are firewire and encode as MPEG-2 (DVD quality).
  • Reply 8 of 10
    I suppose the bandwith of PCI is between USB and Firewire. Is the picture quality of the PCI vertsion of Miglia DVR nearly as good as Firewire? This card is cheap in comparison with the Firewire units.

    I have read in a review that it was at least significantly better than USB.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac Hammer Fan

    I suppose the bandwith of PCI is between USB and Firewire. Is the picture quality of the PCI vertsion of Miglia DVR nearly as good as Firewire? This card is cheap in comparison with the Firewire units.

    I have read in a review that it was at least significantly better than USB.




    Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the bandwidth of PCI was significantly greater than Firewire.



    The point is simply this: DV video takes up a LOT of space. A lot. You'd better have a LARGE hard drive if you want to do anything with it. And you've better have a pretty zippy computer to convert it if you want to save anything. The advantage of the Eye TV is that the conversion is done by the gadget, not by your computer.



    The Miglia unit looks like it records to MPEG-4, which is nice.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    so my best bet, even though its 50 bucks more, is the eyetv 200?



    -Jordan
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