Video Capture Device For Older iMacs

[alfista]

Hi All,

I'm looking to put a cheap imac in the basement in a work area for quick surfing and watching tv. As Slingbox doesn't work well until you get to 1ghz or so, I was figuring I could do a firewire video capture device attached to the tivo that is down there. Does anyone have a hardware recommendation, or any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[ftaok]

Hi All,

I'm looking to put a cheap imac in the basement in a work area for quick surfing and watching tv. As Slingbox doesn't work well until you get to 1ghz or so, I was figuring I could do a firewire video capture device attached to the tivo that is down there. Does anyone have a hardware recommendation, or any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

A miniDV camcorder with A/D pass-thru works fine. However, the video does get jumpy on my iBook G3 500 mhz. I use a freeware app called myVCR to record onto the HD. It's not that great for watching TV. There's another application called Vidi, but I haven't tried it.

Another device is the Canopus ADVC 110. It's about $200. The Canopus adds s-video to the mix, which most miniDV camcorders don't have (although the olders ones do ... cost cutting measures, I guess).

Lastly, you could get an EyeTV unit, but then you wouldn't be using the Tivo. I'm also not sure what the requirements for EyeTV are anymore. But rest assured, EyeTV will give you the best user experience of the 3 I mentioned.