Video Capture device for Mini/ibook

[Papercut]

I live in Taiwan and wish to capture tv over here onto my Hp lappytop. When Tiger comes out i'm gonna switch "back" to a Mini or ibook (Mac Plus, SE, II, iMac G3 600 all were once in my family :D ). Right now on my unstable, monthly reformatted laptop I have USB 1.1 and Firewire, and serial ports open. I'm looking for a commonly available device TV tuner or video cpture card that will also work with the Macs. Any suggestions? :)

[jelloshotsrule]

i'd recommend eyetv... whichever one works in your location

the software is far superior to that of formac's. i've had both (currently have the eyetv 200)

check out... www.elgato.com

[Miner Willy]

Yep I agree and I'd go with the elgato too.

What I would look at if you have a budget is the new eyetv Wonder USB 2.0 (http://elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvwonder&PHPSESSID=c4004beee65418f2733e110b287bff49) it should be as good as the firewire version and it uses the same EyeTV software.

If anyone has used one how about posting a short review about it (I know the EyeTV 200 has been done to death here ;) )

[mim]

i'd recommend eyetv... whichever one works in your location

the software is far superior to that of formac's. i've had both (currently have the eyetv 200)

check out... www.elgato.com

Only problem is that eyeTv only supports mac (ie no PC drivers). If the Taiwan TV stations broadcast in digital format, you could go the eyeTv400 which is a DVB-T receiver. I'm going to save up for one of these and a mini-mac to go with it ;)

[mim]

I live in Taiwan and wish to capture tv over here onto my Hp lappytop. When Tiger comes out i'm gonna switch "back" to a Mini or ibook (Mac Plus, SE, II, iMac G3 600 all were once in my family :D ). Right now on my unstable, monthly reformatted laptop I have USB 1.1 and Firewire, and serial ports open. I'm looking for a commonly available device TV tuner or video cpture card that will also work with the Macs. Any suggestions? :)

Sorry, I should also mention that 'saving' Tv/video is a pretty intensive process, and requires a fair bit of bandwidth for transferring. What this boils down to is that serial ports are not going to work. USB 1.1 will only work if you save at really bad resolutions (I'm not sure if anybody still makes USB1.1 video capture boxes anyway). So your only option is an external firewire device. I really would wait for the Mac so you can get the eyeTv box with it - from what I've looked at, it really is your best bet.

[Papercut]

Thanks for all the advise. I just went to the technology district here and checked out some prices on some pc only capture sevices. Everything was USB2 no firewire. The prices were about 50 to 80 USD so I might just spring for both a pc and mac version as tiger is still a few months away. It does look sweet though. Wish I still had my iMac 600...
BTW- mp3 players here are sometimes generically called iPods.