Firewire eyetv!?

[extremo]

I did search the forums but didnt find exactly what i needed so...

Im looking at buying a firwire eyetv to digitize some old vhs tapes, and as a bonus record some TV! i was wondering how the quality is on one of these, and how they compare to just plain anolog converters? I would also appreciate a general review of the editing software if anyone has one!

Thanks in advance
extremo

 

[sandman42]

I have a USB EyeTV, and I use it A LOT. I'm very happy with it. The USB variety uses MPEG-1, but even at that the video's pretty good. The Firewire versions use MPEG-2 (same as DVD), so I imagine the video's significantly better. The USB version is about as good as low-grade VHS.

The editor's pretty basic - it lets you 'mark' portions of a recording, which can then be either exported or eliminated (or both). The editor does not let you go through your video frame by frame, but it does let you step through it in increments of 1/2 second or less. It does not offer any effects or anything like that (like iMovie), just lets you identify portions of your recording to save (as clips) or to eliminate (e.g. commercials).