Formac Studio TVR

[cwright]

I know I've been posting alot recently about different TV tuners, so bear with me:
After spending weeks trying to decide between the EyeTV 200 and AlchemyTV DVR, I realized that I had completely forgotten about the Formac Studio TVR.

Now, I'm getting a bit concerned about all of the negative reviews I'm reading about this product, but they all seem to be referring to good hardware with crappy software. And this can be solved by using Vidi instead, which is reportedly an excellent piece of FREE software.

Now, the main reason I'm considering this over the EyeTV 200 is the fact that it also has a Digital to Analog converter. I like the idea of editing video in Final Cut Pro with a preview TV monitor without having my GL2 plugged in. This is just a convenience, really, but in a college dorm I would appreciate not having to leave my expensive camera out all the time just asking to be stolen.

Other than that it seems to be very similar to the Eye TV 200.

So anyway, what do you think? Has anyone here ever used the Studio DVR?

 

[cwright]

bump

I'm thinking about ordering the formac studio tvr today, but I just called formac and they didnt know much about using it with Final Cut Pro. He said that he knew you can record from the studio tvr's inputs with FCP, but he didn't know for sure if FCP can output video back through the unit to a preview monitor.

Can anyone here confirm that this is possible?

 

[Stike]

Hey there, yeah I have a Formac Studio TVR (one of the first models, like, 2001 or such, with the original Firmware) and it works very well with Vidi, you can watch TV with it, and you can record the currently set Vidi channel with iMovie or Final Cut hehe
AND Final Cut detects the Studio as a DV camera (just like iChat - you could stream TV over videochat ) and FCP outputs the video signal to the TVR. With a small monitor connected, you can see what you edit on the screen.

You could even connect a VCR to it and make a copy

Right now I notice again what a great device I have here hehehe!

 

[cwright]

Awesome! That's just the response I was looking for... I'll order mine today.

Does yours have an FM tuner in it? The rep I talked to today said only the early models have them and they have since been removed...
Too bad since I only have my computer speakers now and wasnt going to take my stereo with me to college. an FM tuner would have been really nice.

Anyway the Formac should do everything I need it to do. I wish it had a hardware based Mpeg-2 encoder like the EyeTV 200 does, because DV takes so much space, but I can live with that.

One other question for you... can the Vidi software take all your recorded shows and output them to a connected TV as well? And if it does, can it also take any other quicktime movie and send it to a TV as well, without having to put the movie in a FCP timeline?

 

[Freg3000]

I know you are looking for help, but thank you for providing some for me. I have the Studio TVR and had never heard of Vidi. The software Formac provides isn't horrible, but I am eager to try out Vidi, which looks awesome.

Good luck with your purchase the Studio is a great piece of hardware.

 

[cwright]

hey, thanks... I appreciate all the positive feedback I can get. Lots of the reviews I found online were not so great, but I think most referred to the included software, and I plan on using Vidi.

Let me know how it works out for you!