Such a product?

[milzay]

I've been looking for a tv card for my iMac 17" and found that there's not much of a choice. Really only Formac Studio TVR and EyeTV 300. Everything else is not firwire so quality is gonna suck and other firwire products like canopus etc. do not include a tv tuner.
Now the formac seems really good and will probably purchase this product in the future, however its a pain in the ass. The price of the Formac in the USA is $300, about $170, however the rpice in the UK is £350. Twice as much. So I'm thinking to get the thing imported but even so it will be cheaper, but still really quite expensive.
The only other alternative i can see to this problem is buy somehow getting a PCI card to work without being slotted in. Now that sounds pretty stupid, but internal hardrives can be put into firewire cases so they'll work using firewire. Now back to my point is there a firwire caddy for PCI cards so i could use a pci card which is way cheaper through firewire. Im very doubful but is there anything like this or similar.
Thanks and mind the mistakes i wrote this at 4am

 

[Finiksa]

Re: Such a product?

Originally posted by milzay
So I'm thinking to get the thing imported but even so it will be cheaper, but still really quite expensive.

I wouldn't get it imported, the US version uses an NTSC tuner and the UK version is PAL.

As for the external PCI enclosure, I did see one in the long long ago however it used a PCMCIA interface. I don't think a FireWire device has ever been produced.

 

[milzay]

I checked the NTSC thing out, and there is an American company had also provide PAL tuners with the formac studio tvr and do deliver to the UK. I contacted them and i'm just waiting for a reply.

 

[mnkeybsness]

i spent $350 (US) building a media computer for TV recording, watching movies and downloaded tv shows, and playing arcade/nes/snes games. it makes so much more sense to go that route, even though i use windows on it to run myhtpc. if you really hate windows that much and want to build a media computer, look into [url="http://www.mythtv.com]MythTV[/url]

 

[cubist]

Formac seems to be out of business. MacOSRumors says Apple is building a video-to-Firewire interface. They may be full of you-know-what, but it still might be a good idea to wait until after MWNY before buying anything.

Building a PC just for this purpose would be like buying a Daewoo because you admire their hubcaps.

 

[milzay]

-----> Video Adapter

Thanks for the advice cubist. I'm gonna wait a while and see what happens. Moving the topic along yesterday i bought the apple video adapter. Goes in the vga port on the imac to give a video out and s-video out. Mine doesn't seem to be working, any tips.
Here's some information:
I've got a 17" imac (widscreen) and PAL tv (not widescreen)
I've tried on two TVs both the same (pal)
I've tried changing the resolution, but it dosn' seems to make a difference, any advice.
Thanks
Milzay

 

[KBFinFan]

I had the exact same question but was afraid to ask...

Maybe we should develop a PCI enclosure... think of the possibilites.

</dumb idea>

 

[sahnert]

Re: -----> Video Adapter

Originally posted by milzay
Thanks for the advice cubist. I'm gonna wait a while and see what happens. Moving the topic along yesterday i bought the apple video adapter. Goes in the vga port on the imac to give a video out and s-video out. Mine doesn't seem to be working, any tips.
Here's some information:
I've got a 17" imac (widscreen) and PAL tv (not widescreen)
I've tried on two TVs both the same (pal)
I've tried changing the resolution, but it dosn' seems to make a difference, any advice.
Thanks
Milzay

when I used mine with my rev.a powerbook it seems like there was a place in system preferences > displays to chance ntsc to pal. I'll check it out if I get time.

 

[Dreadnought]

Originally posted by KBFinFan
I had the exact same question but was afraid to ask...

Maybe we should develop a PCI enclosure... think of the possibilites.

</dumb idea>

Well, I still have a pci card that you connect to an external enclosure and that enclosure holds two ports for NUBUS cards, and have a bunch of NUBUS stick in cards. I believe this was for a server solution, to rackmount it. I never could get it to run stable, so I haven't working now. It's really, really old, from the days that Apple went from NUBUS to PCI.

 

[milzay]

my video adapter's working now. It just neede to be pushed in a bit more. Has anyone heard anymore on the Apple firewire solution.
Milzay

Ps- What's MWNY?

 

[rdowns]

Originally posted by milzay


Ps- What's MWNY?

MacWorld New York.

I believe he meant MacWorld San Francisco which begins tomorrow.



edit: typo

 

[Mord]

Originally posted by cubist

Building a PC just for this purpose would be like buying a Daewoo because you admire their hubcaps.

what have you got against daewoo?

I to own a cube