Video capture device for ibook?

[prophet621]

I'm looking for a good but inexpensive device to capture video from a camera to my ibook. On my PC I used Pinnicle Dazzle Fusion but it doesn't seem to work with macs unless there is a setting somewhere I missed when I tried it.

Any suggestions?

 

[rjphoto]

I'm looking for a good but inexpensive device to capture video from a camera to my ibook. On my PC I used Pinnicle Dazzle Fusion but it doesn't seem to work with macs unless there is a setting somewhere I missed when I tried it.

Any suggestions?

Couple of questions.
What kind of camera are you using?

What kind of quality are you looking for and what is your desired end result?

What is your limit of "inexpensive"?

The Dazzle Fusion will only give you 352x240 pixels for NTSC if you can get it to work on the Mac. I have an old Dazzle product that was the same resolution. I used it for frame grabs mostly.

Also, check out this review at MacWorld:
http://www.macworld.com/2001/08/reviews/converters/

Currently I'm using the FORMAC that they talk about in the review.

Also check out the EyeTV200 or 500 from Elgato.

You can also use some DV Camcorders that will allow video pass through to DV. I have a Sony MiniDV TVR122 that I also use.

 

[prophet621]

Thanks for the reply, they are a bit more than my wife would let me spend at the moment, perhaps for christmas she would like one.

Anyway, I have a sony camcorder I wanted to get the movies off of but as I mentioned, I can use Fusion and my PC for that and as you mentioned it has limited capture quality.

I had this idea that I wanted to try out. I have a mini wireless video camera and I wanted to hook it up to my RC helicopter and hook the receiver up to my ibook but the receiver uses RCA jacks so I need something that can capture it (or just show live) on my ibook sice it's much lighter than my laptop and better battery life. One of those ideas that have absolutely no practical purpose but want to try.

 

[rjphoto]

Anyway, I have a sony camcorder I wanted to get the movies off of

I had this idea that I wanted to try out. I have a mini wireless video camera and I wanted to hook it up to my RC helicopter and hook the receiver up to my ibook but the receiver uses RCA jacks so I need something that can capture it (or just show live) on my ibook sice it's much lighter than my laptop and better battery life. One of those ideas that have absolutely no practical purpose but want to try.

What Sony Camcorder do you have? Is it High8mm or Digital8 or MiniDV???
Digital8 and Mini DV would be great. You just need a Firewire cable to plug in to the laptop ($20 or less).
If it's High8mm (or standard 8mm) it's time to upgrade and when you do get one that you can plug the old camera into and pass that video onto the Firewire connection to the computer.

PM me for more info on that.

As for the RC Copter, that would be cool. My son wants to do the same thing to his high-end RC Car.

Try it with a monitor first. I have an LCD 5" TV that I picked up at KMart that has a standard stereo phone jack for the AV inputs, but it came with a cable to plug into standard AV jacks on a VCR. I used a Radioshack barrel connector to bridge to the same type of plug for a digital camera so I could view it remotely on a copy stand for forensic photography.