05-08-2010, 11:18 PM

I've seen countless threads/articles/u name it, on how to get ur mac desktop to appear on your tv (i.e using your HDTV as a second or primary display from a mac source) which is fine. what i have yet to find is how to mirror your TV's image onto your mac (basically the reverse) is this even possible to do at all?

to clarify, im not asking because I want to play a movie and try ripping it or anything. I'm trying to find an alternative to recording gameplay from my PS3 to upload later onto YouTube that doesn't involve using things like dazzle or some weird elgato contraption. basically trying to find out if it's possible to mirror the tv image onto my desktop in it's own window so then I can use a screen video capture sw to save the movie to edit in iMovie after. can anyone help?

thx again for the help

D

David
MBP 15 Unibody/2.93 Intel/4GB/320HD
PS3 Slim 250
Samsung LNT4071 40 HDTV

05-08-2010, 11:22 PM

Nope, you require some sort of video capture device (dazzle, pinnacle adapter, elgator, hdpvr, etc.) or some sort of video deck that will take an analog signal and convert it to a digital stream to be fed via firewire to capture in iMovie or FCE or FCP to be able to record a video stream on your Mac.

Other then that, there is no pre-existing video input on a Mac that you can just plug your PS3 into to make a recording - sorry

You'd be surprised how often this question is asked.

05-09-2010, 08:49 AM

It is not possible on "any" computer, whether you're running OS X, Windows or Linux to capture video from a standard set top DVD player, TV, o-t-a broadcast signals, satellite or cable TV signals, or from any gaming device without a hardware video capture device such as the ElGato devices for the Mac. There are a couple of others out there and there are a great many for Windows. Sorry, but that's how it's done.

05-10-2010, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Potorikan

I've seen countless threads/articles/u name it, on how to get ur mac desktop to appear on your tv (i.e using your HDTV as a second or primary display from a mac source) which is fine. what i have yet to find is how to mirror your TV's image onto your mac (basically the reverse) is this even possible to do at all?

to clarify, im not asking because I want to play a movie and try ripping it or anything. I'm trying to find an alternative to recording gameplay from my PS3 to upload later onto YouTube that doesn't involve using things like dazzle or some weird elgato contraption. basically trying to find out if it's possible to mirror the tv image onto my desktop in it's own window so then I can use a screen video capture sw to save the movie to edit in iMovie after. can anyone help?

thx again for the help

D

David
MBP 15 Unibody/2.93 Intel/4GB/320HD
PS3 Slim 250
Samsung LNT4071 40 HDTV

Well yes... if you absolutely have to get your TV picture onto your mac without using those pesky capture cards. You can do it... but the results will not be great but might be good enough for posting game play onto youtube.

Take your macbook and place it in front of the TV facing the TV... Now position the screen of the macbook so the camera captures the TV image. In other words you use the mac's camera to capture the TV image like you were using a camcorder. It wont give you great results but it will allow you to capture game play. To maximize the quality... adjust the TV to bright setting, turn off the lights in the room, turn off the macbook's screen to eliminate reflections. and try to set your macbook so the camera is dead center of the TV and pointing straight at it.

Of course after reviewing the results you may find that a pesky thing like a capture card makes up for the difficulty in set-up with quality of image.

05-10-2010, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by thomas998

Well yes... if you absolutely have to get your TV picture onto your mac without using those pesky capture cards. You can do it... but the results will not be great but might be good enough for posting game play onto youtube.

Take your macbook and place it in front of the TV facing the TV... Now position the screen of the macbook so the camera captures the TV image. In other words you use the mac's camera to capture the TV image like you were using a camcorder. It wont give you great results but it will allow you to capture game play. To maximize the quality... adjust the TV to bright setting, turn off the lights in the room, turn off the macbook's screen to eliminate reflections. and try to set your macbook so the camera is dead center of the TV and pointing straight at it.

Of course after reviewing the results you may find that a pesky thing like a capture card makes up for the difficulty in set-up with quality of image.

Have to admit, that's a good one.