Capturing Video from Devices

I'm almost certain what i need to do this, but just want to be 100% sure.

To capture video from devices like and Xbox, DVD player, PS2, etc...

I would use the Apple DVI to Video Adapter right?

Nope that is for outputting video only. You would need something like the EyeTV

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvmain&PHPSESSID=ffbf3e79cd3f531eb7a72dd534fb6837

The EyeTV Wonder is the only one that has a low enough latency to allow you to play games using your mac but it still has a slight delay

would you happen to have a cheaper solution?

You aren't going to find anything cheaper than that really

Or if you have a DV camera lying around that supports analog throughput, just hook that up via the analog ins and connect it to the mac via the firewire out and the macs firewire port...

But that's only cheaper if you already have one...

trpnmonkey41 said:

Nope that is for outputting video only. You would need something like the EyeTV

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvmain&PHPSESSID=ffbf3e79cd3f531eb7a72dd534fb6837

The EyeTV Wonder is the only one that has a low enough latency to allow you to play games using your mac but it still has a slight delay

Click to expand...

Trpnmonkey: Will this soloution work for a powerbook, or only g5s?

Should work on any current mac. (I think it requires a fairly speedy system i.e. 1Ghz upwards...)

PowerBookG4 said:

Trpnmonkey: Will this soloution work for a powerbook, or only g5s?

Click to expand...

I use the EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0 (http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvwonder)

• Macintosh computer with a PowerPC® G4 processor with built-in USB 2.0 port for VCD, OR Macintosh computer with dual processor G4 or G5 with built-in USB 2.0 port for Standard quality (DVD 120 min), OR Macintosh computer with dual processor G5 for High quality (DVD 90 min)
• 256 MB of physical RAM (512 MB recommended)
• USB 2.0 port
• Mac OS X v10.3.9 or Mac OS X v10.4 (or later)
• 20 MB of free disk space required to install application
• 2 GB of free disk space for one hour of recorded TV
• An Internet connection to use optional online TV guide (EPG) from TitanTV (US)
• A CD/DVD recorder and Toast® 6 Titanium software (not included) are required to create DVDs, SVCDs or Video CDs (optional)

To watch at full quality doesn't require too much power but importing needs very powerful processors. I have the iMac G5 1.8 with a gig of ram and capturing at full quality puts my CPU usage at 100% and gets very choppy if I have other things running, so I just use 120min DVD quality instead of 60 unless I am going to archive it and want the best quality (usually I just save things to watch later, watch them and erase).

The EyeTV 200 doesn't require as much power because it is a hardware encoder whereas the EyeTV Wonder is a software encoder. The reason I chose the Wonder is because it has a low latency allowing me to play video games through it (Useful at school so I don't need to have a TV). The Hardware encoders have a delay because of the rendering in the encoders (which significantly reduces system requirements)

Would it possible to toss in a PCI card?

Should also work if you can find one that is mac compatible...

There are not many mac compatible video capture cards and they aren't very cheap