Laptop Video-In

[jsr22788]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if somebody could help. At work we often project multiple things (Cameras, powerpoint, x-box, videos and pictures) on a projector and through feeds onto TVs using a vision mixer. I was asked to record what was projected once, but was unable to as there was no budget for buying new equipment.

I searched for products that would let me do this using my MacBook but all seemed to be very expensive and not well recommened.

I then had the idea of buying a cheap-ish TV tuner for around the £30 mark that would let me watch TV on my Mac, and then when needed nstead of plugging in an aerial get a Phono to Coxial cable and tune in the vision mixer. Would this work? If not are there any other affordable solutions for taking a phono output from the vision mixer into my MacBook.

Also I recently purchased a VGA to Phono cable from eBay simillar to this one;

VGA to Phono

 

but read on different threads like 'VGA to Scart' that an extra bit of kit would be needed to get this to work, is this true?

Any help would be grealty appricated.

[Pete McCrea]

A tuner card works on RF so you'd need to take the vision mixer output and feed it into a modulator. From there you could set the channel it goes too and tune it in on the Macbook.

 

Personally I'd have a look for an external capture card to do the job.

 

VGA to Phono cables won't help either as your dealing with differnt video signals, so simply 'bending' the connector types just won't work. The graphics port on the laptop top is only an output. Tryng to send a signal in won't work, and could possibly damage it.

 

The other option would be a camera with video input and a FireWire output. These will act as a convertor and enable you to capture direct into iMovie or final cut.

[mutley]

If you were using a PC rather than a Mac (and let's not start that whole 'Mac vs PC' debate again!), you could easily use a USB video capture unit. I have a Hauppauge WinTV USB, which has FM radio, analogue TV, S-Video in, etc.

The other option, which is probably easier and cheaper, is to buy a DVD/HDD recorder. This can then also be used as an interface between various video types (composite, S-Video, SCART, RF tuner, etc.)

And when they're less than £80 each, it's more flexible and potentially far more useful than a PC/Mac video capture unit.

[TomM]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if somebody could help. At work we often project multiple things (Cameras, powerpoint, x-box, videos and pictures) on a projector and through feeds onto TVs using a vision mixer. I was asked to record what was projected once, but was unable to as there was no budget for buying new equipment.

I searched for products that would let me do this using my MacBook but all seemed to be very expensive and not well recommened.

I then had the idea of buying a cheap-ish TV tuner for around the £30 mark that would let me watch TV on my Mac, and then when needed nstead of plugging in an aerial get a Phono to Coxial cable and tune in the vision mixer. Would this work? If not are there any other affordable solutions for taking a phono output from the vision mixer into my MacBook.

Also I recently purchased a VGA to Phono cable from eBay simillar to this one;

VGA to Phono

 

but read on different threads like 'VGA to Scart' that an extra bit of kit would be needed to get this to work, is this true?

Any help would be grealty appricated.

 

If you ask the question here they might be able to help...

[jsr22788]

If you were using a PC rather than a Mac (and let's not start that whole 'Mac vs PC' debate again!), you could easily use a USB video capture unit. I have a Hauppauge WinTV USB, which has FM radio, analogue TV, S-Video in, etc.

The other option, which is probably easier and cheaper, is to buy a DVD/HDD recorder. This can then also be used as an interface between various video types (composite, S-Video, SCART, RF tuner, etc.)

And when they're less than £80 each, it's more flexible and potentially far more useful than a PC/Mac video capture unit.

 

I've seen this; Win TV USB which I might get and use on my Mac with Parallels, do you know what sort of quality this will give me?

[TomM]

If you were using a PC rather than a Mac (and let's not start that whole 'Mac vs PC' debate again!), you could easily use a USB video capture unit. I have a Hauppauge WinTV USB, which has FM radio, analogue TV, S-Video in, etc.

The other option, which is probably easier and cheaper, is to buy a DVD/HDD recorder. This can then also be used as an interface between various video types (composite, S-Video, SCART, RF tuner, etc.)

And when they're less than £80 each, it's more flexible and potentially far more useful than a PC/Mac video capture unit.

 

I've seen this; Win TV USB which I might get and use on my Mac with Parallels, do you know what sort of quality this will give me?

 

Never used so can't comment on quality, but be aware many USB devices don't work either at all or at full speed in Parallels. You may need to use Boot Camp, in which case you are using a PC to all intents and purposes.

 

T

[Kinell]

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 900 has a capture port and simple software, is said to work on Win and Mac, just a case of finding the input cable, not been able to find it so far.

[Symbolic]

Hi,

 

Try this: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/videorecorder

[jimbo_hippo]

Do you need to edit the piece at all and how long is the recording needed to be? How much would you be prepared to spend on a fiddly USB widgety capture thingy? (I speak from experience here - and we haven't even got to the bundled editing software yet which makes it an even steeper learning curve)

 

I ask this because you could go to a local tescos and buy a budget DVD recorder which will do the job just fine and be a lot less hassle than USB capture. When you start to think of a DVD recorder as a very good value realtime MPG2 encoder it suddenly looks a lot more appealing.

 

Things to bear in mind:

 

- VOB files on DVDs and MPG2 in general are end formats and not good for lots of hacking about and editing. If you plan to edit heavily ignore everything I tell you because it's not easy.

- If you want it to look good I'd go for a 1hour setting on the recording otherwise it will look awful. (but probably better than the USB capture device - especially when you set it up wrong)

- Look after the disk one it's done. The recordable ones are flakey once they get scratched.

 

I bought a DVD recorder for home when they were £500.00 many years ago. I've since moved on to hard drive recorders but I still occasionally dust down the old DVD recorder because when it comes to quick easy recording with some basic editing functions without hours of messing about its hard to beat.

 

EDIT: Mutley.......sorry mate, I've just said exactly what you said....DOH. Note to self.....read before you post. Leaving this is as a reminder not to be a numpty too regularly.

[JD101]

something like that

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latest-EasyCAP-DC6...8293&sr=1-2

will do the job fine

[JS-152]

You can do it with the help of a video screen capture tool, I guess. Try Macvide ScreenCap, for example. It can capture any part of the desktop and output it in numerous video and flash formats. The only drawback is that it's not freeware :P But I think the trial will be also of a help :unsure:

Good luck! :P

[ElectroKinetic]

After doing many many shows and using many different capture cards, I can highly recommend the Canopus brand of capture boxes. They use firewire and work flawlessly on both mac and pc. The cool thing about the one I own (advc-110) is that there is both firewire and a/v in and outs on it. If I plug something into the a/v input, the same signal comes out of the a/v output on the back. There is also a 4pin and a 6 pin firewire port. You can connect one computer to each port and get a video feed on each computer. The USB capture cards are rather fidgity. I gave up on them a long time ago after 10 too many problems. If you're going to be using it professionally, spend the extra money and buy a professional card even if it is the cheapest one out there.