Hi Guys, I'm looking for a box or card that will capture video onto my Mac's hard drive.
So here is the story, my church (I work there) is getting a cable channel that will air 52 events per year. The church is allowed to record and sell these events which will be anything from documentaries to live dramas to speakers, time will be from 90min to 2 hours. The problem is that these events are all going to start at odd times (10am - 7pm). Sometimes they will be at times I will not be at the church, so I need a device I can set to record from XX to XX. I have a buget of around $500.00 (+/-100), but I would LOVE to keep the card or box under $250 so I can use the extra to buy the upgrade to Final Cut Studio 5 (have 4.5 now). That way I have DVD studio to record the DVD's I will be making. Hopefully you guys have some ideas. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance, John Christensen.

Oh, my PowerMac is a G5 2.0GHz Dual (Two Chips not One).

I tried the following last year on my G5 and it worked very well:

http://www.adstech.com/products/API-555/intro/api555_intro.asp?pid=API-555

Should be well under your budget, and it even has component video in/out so you can get the highest quality if your cable box supports it. Our sponsor B&H photo has it here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=389754&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Thanks, Boyd. Do you or anyone else know, does this box come with any Tivo-type software (record channel XX starting at XX and ending at XX)? The box looks great but I will not always be able to be at the computer at record time so I need it to do things by its self. I know the EYEtv boxes have the software (tivo-type) but I do not know if this box does. I personaly do not like the cost or quallity of the eyetv 200 firewire. Thanks, John.

what do i get if i tell you how to do it for free?
just kidding.

this assumes you're running qt pro 7. i'm not sure if it works under earlier versions because i'm not sure if qt had recording on earlier versions. i've never used qt to record before since i use fcp for that kind of thing. so, worst case scenario, this sets you back $20.

i also assume you have either a dv camcorder or a dv vcr/deck. (don't know what you'd be doing with fcp if you don't.) i'm also assuming that your dv camera is a relatively modern one, since it needs to have a/v in to dv conversion. it seems like even the $400 cams these days include that feature. if not, you'll need something like a canopus a/v to firewire conversion box.

a-
connect your cable box to the a/v input on your camcorder/dv deck. with cameras (and some decks too) you may need to activate the "dv out" function in a menu.

if your cable box doesn't have rca lines out, use a vcr to tune to the correct channel and use the lines out from it. with a consumer camera, you'll need the 3rca-to minijack cables that came with the camera. you might need extension rcas from radio shack

turn camera/deck on (turn to vcr mode if it's a a camera.) also, make sure there's no tape in the cam as most cams power down after a few minutes with tape in standby mode.

b-
use script editor to copy the scripts below into 2 different applescripts. i called mine "start_qt_rec" and "stop_qt_rec" but you can change the name if you like. store the scripts wherever you'd like.

c-
go into your quicktime player prefs choose the recording window. set "video source" to your cam/deck. set "microphone" to dv audio. set "quality" to device native. choose a folder for the saved files. quit quicktime.

d-
open ical. add a new event for when you want to start recording. name the event "program start" or whatever you want-go crazy. open the event info window and open the alarm popup. change the alarm to "run script." then open the next popup and select my "start_qt_rec" script. repeat this step for when you want to stop recording and choose the "stop" script for the alarm. voila. schedule the start and stop events whenever you need them.


caveat:
these are very very simple scripts and i'm a total applescript neophyte. unlike the ones you can download from apple, they don't check your quicktime version, prompt you to upgrade to pro, etc. you're welcome to dl the apple qt scripts from their site and paste that stuff in if you want. also, look around places like macscripter.met for this kind of thing. but these scripts work fine for me. i can email you the applescript files themselves if you give me your address, but the text below should work fine if you paste it into script editor.

knock yourself out, and enjoy fcp studio.



start script:

tell application "Finder"
activate
open application file "QuickTime Player.app" of folder "Applications" of startup disk
end tell
tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
new movie recording
start every movie
end tell


stop script:

tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
stop every movie
save
quit
end tell


ps- it's important that quicktime player isn't open when these scripts run. someone smarter than me could add to these and make it work either way, but i'm not going to do that right now. basically finder would determine if qt is open. if not, it would open it. then qt starts recording new movie. then it starts only the fromtmost movie. a little more tricky, but very doable.

ps-
as you're probably aware, these files will be 13gibs/hour. you'll need to have plenty of drive space. but if you get dvd studio pro with the money i saved you, you should be able to do a quick editing job in final cut, use compressor to convert to much smaller mpeg2's, author the dvd and be done with it.

pps-
is this cable station going to be IN the church, or somewhere else? because you'd get a much better end-product if you were capturing the video and audio before it gets modulated and broadcast. if you have access to this cable station's control room, you'd get a noticeably cleaner looking recording.

Nate, thanks for the idea. Quick question, can iCal wake your computer from sleep to record or would the computer have to be on? So could I just put the computer to sleep on Sunday afternoon when I leave and have it wake up itself at what ever time the show starts or would I have to change the settings to never let the computer sleep and stay on overnight. Also, are there scripts that can put the computer to sleep at a set time (5 min after the video record stops?)? And no, the cable feed is coming from out of state so I could not get in to the control room of the station. Thanks Again, John.

Thanks, Boyd. Do you or anyone else know, does this box come with any Tivo-type software

That box merely converts analog video to DV25 so your computer can capture via firewire, like a camcorder would.

john,
i don't think applescripts will wake your mac, since when it's really asleep the disk is asleep too. you can definitely write a script to put the mac to sleep though.

but, if you go into system preference and click the "power saver" option, and then click "schedule," you can set wake up and sleep times that way.
-nate