HVR-A1U AV In
 

I just got the A1 from B&H, and I used to have an old Sony MiniDV camera (DCR TRV-27) - the TRV27 had AV in. So I could capture something I was watching on my TV (using a 'mirror' input on my Sony TV and the standard Camcorder Composite Dongle), I then I would pipe it into my computer using firewire and Final Cut.

Can you do this with the A1? Is there anyway to just input video into this camcorder, without that input being firewire? That's the only "in" I am seeing on it.

Honestly, why I'm trying to do this is just to capture game footage off an Xbox 360. I know that might seem very stupid to you, but I was an editor on the Halo 2 documentary - and messing with game footage is where I got my start. If anyone knows a way to do this with this camera. Or some other method that is inexpensive (for Mac), please help me out.

(I would use my old TRV27, but I got rid of it.)

Im not sure what your definition of expensive is, but I know you can do this with a EyeTV 500... they can be had for about $200.

Haven't used an A1, but I thought you could do this. Look in the menu for an "AV/DV IN" item - The Z1 can do it. However if it does have this capability I'm sure it would only be standard definition and not HDV.

No it doesn't have it. I just looked everywhere within the menu. The camera specifically says "AV out" right next to the "HDV out." The only "in" on the camera is using firewire.

I did get EyeTV, it works well. I got EyeTV 200, EyeTV 500 (the HD one) doesn't have any inputs besides coax. So I had to get the non-HD hardware. I can't play directly on my display with it, because there is a highly noticable lag time from the video source output's a picture to when it hits my computer. (Which really makes no sense to me because I can pipe HD into my Dual 2 GHz G5 (2.5 gigs ram, 2 HDD's) and it runs great, I'm only trying to do 720X480 with this EyeTV and it runs with lag.)

It's still useful though, because I can play a game on my TV and mirror it to the EyeTV which captures what I am playing. In that respect, that's really all I wanted so it works out. It just sucks for the times when I'm in a dorm because I can't lug around my tube TV.

Thanks for recommending this, I really appreciate it. : )

Its too late now, but I believe the EyeTV EZ model lets you play games (no lag). The Eye TV 200 is a hardware based encoder (great for slower CPU's or if you want to multitask, bad for realtime) where as the EZ model is software based encoding (hard to get good quality on an 'older' machine).

For personal tv watching, I love my EyeTV 200.