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http://www.macnn.com/articles/03/06/02/formac.debuts/

Formac debuts Studio TVR FireWire solution

updated 02:20 pm EDT, Mon June 2, 2003

 
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Formac Electronic today announced the , its second-generation FireWire TV recording solution. It features improved TV and video quality and a new release of its TVR software with a redesigned interface and and new features, such as pausing of live TV. Studio TVR incorporates two new hardware components, including the latest Philips TV-Tuner for improved reception, performance, and TV quality and a new DV CODEC, which features adaptive bitrate allocation to deliver improved encoding quality. The updated software also includes a cropping feature for commercials, a favorite channel list, and a library for recordings and schedules as well as integration with the free online program guide from TitanTV. It is due early this month for $400.


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  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 02:51pm | report spam | Reply |

    blegh

    titanTV sucks. Period. IT only works with IE, and is the slowest website arond. This is also a bit pricey for a tv tuner in my opinion. I bought an EyeTV the day it came out and couldn't be happier, i use Watson to schedule and it couldn't be nicer. They also update their application regularly. And YES usb is fast enough for tv, its a hardware mpeg1 encoder, do the math.

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    06/02, 03:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    Blegh is right!

    I'm never buying anything else from Formac...I got screwed for buying their ProTV (no OS X support a year after I got it) and now I'm being screwed for buying a Studio (my model NOT SUPPORTED!). Formac has virtually no rappour with their customer base, as they seem to be more interested in winning "best in show" with snappy Apple-esque design rather than rewarding (or just even supporting) the people that shelled out for their products. Essen meine schwanz, Bergmann & Co.!

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 03:51pm | report spam | Reply |

    HDTV

    I will buy one if they add HDTV tuning capability. Given how Apple is pushing HDTV-like widescreen displays (although not quite 16x9), lack of HDTV tuner/DVR is puzzling.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 04:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    Interesting

    Not to sound like a complainer, but perhaps you are missing the point. This records in a DV format, not mpeg1 (a little low for me) Also having it import/export from iMovie 3 is rather interesting. DVD and SVCD support is also another plus.

    It also has some other interesting input/output options.

    I agree that $400 is a bit expensive considering you can get most of this on a windows system for under $200 via an ATI card...

    But it does make me wonder...

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 04:24pm | report spam | Reply |

    EyeTV vs. Formac?

    So, I have the first generation Formac Studio .... the TV tuner and software is horrible .... It is a nice dv/analog converter. Yeah, EyeTV is great and all, but it captures at VCD resolution 352x240 .... I am not an elitist, but this is barely watchable on anything other than a 12" laptop screen. The Formac can capture at NTSC DV which is 720 x 480. This is roughly 4x the resolution of EyeTV. I've burned DVDs with captured footage from the Formac box and they llok great .... yeah it is too much money. If you want a straight dv/analog box chck out the Canopus ADVC series .... way cheaper with locked audio!

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 05:03pm | report spam | Reply |

    Prosumer vs. Consumer

    Lets get the facts straight first before we start going all crazy over a product which some of us don't seem to understand. First of all, the markets for the Studio and EyeTV are quite different.

    If all you want to do is watch TV and record it to a VCD, then the EyeTV is great and more than has you covered. They have good (proprietary) software and keep the updates coming. The EyeTV is also clearly aimed at the average consumer. But, you would NEVER want to import mpeg-1 video into Final Cut Pro or Express over DV.

    The Studio on the other hand is aimed at the prosumer market. Burgeoning digital video enthusiasts and editors who don't want to spend a thousand dollars for similar solutions are perfect for the Studio. Let me ask you this: Can the EyeTV be used to import video directly into Final Cut Pro? How about iMovie? Or QuickTime Streaming Server? No. But the Studio can and does a great job at it. You say Formac's software sucks. Well, maybe it isn't the best on the block. But, vidi and BTV are more than acceptable replacements and because the Studio uses the QuickTime architecture, any other app that can view QuickTime imports (FCP) works with the Studio. Formac has also been pretty consistent with their updates as of late as well. And the newest software released today looks to finally have solved their GUI problems (I haven’t installed it yet.)

    Sure, if you have a DV camcorder with analog video in/out, then most of the features are redundant and makes the Studio DV almost useless. But the coaxial in/out feature is convenient on the TVR, and plus you can have the Studio always connected to your FW chain which beats the hassle of cabling every time you want to shoot video. Just my two cents, but this argument has been going on for far to long now.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    06/02, 05:16pm | report spam | Reply |

    Compression

    I run a popular website that hosts promos for upcoming TV shows and such. I generally make my initial capture using the Studio TVR (DV/TV) at 640x480 in DV. I then take the video file and bring it into Cleaner where it gets reduced in size (320x240) and compressed into Sorenson Video 3 and then uploaded.

    The thought of capturing a movie in mpeg1 at 352x240 makes me shudder. There is virtually no other use for the file once it has been captured. You can burn it to VCD and that's it. And if you use the same bitrate of mpeg1 on a DV-SV3 compression, the quality of the SV3 version will be infinitely better. Plus, you still have the option of making a VCD compatible stream from the DV source.

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    06/02, 06:41pm | report spam | Reply |

    Watching TV and recording

    Does this software let you actually watch the video full framerate/sound while recording? I know the Studio DV/TV didn't unless you used Vidi.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    09/30, 12:17am | report spam | Reply |

    what ever

    what ever, i want it and i bought it a lot less than that.

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