Report on Formac Studio Analog/DV converter: pretty neato

rharder

Do not read this sign.
I just got my Formac Studio Analog/DV converter: It's pretty neato.

pr_studio_white.jpg

Hey, aren't IMG tags supposed to embed images?

I can't seem to tune channels above channel 13, but I have cable going into the VCR that's plugged into the Studio, so I can record from TV on all the channels there.

You can of course "import" a DV signal from the Studio, but you can also convert directly to any installed Quicktime codec, so you could, for instance, capture directly to Sorenson 3 instead of the larger 4MB/sec DV.

Unfortunately, Roxio Toast's "To Video CD" export function is different than a normal Quicktime Codec, so you can't import directly into a VideoCD-compatible format.

It you capture DV video using the Formac Tevion software (TV tuner, etc), I think you have to use Quicktime Player to export the resulting DV movie as a DV Stream to use it in iMovie: Extra time, extra bummer. You can import directly to iMovie, though, as if the Studio were a camera.

It's much bigger than I was expecting. It's about the size of one of those external Maxtor firewire hard drives or an external CD drive.

It has S-Video in/out, Composite video in/out, Left/Right audio in/out. It has two firewire ports labeled "In" and "Out" which doesn't make much sense to me. I suppose it's just a daisy-chain thing. It has a Coax plug for cable TV, or rather a TV antenna I think. It also has a Coax plug for an FM radio antenna.

Pretty neat. I like it. It's not quite as smooth as I would have liked in its interaction, but if I don't rush the software and give things a second here and a second there to "compose itself" it works great.

-Rob
 
Sounds sweet, kind of like a souped-up TiVo. How much do one of those bad boys cost, if you dont mind me asking? ;)
 
They're $400. Ouch. I sold my AMD 1700 XP+ system that I won in a sweepstakes and used some of the money for the Studio. Woo Hoo!

-Rob
 
i love it... i have it with my 867 g4. i actually can watch
channels above 13. just not the premium stations like hbo.

i use it all the time especially with my analog camcorder
 
Do you have little buggy glitches occasionally? I had a kernel pacnic the other day (a first for me), but I can't tell if the messages indicated a bad RAM module or something with the Studio.

-Rob
 
i'm in the market for a DV converter... what makes this better than the $100 cheaper Sony DA1(2) converter boxes?
 
Originally posted by rharder
Do you have little buggy glitches occasionally? I had a kernel pacnic the other day (a first for me), but I can't tell if the messages indicated a bad RAM module or something with the Studio.

-Rob

i've never had any problems w/ kernel panic when using
Studio.

I dont know about the Sony box, but it is firewire,
and can import from s-vhs, cable along with analog signals
from RCA sources. It can watch and record tv programs like
tivo.
 
The Sony box "respects" Macrovision encoding, so you won't be able to, say, transfer your kids' Barney tapes to VCD. Otherwise it's a decent product.

The Hollywood Dazzle (cheaper too) works but has fewer in/out plugs, I think, and feels rather cheaply made.

Also the Studio is the only one that lets you tune TV and FM radio and so record straight off TV and make your own Simpsons DVD library (since they're so stinkin' slow in releasing the official ones).

-Rob
 
Don't credit that kernel panic to Studio. It looks like my factory-installed RAM went bad. Good thing I added 512 myself!

-Rob
 
Originally posted by rharder
Don't credit that kernel panic to Studio. It looks like my factory-installed RAM went bad. Good thing I added 512 myself!

-Rob

I've appreciated all your info about Studio - sounds great. Now you've made me a tad curious on the RAM issue. Obviously, it is/was warranteed (yes?) as I think all Apple branded RAM is guaranteed for life. What I'm curious about is how you diagnosed the problem. What software did you use, or did you use a process of elimination... swapping RAM in and out, or what?
 
Well, I got a kernel panic one day--first one. After many problems trying to restart, I finally got OS 9 to boot (don't know why it booted), and a dialog popped up saying "You have bad RAM. Have it checked out," or something like that. I was then able to reboot into OS X and just have 512MB of RAM instead of 768.

I've got AppleCare for the iMac, so I'll take it down to the Apple store and have them replace the ram or something.

I didn't have any diagnosis tools other than what OS 9 popped up on boot up, somewhere in the middle of the extensions loading--very weird.

-Rob
 
Wierd, indeed!
BTW, didn't you get a disk with your computer that checks hardware?
Maybe they started packing that with machines after you got yours, but I get the idea yours is pretty new... yes?

In any case, I'm glad you could isolate the problem and hope all goes well when you "take the baby to the doctor!" :D
 
Turns out the bad RAM wasn't the 256 from Apple but half of the 512 module I'd put in. Who's ever heard of half of a module going bad?

Oh well, back to MicroCenter I go...

-Rob
 
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