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CaptyTV for Mac

Posted by pudge on from the ok-i-am-moving-to-japan-now dept.

rograndom writes "There's something very interesting on Apple's Japanese site. CaptyTV is part of Apple's 'Digital Hub', and it's a USB analog-to-digital video converter. A rough translatation from the site says talks about TiVo-like functionality, looking up program listings on the internet and recording at a certain time. It also talks about dumping your archived videos to DVD with the iMac's & PowerMac's SuperDrive. Sounds very cool, I hope it makes it over to this side of the world." And is that an external SuperDrive there on the sidebar?

26 comments

  1. I hope you mean firewire by Niksie3 · · Score: 1

    USB doesn't have nearly enough bandwith for video...

    --
    Sig you!
    1. Re:I hope you mean firewire by pudge · · Score: 1

      I dunno ... I would hope FW too. Maybe that is why it is not yet available in the states. :-)

    2. Re:I hope you mean firewire by walt-sjc · · Score: 1

      USB 2.0 does. Question is, does any Mac support
      USB 2.0?

    3. Re:I hope you mean firewire by foobar104 · · Score: 3, Informative

      USB doesn't have nearly enough bandwith for video

      USB's 12 Mbps is plenty fast enough for compressed video, a la Tivo. Video compressed at 2 or 4 Mbps is acceptable for a PVR. At 8 Mbps, it's almost indistinguishable from uncompressed video to the untrained eye.

    4. Re:I hope you mean firewire by ivan256 · · Score: 2

      Oh great, another "USB doesn't have nearly enough badwidth for x" comment.

      Let's be generous and say that the compressed video is using 1MB/second (More data then DVD video) That's only 8Mb/second, leaving enough bandwidth left over for uncompressed CD quailty stereo audio and your input devices. 12Mb/second is still a respectable amount of bandwidth for streaming applications.

    5. Re:I hope you mean firewire by Graymalkin · · Score: 2

      USb doesn't have enough bandwidth for uncompressed HD video or even compressed DV but it has plenty for an NTSC capture. A crappy motion JPEG NTSC capture only requires about 10Mb/s of bandwidth with an off the top of my head tally. If you're going to get more realistic you'd need even less bandwidth for an NTSC capture because of the way colour information is broadcast. A good video Y/Cr/Cb CODEC designed to grab a composite NTSC signal could probably shave a couple Mb/s off that number. The audio is negligible compared to that. USB video capture toys have been around for a long time, just look around sometime, they're all over and cheap.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
  2. Good to see a corporation fight for itself by n-baxley · · Score: 2

    It is good to see that at least Apple is still trying to do what the customer wants and not just what the big media companies think is best. This type of functionality is something that could be really usefull. With all the work the Apple is doing, it makes me want to run out and buy one just so I can be a part of all the new stuff. Go Apple!

    --

    THIS SPACE FOR RENT
    1. Re:Good to see a corporation fight for itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should go out and get one. You will never touch your linux box again. My linux laptop lasted about 3 hours after I picked up my new tibook. Now it sits in my trunk with the rest of my junk.

      For the first time ever, people say oooohhhhh and ahhhhhh when I open my laptop bag, and the fact that it is a mac just intrigues more. Amazing how may people still don't realize its unix undernieth.

  3. wowow! by sg3000 · · Score: 2

    This sounds like a great idea, but the web page is useless unless you can read Japanese. Maybe they could have done it in Engrish:

    "Many happy video for your tape with iMac! I am disrespectful to commercials. Can you not see that I am serious?"

    (No offense to our Japanese friends...)

    --
    Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
  4. it isnt an apple product... by spike666 · · Score: 2

    captytv is NOT an apple product...

    see its homepage here

    its something from a japenese company called pixela that makes video capture devices. this one is in particular an analog capture device that uses USB.

    No where on the home page does it mention that theres any ReplayTV/TiVo type functionality... hell, theres no tuner...

    1. Re:it isnt an apple product... by foobar104 · · Score: 2

      hell, theres no tuner...

      No? The Fish says:

      When it can connect the antenna to the CaptycTv, choosing the area of the house from pre-setting where the channel of entire country is registered, when the tuner it will set (you use the receiver and the like, it can connect to the video input terminal).

      While this is naturally a lousy translation, it sounds to me like there's a tuner in the box. Also, according to the translated web page, you tell the software what to record by choosing from a program schedule downloaded over the Internet. That implies that the box has an inboard tuner.

    2. Re:it isnt an apple product... by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 2

      No where on the home page does it mention that theres any ReplayTV/TiVo type functionality... hell, theres no tuner...

      Look at the coax connector on the back labelled "ANT." There's a tuner. From that point, TiVo functionality is a matter of software. Now, as a TiVo owner, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that anything that claims "TiVo-like functionality" is usually lying. Such products are usually software VCRs, but a TiVo is much more. The software is what makes it. =)

      --
      ± 29 dB
    3. Re:it isnt an apple product... by spike666 · · Score: 2

      well color me wrong... i guess an "ANT" port would indicate a tuner.. i was basing my "THERES NO TUNER" on the english webpage that i posted...

      my bad.

  5. Not an external Superdrive by thened · · Score: 1

    The little picture of the drive in the bottom left is there as a piece of advice for people who don't have Superdrives. It is an 80GB external HD that is 39,800 yen.

  6. Re: I pity the fool who speak without thinking by @madeus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Of course USB has enough bandwidth for video! 12MB is way more than enough.

    That aside, USB Video in converters have been avalible for years, litteraly. Don't you ever visit electronics shops?

    Electronics shops from PC World and Dixons to Radio Shack and Wallmart stock them...

    A quick search for the words "usb video capture" on Google throws up over five thousand results.

    Please think before you post and stop wasting bandwidth!

  7. Maybe by Lars+T. · · Score: 3, Informative

    the Formac Studio DV/TV(R) would be the better solution?

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  8. Translation by PatSmarty · · Score: 1

    If you don't speak japanese, use the fish!

    1. Re:Translation by Silverhammer · · Score: 2
      If you don't speak japanese, use the fish!

      Here is a direct link.

  9. Not a SuperDrive by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 2

    There is a paragraph that mentions the SuperDrive, but it is mostly in reference to the "Yano AH80FC" drive - which, if you click the link, turns out to be a FireWire hard drive.

    It does have one of the best cases to match G4s I've ever seen, though.

    --
    ± 29 dB
  10. Re: I pity the fool who speak without thinking by extra88 · · Score: 2

    USB bandwidth is 12Mb/sec, not 12MB/sec. That's Mega-Bits, not Mega-Bytes. Big difference.

    Yes, USB video converters have been around for a while and they suck ass.

  11. Not a SuperDrive... by toren · · Score: 1
    And is that an external SuperDrive there on the sidebar?

    Nope, it's the Yano AH80FC 80GB FireWire hard drive. If you click on the link under it, it'll show you the drive in the Apple Store.

    -tbone

  12. Not an external super drive by neier · · Score: 2

    The text besides the picture in the sidebar says "If you have a Mac which isn't equipped with a
    SuperDrive, external HD's are available"    , and then proceeds to link to one.

    1. Re:Not an external super drive by matthew.thompson · · Score: 2

      External superdrives will soon be availble...

      ...and it's the next model up (A-04) from, the one being put into Apple boxen currently.

      It's another formac product http://www.formac.com/html/shopformac.html?cid=sho p_products_devideon

      --
      Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
    2. Re:Not an external super drive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      according to the (bable)fish, it states: The Mac of SuperDrive loading it is not having, if is, will external hard disk drive how probably be? With the AppleStore Yano AH80FC HD drive (the \39,800) as beginning, arranging the various memory storage and the peripheral device, we wait.

  13. Re: I pity the fool who speak without thinking by @madeus · · Score: 1

    Yes 12Mb is sufficient for video, that's 1.5 Megabytes - bear in mind there is no IP latency or TCP overhead here so it's fairly efficent. *Commercial* quality TV feeds are done using only 2 Megabytes/sec.

    As for 'suck ass', well they work as advertised - they take Video in and allow you to capture it to disk, in a small portable form for just ~60 UKP. Very useful for slim line laptop users (who have no PCMCIA card slots).

    The fact that you think they 'suck ass' doesn't detract from the fact that yes, it's possible and yes, such devices exist and yes, they work!