[Ti] Formac digital TV recorder?

[David Remahl]

Robert,

I believe it records in pure DV Stream. Therefore, it provides superior 
quality compared to its competitors, most of which compress the stream 
into a relatively small mpeg1 file. DV takes _a_lot_ of hard drive 
space.

I think you should estimate 3-6 GB / hour of recording (someone more 
into digital video will probably correct me if I'm wrong). Since it 
isn't viable to keep a lot of video on your hard drive at that 
(mega)bitrate, you will have to convert the source material into some 
other format before archiving (or perhaps burn it to DVD discs). If you 
have QuickTime Pro, it is simple to export the movie to another format, 
for example MPEG-4.

Format is definitely the pick of the bunch, but it does come at a price 
(both $$$ and GB's). If you plan to downsample the files to MPEG 1 
anyway, then it may be better to go with a cheaper and more convenient 
solution, such as EyeTV.

Note that I don't own either of those machines, although I've seen 
EyeTV in action. I am however considering buying either.

No matter which one you choose, make sure you get one that correspons 
to the TV format in use in your country (generally, USA -> NTSC, Europe 
-> PAL).

/ Regards, David

PS. If anyone knows anywhere in the U.S.A. where one can buy a _PAL_ 
Formac DV/TV Studio, I'd like to know. Preferably in the Bay area). Or, 
if anyone knows if it is possible to modify a Format NTSC box into PAL 
mode (I have noticed that many graphics cards have jumpers that allow 
setting the video mode). DS.

On fredag, jun 6, 2003, at 05:30 Europe/Stockholm, Robert Nicholson 
wrote:

> This one appears to be the pick of the bunch.
>
> Does anybody have any information on how much disk space it takes to 
> record an hour's programming?
>
> Comments on video quality etc?
>
> The Tour De France is coming up soon and I don't have a Tv and this 
> gadget could come in very handy.