An app to monitor in full screen the output of an ADVC110?

[tizoast]

After an exhaustive search of the forums and the Web . . .

Is there an app available for Mac OS X somewhere that will allow me to preview (not necessarily to capture) the video and audio from a Canopus ADVC110 in full screen?

Basically, I want to be able to use my Canopus ADVC110 digital video converter in conjunction with my HD cable TV set top box to watch TV in full-screen on my Mac (uncompressed).

QuickTime doesn't have an option for "movie recording" in full screen; nor do Final Cut Pro or iMovie. I've tried hTV, but the audio and video are always out of sync.

I have (and use) Elgato EyeTV with a Plextor PX-TV402U normally, but I want to have the option to watch TV on my Mac in an uncompressed format.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[GrassValley_BH]

What resolution is your monitor? I suspect even if you did get the picture full-screen, the result wouldn't be great-looking because SD TV resolution is effectively 640x480 or 768x576 - scaling it to your monitor's resolution without some kind of processing will result in video that looks blocky.

Since you have a HD cable set top box, see if it has FireWire out. Some do, and if it's enabled then you can get the MPEG-2 HD stream out to your Mac, which would yield a much better picture.

[GrassValley_KH]

To follow on from Brandon's point, look around for 'VirtualDVHS' if your cable box has a FireWire output.

But be aware that currently, more and more cable providers are being mandated to encrypt the streams with 5C content protection, and thus you cannot input the FireWire output from a cable box into your computer (only supports the 5C handshaking found in genuined D-VHS player/recorders).

[tizoast]

What resolution is your monitor?

My display resolution is 1920 x 1200.

Since you have a HD cable set top box, see if it has FireWire out.

It does indeed have a FireWire port on it, but I've never been able to figure out what to do with it. I plugged it into my Mac once, and nothing happened. I wasn't sure what app to use with it or anything. I even tried plugging the FireWire port from the set top box into the DV port on the front of the ADVC110 and then using hTV to monitor the signal, but I got nothing.

I use the Motorola DCH6200 set top box. Is there maybe some configuring that has to be done to the box? I've searched online for docs for the set top box, but I've never found anything about the FireWire port other than just listing it as something that is on the box.

To follow on from Brandon's point, look around for 'VirtualDVHS' if your cable box has a FireWire output.

I will check for VirtualDVHS.

But be aware that currently, more and more cable providers are being mandated to encrypt the streams with 5C content protection, and thus you cannot input the FireWire output from a cable box into your computer (only supports the 5C handshaking found in genuined D-VHS player/recorders).

I have to admit that I don't understand this. Consider me a layman in this area.

[GrassValley_KH]

I have to admit that I don't understand this. Consider me a layman in this area.

Essentially, 5C content is being flagged as "Copy Once" or "Copy Never" (usually the latter) - this prevents any software/hardware that is capable of reading and recording the FireWire output of an MPEG-2 transport stream, from working.

The method you are trying to employ (ie. using an analog-to-DV conversion) is one way around it, but then, there aren't too many FireWire input solutions for the Mac that aren't also NLE-based programs.

[tizoast]

So, presumably I'll be able to use VirtualDVHS in conjunction with the cable box-to-Mac via FireWire to monitor the A/V signals from the cable box on my Mac (in VirtualDVHS)?

[GrassValley_KH]

I'm not sure about realtime monitoring - it's been a while since I tinkered with such a workflow. Possibly, a preview function has been implemented. Honestly though, for realtime playback of television, I'd probably look more toward a TV tuner type of product for the Mac...one that accepts a coax feed from your cable socket. (ie. ATSC/QAM tuner)

[tizoast]

Honestly though, for realtime playback of television, I'd probably look more toward a TV tuner type of product for the Mac...one that accepts a coax feed from your cable socket. (ie. ATSC/QAM tuner)

I have (and use) Elgato EyeTV with a Plextor PX-TV402U normally, but I want to have the option to watch TV on my Mac in an uncompressed format.

I'm surprised that there isn't an obvious solution for this. I've Googled it to death, and there is very little to be found regarding the topic.

hTV 0.2 works alright, but there is a noticeable lag with the audio behind the video. Any idea what would be causing this?

As an aside, I use a MOTU 828mkII FireWire audio interface on the same Mac. I wonder if there could be some kind of issue between the MOTU device and the ADVC110.

Thanks for your help so far! Very much appreciated.

[tizoast]

Update:

I'm now using hTV to monitor the video from my set top cable box (in full screen), and I'm running the audio out of the back of the ADVC110 and into my MOTU FireWire audio interface to monitor the audio from the cable box. No lag now. Works very well.

Carry on.

[mbray]

ADVC: Vidi by Mitz Pettel is a Mac OS X app for full screen DV viewing

Since I also ran into a similar issue, wanting to do the same thing with an ADVC-55, I thought I'd share what I found on this thread, too, as it should work for all the Canopus ADVC's (in theory), and since it was hard to find:

Vidi, by Mitz Pettel, is a freeware application for Mac OS X (10.2.8 or newer) that will allow you to view firewire DV input from any device at full screen, nicely anti-aliased, and even de-interlaced if you like! The performance, including audio sync, is perfect with my ADVC-55 (notwithstanding the expected, totally tolerable 7/4 frames converter delay which affects both audio and video- this is not noticeable enough to even interfere with gameplay of videogame consoles).

You can also record the DV stream directly from within Vidi, but I've found that the resulting recordings have to have their audio re-rendered in Final Cut, so beware.