Macintosh compatible video input devices
This page is for informational purposes only, I cannot give any guarantees about any device's quality or compatibility with BTV. Compatibility of devices with BTV relies on their Macintosh driver software; any device with Macintosh driver software should work with BTV (conversely a device with no Macintosh driver software will not work with BTV or any other Macintosh video software). Note that Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X have built-in driver software for DV devices and Mac OS X 10.2 and later has built-in driver software for FireWire (IIDC) cameras.
Please email me with any corrections, additional information, or details about any device I have missed out.
Devices marked with a * work on Mac OS X. Only devices that have specifically-written OS X driver software will work on OS X.
DV converter devices
DV devices connect to the Mac via FireWire and use the standard Apple QuickTime DV drivers which are reliable and stable and work on both OS 8-9 and OS X.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| ADVC-100 * | Canopus | Good features and reasonable price. One very impressive feature this device has is locked audio to video during capture, enabling long captures with perfect AV sync. This feature is very important and is not found even in much more expensive devices. |
| Hollywood DV-Bridge * | Dazzle | Now taken over by Pinnacle Systems |
| DV Playground * | Fastware | |
| Formac | Built in TV and radio tuner and loudspeaker. Powered by the FireWire bus (external power supply optional). the TVR version has a built in 48GB hard drive. | |
| Director's Cut * | Miglia (PowerR) | Good features including dual analogue output. |
| DAC-2 and DAC-100 * | Datavideo | |
| Pyro A/V Link | ADS Tech | |
| DVMC-DA1
* DVMC-DA2 * |
Sony | One of the first DV converter devices, NTSC only. Now discontinued. |
FireWire video converter devices
These devices convert analog video to uncompressed (not DV) digital video.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| DFG/1394-1 * | The Imaging Source | High quality device with 2 composite and 1 s-video inputs. Works on OSX with very high quality driver software written by ASC (Aupperle Services and Contracting). The driver software is available here. |
| PixeLINK PL-A544 | PixeLINK | Two FireWire ports, s-video and BNC composite video inputs. OS 9 only. Now discontinued. |
Most
TV tuner devices also have video inputs so that they can be used as analog-to-digital
video converters.
The only PCI device in the following list with Mac OS X driver software is the
AlchemyTV card. The Eskape Labs USB devices have beta OS X driver software,
and the DV devices are supported by drivers built into the system written by
Apple.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| AlchemyTV PCI * | Miglia | Niice quality, with stable and well written OS X driver software. |
| ixTV / TurboTV PCI | ixMicro | Discontinued - ixMicro went out of business. Works well on OS 8-9, BTV has a full implementation of channel changing for these cards. |
| ProTV PCI | Formac | Discontinued and won't be supported by Formac on OSX. BTV cannot change channels on this card. |
| MyTV / MyTV/fm USB * | Eskape Labs | Driver software for Mac OS X available here. |
| Life TV USB | LifeView | |
| Studio DV-TV / Studio DV-TVR FireWire/DV * | Formac | Built in TV and radio tuner and loudspeaker. |
PCI analogue video input cards
Cards that are have Mac OS X driver software are marked with a *.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| DC30 * | Miro | Powerful high quality capture card with hardware Motion JPEG compression and locked audio. Supported on OS X by the free driver software by Squared 5. |
| Kona HD / SD * | AJA Video Systems Inc | Professional uncompressed video capture cards for high end editing and broadcast design. The Kona HD supports 170 MB/s HDTV 10 bit capture. Supported on Mac OS X. |
| Cinewave * | Pinnacle | Comprises of a PCI card and various hardware and software components. Supported on Mac OS X. |
| Aurora Video Systems | Hardware Motion JPEG compression and decompression. The Igniter also has CD quality audio input/output. | |
| RTMac | Matrox | Uses DV compression, has video input/output and locked audio |
Out of these devices only the XLR8 InterView has Mac OS X driver software.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| InterView * | XLR8 / EchoFX | XLR8 are out of business but the InterView hardware and OS X software is being sold and supported by EchoFX. |
| VideoBus II | Belkin | |
| MyVideo | Eskape Labs | |
| USB video capture | USB Gear | |
| Capview | LifeView |
The cameras marked with a * are supported on Mac OS X by the IOXperts USB driver software (Click here for a full list provided by IOXperts).
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| Spacecam
200 Spacecam 350 |
DJ-Ringtones | This is a UK company who offer some good camera / software bundles. |
|
Vesta * |
Philips | Nice design, comes in different models with the "XS" and "Pro" models giving high quality video. Comes bundled with the full version of BTV for OS 9. A Mac OS X driver is being developed here. |
| ViCam | Vista Imaging | |
| Scalar USB Microscope * | ScalarScopes | High magnification USB microscope |
| KritterUSB | iRez | KritterUSB version 1.0 is supported on Mac OS X using the IOXperts driver, but not version 1.1. |
| ZoomCam | Zoom | |
| L'espion | DigitalDream | Matchbox-sized camera that can operate as both a still camera (up to 80 images in memory) or a 16fps webcam. |
| QuickCam (various models) | Logitech | Macintosh compatible cameras are: QuickCam greyscale, Color QuickCam, Color QuickTime II, QuickCam VC USB, QuickCam Pro USB (beige focus ring), QuickCam Pro 3000 *, QuickCam Pro 4000 *, QuickCam Zoom*, QuickCam for Notebooks Pro *. |
| Axys | Spypen | Digital still camera that can be used as a USB video source. Nice design, compact. |
| UC110 / UC310 | Hawking Technology | The UC110 has a resolution of 352x288; the UC310 has a resolution of 640x480. |
| Afina Eye * | Sotec (Japanese) | |
| AnyCam * | Samsung |
These cameras are supported on Mac OS X by the IOXperts DCam driver software (click here for a full list provided by IOXperts), and on OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar") by the built in driver that comes with the system.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| iSight * | Apple Computer, Inc | High quality, nice design, and auto-focus. |
| iBot * | Orange Micro | High quality, nice design. New "iBot Pro" packages come bundled with the full version of BTV Pro. |
| Pyro * | ADS | |
| CF-2000 * | AME | |
| C102T
* C104T * |
Aplux | Nice quality, has two FireWire ports so can be daisy-chained with other devices without a hub. |
| StealthFire
* Kritter * |
iRez | |
| FireView * | MetaControls | |
| Green Eye * | Pinetron | |
| FireFly * | Point Grey Research | |
| Fire-i
* Fire-i400 * |
Unibrain | Both Fire-i cameras have two FireWire ports so can be daisy-chained with other devices without a hub. |
| DCam 1394 digital camera * | Videre Design | |
|
CCM-DS250 * DFW-V300 * DFW-V500 * DFW-VL500 * DFW-X700 * DFW-SX900 * XCD-X700 * XCD-SX900 * |
Sony | All these cameras are explicitly supported by the driver built into OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar"). (Support of these cameras by the IOXperts driver is uncertain at this time). |
These are cards that add FireWire ports to your computer; they are not video input cards in themselves.
| Device | Manufacturer | Comments |
| OrangeLink FireWire cards | Orange Micro | Available in both PCI and CardBus, some cards in the range include USB and SCSI ports. New models come bundled with the full version of BTV Pro. |
| FireWire cards | Western Digital | Available in both PCI and Cardbus. |
| MACh Fire | XLR8 | PCI. XLR8 are out of business but their products are still available here. |
| FireWire card | Keyspan | Available in both PCI and Cardbus. |
| FireWire card | Swann | PCI. |
| FireWire card | Belkin | Available in both PCI and Cardbus, as well as a FireWire/USB PCI combo card. |
| FireWire card | Macally | Cardbus. |
| PlatinumDV | ADS | Available in both PCI and Cardbus. |