Capture card for powermac G3

[Dj macintosh]

hi guys and girls (if there is some),
i was wondering if i could have your advice on a capture card for a Apple Powermac G3 400 cpu 512Mb ram 10.3.9 128mb gpu this is for cj mac osx ipod if you know him

he has wanted one for his xbox for ages i had one but it was worth £100 so does anybody know of a cheap one that will be compatible with a Powermac G3 400 cpu 512Mb ram 10.3.9 128mb gpu

[SuperTyphoon]

Can a G3 even handle capturing smoothly to make it worth finding a cheap card?

[Dj macintosh]

i think so

[UpQuark77]

Take a look at Dazzle products.. they are relatively inexpensive and do a nice job of audio/video in - firewire out.

[nixgeek]

Originally Posted by SuperTyphoon

Can a G3 even handle capturing smoothly to make it worth finding a cheap card?

This used to be done in the Classic version of Mac OS at the time since that was what was current when those Macs came out, but with OS X it might be a bt of a struggle to say the least, and that's not even taking into consideration the latest software that might bog it down even more. Downgrading might be the solution here. It's not necessary to run the latest and greatest in software to do what you need to do. Some people still use some older Macs with older versions of Photoshop and other software because it does enough for what they want and they don't need to bloat of the newer versions, especially features that they might never use. Consider that there are still people using Amigas for video production (don't ask me where they are, but they are still around ).

[SuperTyphoon]

Originally Posted by nixgeek

This used to be done in the Classic version of Mac OS at the time since that was what was current when those Macs came out, but with OS X it might be a bt of a struggle to say the least, and that's not even taking into consideration the latest software that might bog it down even more. Downgrading might be the solution here. It's not necessary to run the latest and greatest in software to do what you need to do. Some people still use some older Macs with older versions of Photoshop and other software because it does enough for what they want and they don't need to bloat of the newer versions, especially features that they might never use. Consider that there are still people using Amigas for video production (don't ask me where they are, but they are still around ).

I sure wouldn't want to use Amiga for that! But i haven't used a g3 in many years, and the last time i used a 500mhz one it couldn't handle chessmaster smoothly, scroll down web pages smoothly or handle any web media (flash, shockwave, java, etc) without studdering and slowing down. Judging by this i wouldn't expect it to handle video capturing smoothly... however most of that work is left to, well, let's see... the capture card.

[nixgeek]

Originally Posted by SuperTyphoon

I sure wouldn't want to use Amiga for that! But i haven't used a g3 in many years, and the last time i used a 500mhz one it couldn't handle chessmaster smoothly, scroll down web pages smoothly or handle any web media (flash, shockwave, java, etc) without studdering and slowing down. Judging by this i wouldn't expect it to handle video capturing smoothly... however most of that work is left to, well, let's see... the capture card.

Well, the Amiga series of computers were used for just that back before the Mac or even the PC had anything usable and had become commoditized as it is today. Lots of professional TV production studios used the Amiga for editing video.

As for that G3, if it was running OS X most definitely it would be sluggish. But considering the operating systems they were running when they were new, that was enough to make it a speed demon, especially when it came to software that was produced at that time. So on something like that I wouldn't use the latest and greatest software since it would be dog slow, but something that was able to run on that system when it was considered new would be enough to do the job (if you don't need the new features that back then weren't available but add to the intensiveness of the software).

Bottom line, if you plan on using anything that's out now with OS X on a system that old, expect some sluggishness even with all the memory maxxed out. You can only push so much out of those older machines even though they still do have their value.

[SuperTyphoon]

Yeah, newer OS's and software don't like or work well with old machines. A simple marketing technique to get people to buy new ones...