ADS Pyro A/V Link and Intel Mac

[buckysf]

I just purchased an ADS Pyro A/V link in order to convert my old analog tapes to digital format and bring them into iMovie via Firewire.

However, when I connect the ADS to my Intel Macbook Pro, it is not recognized as a video source. I thought there was something wrong with the ADS at first, but then, as an afterthought, I tried to connect it to my old Powerbook G4. It was immediately recognized as a video source. I tried it on a Dell laptop and it worked fine there too.

Is there any way I can determine at what point the connection is failing? Supposedly there are no drivers necessary for this unit on OS X. Could it be the Intel version is an issue?

I tried it on a friend's 20" Intel iMac and it does not recognize the AD either.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[eric2006]

I'd say that the drivers have not been ported to an intel version as of yet. Have you looked for updated drivers on their site?

[buckysf]

Yes, I've called their support line and they don't have any drivers for Mac. It's just supposed to "work".

[Stuartpau]

HI sorry I missed your question, as I was initially answering it, my ISP went down, so your question came to these forums.

This is what I came up with on the question.
After checking out the ADS Pyro A/V link on the ADS site, it appears that it is only supposed to funtion up to the Pre Tiger OS.

Now it may still work in OS X 10.4 (Tiger), but from what I have read about this unit, it may simply be that the device drivers built in to the Intel systems simply do not recognize this unit, especially as ADS have now discontinued this item.

If you really need to access this unit, you might find that using Parallels a Virtual PC on the Intel Macs may help you. Also, you can using Boot camp. set up your Mac to run as a Windows PC instead of as a Mac, and then you would be able to install the Windows Drivers for ADS and get it to work that way.

I have a feeling that withut getting into Linux, or trying to create your own driver, this may be your only option.

This way you end up having a Mac or a PC at your fingertips and it works really well. I have to do this because I use some special software for CCD Imaging using an astronomical Telescope that will only run on a PC. By using Boot Camp, Ican now control my Scope and the CCD Camera and a few other devices attached to the scope, along with the specialied CCD Image processing software with no problems at all. Not only that all this stuff is years out of date, Windows 95 period and before. Some of this software is DOS only or supposed to be but it works fine for me.

With Boot camp you end having to choose which type of computer you wish to have at startup. With Parallels you have the choice of both systems running at the same time. I could not get all my items to funtion wiht Parallels but witha direct boot into a PC mode, everything works just fine. Please remember if you go the Boot Cap route you are basically running an actual PC and are therefore subject to all the Malware Viruses Etc that affect PC's. IF your Windows installation has access to any of the drives with Macintosh files on them, anda you get a PC virus that deletes all your files, if Windows can access your Macs files it will take them as well. SO ensure you ha

[buckysf]

Thanks, Stuartpau, for the information. I guess I'm just destined to run Windows on my Mac!

[Stuartpau]

AMazing though it sounds, it really does work, but I doubt I will go to Vista.

Stuart