Aug

9

How to record off your Motorola DVR with OS X and Firewire

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If you’re running a mac with OS X and have a Motorola DVR with Firewire ports on the back (such as the popular Motorola DCT3416), recording digitally from your DVR to your computer is very simple if you follow these steps:

1.  Download and install the latest Firewire Development Kit from Apple.  The download is free, but you do have to register first.  This download will include AVCVideoCap.app which is the software you need to capture and/or record from your  FireWire connected HDTV-tuner or DVR.

Once this file is downloaded and installed, when you connect your computer to your DVR or HDTV tuner via firewire and launch this application, the DVR should be automatically detected.  Simply press “capture from device” and whatever is playing on your DVR or HDTV tuner will automatically be recorded on your computer.

2.  If you just want to play back the file that AVCVideoCap.app creates (which is a *.m2t file), you can download and install VLC which is a very handy video player for many formats.

However, if you want to export and convert the file for use in another way (i.e. sharing with others as a quicktime move for example), you’ll have to do two more things:

3.  The MPEG-2 Playback component is required if you want the capability to convert the *.m2t file into another format (such as a .mov).  Its available from Apple for about $20.

4.  Once you have the MPEG-2 Playback compondent installed, you can download and install MPEG Streamclip.  This software will then enable you to not only watch the *.m2t file that AVCVideo.app created, but also enable you to “Save As” or convert to a number of other file types including *.mov

I would also suggest if you don’t already have it, purchase the upgrade to Quicktime Pro for about $30 so that you can export Quicktime movies for the web in the excellent H.264 format.

Mar

5

Steve Jobs kills hopes of flash on the iPhone

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iPhone Douche BagWith the release of the iPhone SDK just around the corner, many in the tech community were surprised (read: bummed) to learn that there will be no flash support on the iPhone (source: Steve Jobs CNN article). While there are arguments with respect to flash using up too much power (thus prematurely discharging the battery), I’d put my money on Adobe not capitulating to the financial pressures that Jobs is infamous for. Looking forward to the back-story on this one.

Feb

16

The annoying thing about upgrading to OS X 10.5.2

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While overall I’ve been very happy with the results my new 200 GB hard drive, OS X 10.5.2 and Office 2008 install, I’m a bit annoyed that capability I had with my MacBook Pro out of the box with OS X 10.4 are now missing……namely iDVD, iMovie and iPhoto.  Sure, I can regain those capabilities via $99 family pack upgrade.  However, its the principle of having to pay for capabilities I already had (and had already paid for) that is just not right.  First the $200 penalty for iPhone early adopters, now this.

Feb

15

Upgrading the Hard Drive in my MacBook Pro and installing Leopard

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As a musician and multimedia creation expert, I’ve run into trouble attempting to maximize performance and storage space.  Specifically, my 17″ MacBook Pro had 90 GB hard drive at 7200 rpm.  It was speedy for sure…..but it was so loaded with apps that I had little to no room for data.  Being that I have almost three terabytes of external storage, somethings were just not as efficient as I would have liked (namely Native Instruments sample libraries for Komplete 4 had to be housed externally).  After much frustration and a bit of research, I recently pulled the trigger on a 200GB Seagate drive that runs at 7200 rpm.  After backing up things the old fashion way (I was running 10.4.11 on the old drive), I’ve replaced the drive and installed Leopard.  Stay tuned for how well the migration goes….Entourage 2004 is my primary concern (upgrading to Entourage 2008), but I have a LOAD of apps to install including NI Komplete, Ableton Live 6, Adobe Creative Suite, Macromedia Studio 8, MS Office 2008 and then some.

Sep

6

iPhone: the cost of being an early adopter

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iPhone

In typical Steve Jobs fashion, yesterday Apple unveiled the newly refreshed iPod line including the iPod Touch (or neutered iPhone). While most of these products were well received (not so for the iPod Nano “Fatty” - what were they thinking?), the annoucment that thrilled, yet shocked many was the $200 price drop of the 8GB iPhone.

I was an early adopter of the iPhone (July 19). My wife followed suit a few weeks later (her six month old Treo WX just wasn’t looking so sexy next to my iPhone). Typically, the price you pay as an early adopter is that something newer comes out in six to twelve months that makes ones “lastest thing” yesterday’s news (i.e. all but obsolete). The other price of being an early adopter is literally that, the price. But how could we expect that the price of the darn device would drop by a third just weeks later?!! That’s just wrong.

Well, looks like Steve and company have heard some of our cries and responded via this post on Apple’s website. Personally, I would have preferred a $200 credit on iTunes.

I’m not happy.