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Review: Formac
Studio - By Ted Bade People are excited about
digital video. With a good piece of software and
necessary hardware, even an amateur can produce high
quality videos. For Macintosh owners, there are several
very good software options, including iMovie, which is
included with every newer FireWire enabled Macintosh.
There are other excellent MacOS applications as well.
However, if the aspiring director has older analog videos
or video camera, he cannot use tools like iMovie, which
require digital video inputs. Using Formac's Studio, you
can input video from any source, convert it into digital
video (DV), and then edit it with any DV program. Once
converted, organized, and polished, you can save the
video as either DV movies or return them to analog tape
to show to all your friends. The Studio also offers a
number of other very useful video features as
well. Ever since Apple began
promoting Macs as a great machine for working with video,
I have looked for a way to both convert my analog videos
to DV and convert my finished DV products back to analog.
Lets face it, many of the people I want to show my videos
to don't have fast Macs or for that matter any Mac or
even any computer. I want to be able to bring a VHS tape
to my in-laws house and show them my vacation, not have
them huddle over my PowerBook's screen to watch a portion
of it. I can easily store 2 to
6 hours of acceptable video on a VHS tape. The same
amount of digital video would require a Huge hard drive.
At a rate of 1 megabyte a second a 20 minute clip of my
vacation would take up 1.2 GBytes. More then I can fit on
a CD. For me, VHS is good enough, my vacation and home
videos aren't historical documents; they are of value to
me, to show friends and to enjoy. The Studio lets me have
the best of both worlds, I can use all those great DV
editing tools and then save the finished product to a
regular (or S-video) VHS tape. But if I wanted, I could
also use Apple's new Super drive and make my home
DVDs! Installation of the
Studio package is easy. First a small set of drivers and
extensions are installed along with a program called
ProTV. After restarting the Mac (to install these
drivers), simply plug in the included FireWire cable and
you are ready to access the Studio. The Studio can take the
power it needs from the FireWire bus. However, if you are
using an iBook or have other FireWire devices Formac
recommends using an external power adapter. (This adapter
is not included with the Studio and can be acquired from
Formac of $24.) At this point you are
ready to connect your video source to the Studio and
convert it to DV. You can connect analog video either
through a composite (also known as an RCA) connection or
an S-video connection. Left and right audio channels in
are also provided for the audio tracks. To perform your editing,
you are going to need a DV editing program. The Studio
package does not include DV editing software. But since
Apple has been including iMovie with FireWire Macs you
might already have iMovie. If you didn't get it with your
Mac, Apple was giving away version 1 of iMovie or you can
buy version 2 from Apple. There are other software
packages available as well. Once the editing
software problem is resolved, import video directly as if
it was coming from a DV camera. Perform your magic on
them as director and editor. Once done you need to decide
how to store your masterpiece. If you have the space,
storing it as a DV movie ensures the data will not be
degraded in any way. However, you can easily save the
movie to a standard VHS tape using either the Studio's
composite or S-video outputs. Stereo audio output is also
included for your sound track. Output to a VHS tape is
also easy. I used iMovie, which includes an export
function, designed to export the completed video to your
DV camera once complete. iMovie thinks the Studio is a DV
camera. So by connecting a VCR to the composite video
output of the Studio, the video exported from the Studio
is recorded onto tape. If you would like to preview the
output before you record it, you can also connect a
standard TV (or S-video TV) to the Studio's outputs to
watch it. The whole process is very simple. The Studio
works flawlessly. The ProTV software that
comes with the Studio can perform some other interesting
features. The Studio includes a TV and radio tuner.
Connect a standard cable TV cable to the Studio's coax
video in connection then use ProTV's features to tune
into the cable on your Mac! You can even record your
favorite TV shows, right from the cable into the Digital
domain! Similar to a VCR, ProTV
will search the cable connection for channels, then
provide a list. The software lets you give names to the
channels, so you can refer to them as WVIT or SciFi
rather then 30 or 55. The Studio can also pull video
signals from a TV antenna. A radio tuner is also included
in case you'd like to listen to radio on your Mac as
well. Finally, if you own a fast FireWire Multimedia hard
drive, you will be able to use the Studio as a digital
VCR! The Studio offers
software that lets you create images for your own Web-Cam
or Web Video. The WebCam periodically sends still images
which you can post on a web site (perhaps your own web
coffee pot or aquarium)! If you are more adventurous you
can even send streaming video (Using Apple QuickTime's
streaming protocols) for any one to watch. Tools are
provided to add text, to blur parts better left unseen,
or even add the date and time to your images. While I found watching a
TV station on the Mac's desktop a bit choppy, ProTV
offers a TV Mode, which produces excellent full screen
video on your Mac's monitor. I was disappointed to
find I couldn't use the Studio to send the video of a DVD
playing on my Mac's DVD drive to a TV. This is probably
more a factor of the copy protection built into the DVD
software then the lack of abilities with the Studio.
Still, it would be nice. Conclusion:
The Studio is a great
device, it easily and intuitively brings your analog
video into the Digital Domain so you can work with it,
modify it, and compose it to your hearts content, and it
does a great job of it! If you have the need to convert
your analog video, definitely consider the
Studio. For more information
contact Formac
The Studio retails for $400, but I have seen higher
street prices (go figure). Ease
of Use : Quality
: Over
All Score :
Ted
Bade has
been using Apple computers since 1982 and Macs since
1985. Dedicated to the Macintosh, he has been a member
and leader of a Computer user group since 1983. He has a
degree in electrical engineering and loves to write. To
date he has published a number of articles in
MacHome
Journal magazine,
writes for iBook-User
and
writes regularly for H.U.G.E.
a computer user group newsletter, and freelances whenever
he can find the time and need. While he's not playing
with his Macintosh G4 or PowerBook
G3.
The First web
site Dedicated to Apple's iBook ! iBook-User © is a
Publication of P1 Publishing LLC 2001 all rights reserved. est.
7/18/99 "if you are using an
iBook or have other FireWire devices Formac
recommends using an external power
adapter."
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