igrabber
Latest
Capturing iPad video on a Mac is still problematic
When TUAW blogger Erica Sadun and I found out that the iPad 2 was going to feature video mirroring through the various adapters that Apple and others sell, we were ecstatic. For Erica, this would hopefully provide a quick way to capture movies of demonstrations of some of her software solutions, while I was hoping to be able to grab iPad video on my Mac for the many app demos that I do on TUAW TV Live. Regretfully, our joy was short-lived. We've both tried with various cables and adapters, and to this point, have had no luck. Both Erica and I own inexpensive video input devices for our Macs; she has the Elgato Video Capture (US$99.95) while I have the functionally equivalent Geniatech iGrabber ($34.99). Both devices take composite video signals from a device -- usually an old VHS videocassette recorder or camcorder -- and capture the resulting video using proprietary software on the Mac. Since Apple sells a Composite AV Cable for iOS devices, we both thought that it would be possible to blast video out from the iPad 2 through that cable to the Mac composite video capture tools, which would let us achieve our respective goals for capturing iPad 2 videos. Unfortunately, neither of us was able to get this to work, and we're not exactly sure why. Apple's spec page indicates the composite output isn't supported for mirroring.
TUAW Review: iGrabber, a cheap way to digitize old videos
The other day while I was attempting to clean up my office, I came across a bunch of old MiniDV tapes from various vacations that my wife and I had taken over the years. That got me thinking about the 8mm videotapes from the pre-MiniDV age, and the even older VHS vacation tapes from the Pleistocene Era. Since I have done a pretty good job of going to a paperless office, I figured it was about time to make my other media go digital as well. I don't necessarily want to edit the movies right now -- at this point, all I want to do is get the raw video transferred to my iMac, and then at some future date, when I have the time (like 20 years from now), I'll transform them into mini-documentaries. The big concern I had was getting the video into my Mac, and since I no longer shoot video with tapes, I needed something that would just get the job done with a minimum of fuss and cost. A quick Amazon search brought up a device from MyGica (yeah, I've never heard of them, either) called the Geniatech iGrabber (US$34.99 at Amazon). It had surprisingly good reviews compared to more expensive devices like the Elgato Video Capture Device ($74.99 at Amazon). I found several other adapters that were even cheaper, but they either had poor reviews or weren't listed as being Mac-compatible. Here's a quick review of the iGrabber, a fairly inexpensive and easy way to digitize old videos.
