Firewire TV Tuner

Question

Firewire TV Tuner

Is there a Firewire 400 TV tuner (DVB-T/DDT) available yet?

My searches so far have only found Whirlpool Forum's 10 year old blogs! - well out of date.

I have an old G4 PowerBook 400 MHz with USB1.1 which, from what I've read so far, will not be able to play HDTV. Minimum requirements all state USB2 required. So I will be updating to a better machine soon.

But I've also read much (old stuff again) about USB's being less reliable due to them not having their own power source, hence my Q. about Firewire.

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 400 MHz Power PC G4

Posted on Mar 22, 2013 12:43 AM

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Answer 1

Network 23

Level 6

12,351 points

Mar 23, 2013 2:08 PM in response to OldTimerNeedsHelp

OldTimerNeedsHelp wrote:

Is there a Firewire 400 TV tuner (DVB-T/DDT) available yet?

There probably isn't ever going to be one. With the emergence of fast USB 3 and Thunderbolt, there is little momentum left for development of FireWire 400 anything. I love FireWire and use it with all my Macs, but I'm seeing its use evaporate out in the world today.

Your best bet is to wait until you get a new Mac. I also have an old G4 and it is waaaaay too slow for any type of HDTV. What makes HD compression possible are the multi-core, multimedia-optimized Intel processors that basically beat the tar out of any G4 every made, in terms of power. These newer processors are fast enough to unpack compressed HD video quickly enough for 30 frames per second, and the G4 is just out of its league with these new HD codecs.

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