PCMCIA TV Tuner ?

[KnobsNSwitches]

Was there ever such a thing as a Mac OS 8 / 9 compatible PC card tv tuner?

I was kicking around getting something to hook an old game system to on, and as I don't yet have a desktop with Apple's TV tuner card, I wondered if I could find something for the PowerBook 2400.

 

[Gorgonops]

My answer would be "almost definitely" because I'm fairly certain that those systems supported ZV Port (IE, Zoomed Video) for just that purpose, but it turns out that identifying a specific card from that era that came with Macintosh drivers is a *really hard thing* to come up with the right Google search string for.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

My answer would be "almost definitely" because I'm fairly certain that those systems supported ZV Port (IE, Zoomed Video) for just that purpose, but it turns out that identifying a specific card from that era that came with Macintosh drivers is a *really hard thing* to come up with the right Google search string for.

That seems to be the trouble! 

 

[dcr]

Do you mean without the right search string?

I wonder if it would be helpful to look through old MacWarehouse, MacConnection and Tiger Software catalogs to see the products being offered.  That would at least give a product name and perhaps some additional search parameters to facilitate a decent online search.

 

[Gorgonops]

Do you mean without the right search string?

What I said was:

"identifying a specific card from that era that came with Macintosh drivers is a *really hard thing* to come up with the right Google search string for"

Which states that, yes, it is difficult to find "specific card" when you're lacking "right search string" (IE, leaving you flailing to come up with that string from scratch).

 

[Gorgonops]

I wonder if it would be helpful to look through old MacWarehouse, MacConnection and Tiger Software catalogs

There's an archive of MacWorld magazines on archive.org that covers the mid-1990's, that might be worth a try, but it's going to be looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

[dcr]

What I said was: ...

Sorry.  Low blood caffeine levels.

 

[Dandu]

My answer would be "almost definitely" because I'm fairly certain that those systems supported ZV Port (IE, Zoomed Video) for just that purpose, but it turns out that identifying a specific card from that era that came with Macintosh drivers is a *really hard thing* to come up with the right Google search string for.

The ZV Ports is also used for the MPEG2 card for PowerBook G3.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

The only name I've come across so far is the "iRez Capsure" card, which does not have a tuner included but sounds like it would work for what I have in mind. 

The name rings something of a bell, I think iRez also had some webcams at the time.

 

[Sunoo]

Keep in mind that most capture cards and such add significant lag, so they tend not to be suitable if you want to use them as a display for a game system.

 

[Byrd]

+ lag from LCD and low resolution capture = emulation would be better

 

[Gorgonops]

90's vintage TV capture cards that used DMA methods to push directly to VRAM (like the very common Brooktree "BTTV"-based cards) have very little latency/lag compared to modern devices that connect via USB. (They're completely synchronous as long as they're running in the direct mode, which on laptops is what ZV port it for.) Running an old video game console through one shouldn't pose a significant problem; you'll probably get more lag from a lot of modern HDTV scalers.

That said, the video quality from those devices usually leaves a lot to be desired even when you have a *nice* monitor, and while the PowerBook 2400's LCD was decent for the era I suspect it's only a 12 bit display. Honestly don't know what's to be gained from piping your Sega through it vs. just about any decent TV.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

+ lag from LCD and low resolution capture = emulation would be better

 Honestly don't know what's to be gained from piping your Sega through it vs. just about any decent TV.

No particular reason, other than it'd be interesting and fun. No different from, say, a sega tower of power, or installing any upgrade in a old Mac.