Is hdmi to firewire possible?

[Mauserman]

Hi all!

I don't think the topic was very obvious, but what i want to ask is this.

I have a cable-tv box with hdmi interface. What would i need to be able to transfer the video and audio signal from my cable-tv box to my mac? Is there a device or cable like "hdmi to firewire" that let's you do this? To complicate this some more, is it even possible to save high definition video and audio signal to the mac this way?

I have transfered old super 8 camcorder tapes to my mac through a video converter before, so i was thinking there is some similar device to transfer hdtv to the mac too.

I'm just curious how one would go about this task, is it even possible?

Sorry if the question is stupid, but i have to ask to be able to learn

[Baldrick]

No, you can't do hdmi to firewire like that. A capture card/box with cabletv/digitaltv would probably be the best solution.

[tnelson]

As has been mentioned there are no known HDMI to Firewire converters out there...

However, I'd suggest you take a look at your cable box. Since it sounds new enough to have HDMI outputs, it probably also has a Firewire output already. The FCC requires that any cable box with a Firewire output, be enabled and not blocked by the cable supplier.

If your cable box has the firewire port, then all you need is a firewire cable, a Mac with firewire input, and the magic D-VCR software from Apples development site (free, you have to register though). I think the applications are part of the Firewire SDK kit in the download section of the Apple Developers site. Once you download the Firewire SDK, you will find three applications AVCBrowser, DVHSCap and AVCVideoCap... I don;t remember which ones do the actual recording, but you should be able to figure it out.

Anyway, the recordings are good, and support HD signals. The only real drawback is there are no time-codes in the recorded streams, so jumping around within the stream is difficult. But if all you want to do is record a show, and watch it later, this works great, and in HD if the original signal was HD.

If your cable box does not have a firewire output... consider returning it and getting one that does. I think most newer Scientific Atlantic cable boxes include firewire.


Opps I just noticed your in Sweden.... Well I will leave this post for others who may be able to make use of the info.

Tom N.

[Baldrick]

I haven't seen any cable boxes here in Sweden with any Firewire out. But useful information for other users then.

Mauserman: Besök www.minhembio.com , finns en hel del matnyttig information där. Men har du comhem hdtv så lär det bli ganska så svårt att få de krypterade hdtv-kanalerna till ditt äpple.

[Mauserman]

Thanks guys for the info, and yes Baldrick, i'm on ComHem cable, i'm gonna check the url you provided.

Thanks again