The Beauty that is Apple’s Firewire SDK

For a long time I’ve been aware that Apple’s Firewire SDK contains applications that allow you capture MPEG video streams over firewire from a digital video source. This means that if you have a digital/HD television or set-top box with a firewire port, you can capture that HD content onto your Mac. I’ve never bothered trying it because I assumed my Time Warner 8300HD would have it’s firewire ports disabled. Then, one night I was bored and decided to reasearch it some more. I found out that it is a FCC regulation that cable operators are not allowed to disable the firewire ports on any of their STBs. So, armed with that knowledge, I connected my MacBook to my 8300HD using their firewire ports, and was successful in capturing HD content. There are 2 ways you can this. With the VirtualDVHS application, or the AVCVideoCap application. Use the VirtualDVHS steps below if your TV or STB doesn’t support AV/C. Use the AVCVideoCap steps if your TV or STB supports AV/C.

Virtual DVHS :
1) Download and install Apple’s Firewire SDK found HERE.
2) Connect your Mac to either firewire port located at the back of the 8300HD while the Mac is off.
3) Power on the Mac
4) Tune to the HD channel you wish to capture. (On your STB)
5) Run the AVCBrowser application located under /Developer/FirewireSDK22/Applications/
6) In the Output section of the AVCBrowser’s UI, select channel 63.
7) Run the VirtualDVHS app. (found under the same path in step 5)
8) Set VirtualDVHS’ record channel to 63.
9) Click the connect button in the output section of the AVCBrowser’s UI.
10) Make sure you have the VirtualDVHS’ “Stats Drawer” open and click the record button in the VirtualDVHS UI.
11) Recording should begin, and you should see the Bitrate, Packets, and Resolution stats start chugging away.

AVCVideoCap :

1a) Perform steps 1-4 from above.
2a) Run the AVCVideoCap app located under the same path as stated in step 5.
3a) Select your device in the AVCVideoCap UI.
4a) Click the Capture from Device button.
5a) Choose where you want the video saved.
6a) Enter how long you want to capture in minutes.
7a) Hit continue.
8a) Capturing occurs!

Tips:

1) If you see a lot of “Overruns” occur in AVCVideoCap or if you only see bitrate and packets being populated with data in VirtualDVHS, then your capture won’t be playable. It is most likely because the channel you are viewing is being encrypted by Time Warner. For the most part, local HD stations don’t encrypt their content so give those a try.
2) I recommend using VLC or MPEG Streamclip for playing back your video captures in M2V format. (You’ll have to buy the Apple MPEG-2 Quicktime plugin from Apple if you want to use MPEG Streamclip to convert your M2V into Quicktime or MPEG format.)

SciFi Channel Sucks – Another Example

You know what I’ve always thought the SciFi channel was missing in its lineup? Wrestling! If there’s one thing you must have as part of a science fiction show schedule, it’s wrestling. The SciFi channel has recently announced that ECW will be added to its show lineup. So, in addition to horrible movies about killer animals, the Scifi channel will now have live coverage of grown men hitting, throwing, and pinning each other inside a bouncy ring. What’s more “scifi” than that!? How about anything else?! Jesus! How freaking retarded are the execs at the SciFi channel? Do they have even the slightest idea what SciFi fans want? As I’ve said in an earlier post, the SciFi channel only has a couple of decent shows : Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Dr Who. (and Doctor Who isn’t even a SciFi production.) They need to get a frickin grip. Seeing them do crap like this pisses off Science Fiction fans everywhere. It’s time for some SciFi channel execs to get fired so that some people who know what the hell the SciFi fans want can take their place.

End of Line (If you’re a TV executive and know what movie I’m referencing here, please apply to replace those fired SciFi channel execs. 😉 )

Kure Beach

The Pressley family is at the beach! Chrissy, Liam, Connor and I drove up to Chrissy’s aunt’s beach house at Kure beach on Sunday and joined the rest of Chrissy’s family. The beach house is pretty awesome. With 4 bedrooms, and a couple more bonus rooms, it’s plenty of room for the fourof us, Chrissy’s sister’s kids and husband, and Chrissy’s mom. Since I got lucky, and actually like my inlaws, this week at the beach is gonna be pretty fun. Here’s a couple pictures that I took using my iSight fromthe top level of the back porch…

To the NE

To the SE

Peavey HP USA Review – Guitar World

Guitar World has reviewed the Peavey HP USA. The HP essentially is a more versitile Peavey Wolfgang. Eddie Van Halen no longer has a relationship with Peavey, and therefore it can no longer be called the EVh Wolfgang. The HP adds push/pull pickup tapping, a tone knob, and differently shaped “horns.” Check out the video. I think this guitar should give any Les Paul a run for its money.

Blizzard’s Secret Sauce

Here is a great article from Escapist magazine about the history of Blizzard and why they are such a successful game software company. The article discusses all the phases of Blizzard’s development from Warcraft, to Diablo, to the insanely popular World of Warcraft. Good reading for us Blizzard fans out there!

MacBook has arrived!

My MacBook is here! All I can say is, awesome. Right now I’m too busy getting it all setup the way I like it, but I promise I’ll post pics soon!

MacBook Shipped

The good news is that the MacBook shipped today. The bad news is that it shipped from China. I’m SUPPOSED to get the laptop on Thursday, but I’m not all that confident that will happen. I’ve heard horror stories of people buying the MacBook Pros and they just sit in customs (in China) until the Chinese officials feel like clearing it. Anyway, we’ll see. Keep your fingeres crossed for me!

Ordered the MacBook Today

I ordered my MacBook today. It ended up costing me $1500 for a 2.0Ghz Core Duo, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, Superdrive, White MacBook. I can’t wait. It’ll probably get here in about a week. For the same price of the black model, you can tweak the mid-level white model with a bigger HD, and more RAM. (So in the end, for the same price as the black model, you can get the white model with the same HD space as the black, but with more RAM.) Woohoo!