Best way to record from cable TV.

I want to record a commercial off television and edit it in Final Cut. I guess this means either plugging the cable into some device which plugs into the MAC, or using the antenna out from the television to plug into such device.

I came across a website ---Elgato. Will their gizmos do the job? They have more than one. What is the best solution?

To do this without a capture card typically you need a firewire device that has analog inputs. Like some cameras. In my case, I use a DVC Pro deck that can take an analog signal in and send it through the firewire to FCP.

Other than that, you can use a DVD recorder to record the commercial and then use a program like MPEG Streamclip to pull the video off it and convert it to a usable quicktime file.

Andy

I use S video from TV to mini DV cam or deck -

then firewire it to FCP -

I do this alot so that I can see what effects and edits are being used -
I have learned alot doing this-- Jay--

Take a look-see @ EyeTV for Mac. I just put a splitter on my TV cable, put one end into the EyeTV unit, stuck in a USB port in the back of my iMac and I have channels 2 through 99 that I can view and RECORD! Then I use it to output the recorded video into the format I want. I believe it also has a way of hooking to your VCR and/or DVD player and can also handle HiDef (apparently from a HiDef antenna). The basic channels 2-99 filled my needs, so didn't go any further with the configuration abilities of EyeTV. www.elgato.com

Regards, Cyrus
iMac 27" Intel i7 Quad-Core; 16GB RAM; 2TB HD
Final Cut Studio, FCP X, Photoshop CS5, After Effects, etc.