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I thought this was a mythical Unicorn - the ATI USB 650 HDTV for Mac, tvPortal software.
But apparently it really exists.
It was spec'd for OS X 10.4+ (Tiger) Universal binary for G4, G5 or Intel Macs.
I can't wait to tear into it and get familiar with it.
A while ago I picked up a Mac Mini G4 and Mac Mini Intel on the off chance I might "someday" come across this piece of software. That was several years ago.. and I had truly given up.
On the Mac side capture has basically broken down into Firewire and USB devices with a few PCMCIA and PCI exceptions.
The capture software either being a custom NLE with Capture "built-in" as a feature or the EchoFX Video Glide (or derivative) or the one off Grass Valley ADVCmini (which had nothing to do with the DV codec at all.. pure 4:2:2 USB goodness).
On the Mac Elgato EyeTV (now Geniatech) was pretty much Windows Media Center (for the Mac) or its equivalent. A bundled EPG with a vast and expansive collection of drivers for mostly Firewire and USB video capture devices.
Sure iMovie or FinalCut can use a DV capture device natively (with no drivers) but choices were limited. And the DV format is color lossy. And they can use a UVC capture device masquerading as a Webcam (Maxwell). I suppose Blackmagic does the same.. but I've not gone there since the Blackmagic USB2.0 dongle.. long since discontinued.
Before ATI was acquired by AMD they wrote their MMC application in house, and outsourced their foray into OS X with the ATI tvPortal software (a decided detour around simply adopting the Elgato EyeTV which was almost ubiquitous by that time).
I have always wondered what tvPortal was like.. and now it looks like I'll actually get a chance to see.
The last month of 2019 I became fascinated with a niche period on TiVo history.. which continues to work up to this very day. That led to stumbling upon this cdrom and hardware.
That is, there was a period in history when TiVo partnered with Pioneer and then Toshiba and Humax to produce six DVD recordable TiVos. They actually let you burn recordings off on DVD media. But also these had Composite and S-Video Inputs.. so they had a VCR acquisition subsystem in their menus.
Beyond that on the PC side they offered TiVo desktop which let you transfer TiVo files from a fully enabled TiVo to the PC and play them back over the network. And publish various video formats "to" the TiVo where they could be played back from its holistic menu system.
On the Mac side they offered Roxio Toast TivoToGo which did the same thing, transfer TiVo files from a fully enabled TiVo to the Mac and play them back. And publish various video formats "to" the TiVo where they could be played back from its holistic menu system.
You could also burn DVDs of the transfered Tivo recordings on the PC or the Mac.
These products as new offerings have long been discontinued.. but they still work.. including the EPG to the Pioneer, Toshiba and Humax models.. although they were pre-2009 and today require using their IR channel blasters to control digital to analog converters for over the air recordings.
But as VCR (or VHS tape) to MPEG2 video capture devices.. they are still amazing.
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