Mac-based capture systems are actually great!
 

I am new here, been lurking for a while..and I'm truly gobsmacked at the amount of ignorance when it comes to Mac based capture systems.

So many posts saying things like "PC is the only way to go" etc.. the people making these claims must still living in 1993.

I run a commercial tape conversion business, and I convert both analog and digital tape to file, DVD, BluRay etc and I have been running Macs EXCLUSIVELY for over 9 years.

I transfer for government organisations, schools, large corporates etc etc and my business is doing great...in fact I have just had a delivery of 4,000 tapes from a company located in a different country to me, who has tracked me down for the quality of work I do.

I also run BlackMagic (which also gets a bad rap here) external and internal (i.e PCI) cards to facilitate my transfers and don't have issues at all.

Reason? I know what I'm doing. I have the correct interfaces between my decks and my capture cards.

Please folks, if you don't have experience using Macs then please don't scare people off who would benefit from basing their system on OSX.

I'm not bagging Windows/PC systems by the way..my point is there are many options..not just those with which you are familiar.

P.S I haven't had a single dropped frame yet - and no, I don't rely on the Blackmagic 'report dropped frame' function to advise me on this - I have other (broadcast level) hardware and software that monitors this in real time.

Your own post reveals the issues of capturing on Mac.

1. Limited hardware choices. You're using a Blackmagic, which is one of the only viable choices. Furthermore, you acknowledge the dropped frames issue, and rely on yet more hardware (not needed on a Windows system) to monitor for potential errors.

2. Before Blackmagic, which FYI isn't 9 years old, you could only convert via DV. That had many issues, as many organizations and are now learning (finally) that the signal is processed to HD on large screens -- which is EXACTLY what I was saying 15 years ago. I saw the problem back then, spoke about it frequently, but was often dismissed by the "good enough" crowd (which later changed its tune).

It's not about "I know what I'm doing", but about the costs and quality of hardware (and indeed even needing more hardware).

Nor is it about "being familiar" with something.

When it comes to video stuff not working right, being expensive ... I'm lamenting. I wish it was easier, cheaper. But it's just not. And that sucks.

I was toying with Blackmagic HD/SD cards when they were new, having learned about them at CES before they even came out. In fact, I was an early fan, turned sour by the issues that were being reported. I was truly disappointed in its SD performance, and expected better.

My video knowledge goes back 25 years, and I used to work for studios. Don't try the "I know more than you do" shtick, it won't work here. I've been headhunted more than once for my work in this field. There are also quite a few successful businesses that learned from me, and this site -- what can I say, I'm an educator at heart.

If you want to have an objective conversation on Mac usage, great!

I'm not anti-Mac, it's just a tool for task. And sadly, experience has shown capture isn't a task it excels at. Nobody here is a fanboy for an OS or platform, and our only goal is quality video. If you've somehow found a Mac-based combo that achieves that, then share what it is.