Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: We Make DIY Upgrading Easy! Maximize your Apple MacBook / MacBook Pro. Up to 8.0GB Memory, up to 1.0TB HD & More. Easy Guide + Free, Detailed Installation Videos. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Musings

Quadra 660av to the Rescue

- 1999.11.12

Scott Atkinson is News Director at WWNY TV in Watertown, NY.

I love this story - because it shows just how durable Macs are, and how far-sighted its designers were, even back in the "bad years" at Apple. dk

I'm the news director of a small TV station in upstate New York, and a few weeks back we decided to put more effort into our station's web site.

"More effort," in this case, meant two or three updates during the working week, and still pictures to go with the stories. The stories were no problem, since CBS provides us with a web-based system for writing copy. The same system allows us to place graphic elements with our stories and - this being television - pictures are considered a good thing.

Best of all, we have a ready supply of pictures. All we had to do was capture still images off the videotape we shoot for television and massage the the stills a little bit for the web.

Unfortunately, the two systems best suited to the job are Mac-based non-linear editors on the other side of the building. Even though we're well-networked, we couldn't just ask our commercial producers to continually drop what they're doing during the busiest part of the day to make stills. Then, since each graphic needed to be re-sized, the images had to be run through a copy of Photoshop that resides on a machine in the program director's office.

This method for getting stills worked when we were doing one story a day and a few graphics a week, but I knew it wouldn't take much to strain it past the breaking point.

The answer came in the form of an old Quadra 660av I bought many months ago and set aside after playing with it for awhile. The machine was about as bare bones as it gets: 24 MB of RAM, only a 40 MB (!) hard drive, and no CD-ROM. However, it is (as some of you know better than me) capable of digitizing video straight out of the box.

Here's what we did: the 660 went on the floor in my office with a minimum install of System 7.5 - the System Folder weighs in at 11 MB. Then I put a copy of Apple's Video Player version 1.4.1 (circa 1996), Quicktime 2.1 (circa 1995) and a program called Video Monitor (circa 1993) on the hard drive, raising the grand total to just over 13 MB.

(In keeping with the generally "floppy-friendly" attitude of Low End Mac, I note that I was able to get all the software involved loaded from floppy discs.)

I grabbed a spare VCR, plugged it into the back of the 660, and began grabbing stills. (Video Player displays the tape as it plays - and either Video Player or Video Monitor lets me grab "freeze frames" of the image.) I think the whole project took about half an hour.

I drop the captured image onto a floppy, bring it over to the Power Mac 7200 on my desk, and convert it into a JPEG for posting to the web.

Here's what I learned: we shoot on a high grade format called Beta SX (Sony's digital Beta format), but I record airchecks of our news on dirt cheap, use 'em a hundred times, plain old ordinary VHS cassettes - and the image I get off the VHS tapes is good enough for most web pictures.

So now I either grab a still off a newscast aircheck, or I ask one of my reporters to quickly dub a few seconds of their footage from Beta to VHS.

True, the wiring of this little project made the rat's nest in my office a little worse, but it's dirt cheap and it works just fine. Considering that the equipment and software involved is 4-6 years old, Mac loyalists have much to be proud of. I also think it shows the continuing value of the attitude behind Low End Mac - that being old doesn't make a Mac any less graceful, and that these marvelous machines still have much to teach us.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
The Future of Personal Computing: Personal Servers and Low Cost Portables, 11.02. With WiFi everywhere, virtual network computing, and remote access, your iPhone, iTouch, iTablet, or MacBook Air becomes a gateway to your home or office computer.
The Late 2009 Mac mini Value Equation, 10.21. We called the Mac mini 'the best value in desktop Macs' two months ago, and the refreshed Mac mini only improves that value.
The Late 2009 MacBook Value Equation, 10.21. The redesigned consumer MacBook uses unibody construction, gains LED backlighting and battery life, but loses FireWire.
More in the Mac Musings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.