68kMLA Classic Interface
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| SuperMac VideoSpigot, first conquest in forever | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-02 14:57:06 I had a bit of an impulse buy today. It's been a very, very, very long time since I bought anything 68k Mac related. Browsing eBay I ran into a fairly cheap SuperMac VideoSpigot for $17 with shipping included. I have two different SuperMac Nubus video cards so I thought this would pair well with either of them. The price was certainly right! Old video capture stuff has always interested me even if I don't have any practical use for it. It's just cool. Lately to escape the troubles and trials of life I have been working on my old computers, selling what I do not need and keeping what matters to me. I stuck with x86 PC's initially as it was just easier to move files between my modern Win7/Win10 machines and the old stuff. Networking between Win95 or WinNT4 to Win10 is still doable with minimal hacks on the Win10 end. Now that most of my old PC's are fully restored I am moving on to making sure my core Mac collection is completely operational. One of the tasks on my plate will be to establish a functional bridge machine between the 68k/PPC Mac world and the modern internet. The card hasn't come in yet but I will do a detailed review and write up of it in this thread once it does. Hopefully the board is in good working order. | |
| Posted by: Rick Dangerous on 2017-10-03 22:39:57 What is this item-a video capture card? Have a picture and description? Congrats on the find. It's a good feeling! | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-04 09:34:02 It is a video capture card, one of the first commonly available ones for the Mac. It was designed to go along with QuickTime when it launched so people would have a means to pour video into digital form. It’s not a fancy card by any means, just a single composite input. IIRC the frame rate cap is 24fps and it can only capture in a very low resolution, 160xSomething? The VideoSpigot pairs best with an early Quadra or late II series machine. | |
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-10-04 11:12:02It is a video capture card, one of the first commonly available ones for the Mac. It was designed to go along with QuickTime when it launched so people would have a means to pour video into digital form.they are picky about QuickTime versions and therefore os installed. | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-04 13:01:29 7.1.1 Pro would be an appropriate version of Mac OS for it, correct? My IIfx is running that as well as my Quadra 800. Radius Rockets are also very picky about OS version, although some claim better compatibility than actually exists. | |
| Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-10-04 13:14:41 7.1 works great on a IIfx. The original spitgot will not work with 7.5 or later. | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-05 15:12:11 I got the card in the mail today! Very well packed and placed in a new antistatic bag. It is detected by the IIfx, so at least it's probably functional. Unfortunately I cannot find the drivers for the Spigot anywhere. I can find drivers for the newer SpigotAV/Spigot Pro, but not the original Spigot. If someone would kindly post the disk image I would greatly appreciate it. First impression of the Spigot: The PCB is thick, indicating high quality. It's made in USA. The board throws off a lot of heat which is surprising, about as much as my Rocket StageII. The project that will go with this Spigot is the Macintosh IIfx/40DP AV. What on earth is a Macintosh IIfx/40DP AV? It's a IIfx with a Radius Rocket StageII 40mhz 040 + the onboard 030 40mhz 030, and AV capabilities via the Spigot and an Audiomedia II card. Somehow my IIfx has "fixed" it's power supply on it's own. No more random crashes on boot. We will see how long that lasts, I'm hoping for a long time! I'm likely hitting the thermal limits of the IIfx with this project. | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-05 15:33:40 Photos: I'm having a heck of the time with the post editor. First duplicated posts, now one post lost it's images. Huh.    | |
| Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-10-05 17:20:54 http://radius.vintagebox.de/Download/radius/software/mac/SuperMac/Digital_Video/Spigot/ | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-05 18:35:54 Thanks! That driver worked perfectly. The card is completely operational. Realtime view is surprisingly smooth when the window is kept at the default size. You could use this to watch something without much difficulty. The smoothness probably has more to do with the 40mhz 030 of the IIfx than the Spigot itself though, your mileage may vary. Recordings are not that great, but acceptable considering the technology of the time. Default framerate is 10fps, although the settings panel will allow you to increase/decrease the framerate to fit the performance of your system. The option for live audio pass-through is disabled with the Audiomedia II, perhaps this functionality was only supported via Macintosh onboard audio input? I will post video clips and screenshots this weekend. | |
| Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-08 20:14:52 I suppose more details about my loaded IIfx can be saved for another post, but I will share that the VideoSpigot works awesomely. I don't have video clips quite ready yet but I do have a photo of the card nestled in with the rest ready - anyone want to play name that card?:  | |
| Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-10-08 22:10:55 Ethernet Audiomedia II Spigot Supermac Thunder/24? Radius Rocket Stage II with add-on (scsi?) | |
| Posted by: insaneboy on 2017-10-11 14:08:34 from what I remember(been a while) with the rasterops video card in my IIci, it could play live video on the screen smooth, but recording was highly dependent on the speed of my drives/SCSI bus, not the processor speed. | |
| Posted by: CC_333 on 2017-10-11 19:16:45 The front-most card does appear to be some sort of Rocket (I know that only because it has an '040 and it's in a NuBus slot). As for the rest, I can see the first two have their names on them, so it's easy to guess what they're for. But the two in the middle? I'm not really sure. c | |
| Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-10-11 23:03:49 P.S. The Spigot was also made into a LC PDS card (have one). | |
Posted by: IIfx on 2017-10-12 07:08:42EthernetYour 100% correct. The add-on card on that Rocket is a dual DSP card. I have another Rocket Stage II with a SCSI-2 board that will be going into my Quadra 800. | |
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