Free LaCie CD / DVD reader / writer drive and Free Elgato Eye 200

DaveWT

Well-Known Member
I got this Lacie external DVD drive many years ago from our long time member, Judi Dyelle, and it continues to work flawlessly! So why get rid of it and why free you ask?

The catch is that its interfaces are Firewire 400! (in and out to daisy chain.) As my computers evolved I used a FW 400 to FW 800 cable, then added an Apple FW 800 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, and then later an Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter, for the ultimate kludge and it all "just works" right up to and including Ventura 13.2.1 (I used it this week to recover some photos off an old CD.) So if anyone wants to continue testing how long such a kludge can keep on working, feel free to respond.


(DVD drive is gone)

Now the 2nd freebie is even more challenging. First an introduction to the wonders of the EyeTV 200 which I bought in 2006 right after I got my first iMac...

This box connects to my Telus set top box by a coax cable. The box then connected to my initial iMac by means of a Firewire 400 cable (and in my case passing through the Lacie DVD drive mentioned above, but of course that was not necessary.) The box itself derived its power through the Firewire cable, so initially, no additional power supply was needed. What it allowed was watching my TV shows on the iMac screen either as a full screen display or as a smaller window while using the rest of the iMac screen to compose a letter to your dear auntie or playing solitaire or whatever. I selected TV channels via the set top box remote just as I would, a normal TV but if I recall the EyeTV box has its own tuner (and its own remote control) and there were subscriptions to TV guide services etc. But wait! There is so much more! While watching a show you could hit a "record" button on the on screen software controller and record that show on the Mac's hard drive and later edit out commercials etc. and burn to a DVD etc. as desired. Not enough fun you say? OK the EyeTV box also had inputs for connecting to your VCR! So you could take a video tape, play it through the EyeTV to your Mac and be recording it to the hard drive for later burning to DVD also. And all this was LONG before copy protection got in your way. (Not that I am advocating illegal copying, but a video you purchased should be able to be preserved in a longer term format than a VHS tape.)

As my computers evolved I had to go through the evolving kludge of cables as described above for the LaCie DVD drive. And that meant the box could no longer derive enough power through the cable, so I added a little "wall wart" that fortunately was planned for by Elgato as there was an optional power input jack on the back.

Eventually Elgato got out of this business and sold the rights to a European company, Geniatech, who carried on developing the software in a half hearted way, but at least getting past the 32 bit to 64 bit transition hurdle. The box continued to serve me well up and through Mohave, but once into Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey territory it took more work to keep the software going. It would initially crash, and then Apple would bring out an update to that macOS and it would start working again. Now that I am on Ventura, it is crashing again and so far updates to that haven't got it going again.

But for anyone on an earlier flavour of macOS and who REALLY wants to mess with this, with wonderful rewards at the end of the struggle, I offer this for free. What cables and adapters I can supply depends on whether someone comes for the LaCie drive first and needs those. And if you do want to explore the EyeTV 200, you should bring a thumb drive so I can give you a copy of the current software and licence key etc. Who is up for a challenge?

As I am moving to an M2 Mac Mini, I give up all hope on keeping this running and don't want to continue with the FW 400 / FW 800 / TB 2 / TB 3 kludge

Dave
 
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