Analogue Video In/Out on a Recent MacBook Pro

For a project, I needed to take in and send out realtime analogue (composite) video. Analogue video input has always been a problem, but on recent laptops, Apple even removed the video output via DVI adapter option (i.e. there is no DisplayPort to video/s-video adapter).

So after experimenting and going through some old hardware I had laying around, I found a solution using two devices that I last used around 10 years ago.

• dfg1394 bus-powered s-video/composite video to uncompressed firewire converter from The Imaging Source (firewire version no longer available).
• Mac OSX drivers for the dfg1394 from Outcastsoft. Works with MaxMSPJitter etc.
• an old TView Gold scan converter from Focus enhancements. Used in combo with a 5V power from USB hack and a DisplayPort to VGA adapter.