I have been wanting a way to get my TV shows on my iPod for a long time now. Pinnacle (Dazzle) Video Capture for Mac does exactly what I want, and it's very easy to use. You can record video from any analog source: camcorder, game console, VCR, or DVR.

First, install the CD that comes with it. A note to Leopard users: skip the CD and download the update from Pinnacle's website. This is a Leopard compatibility update. I didn't know about it at first, but after I tried to use it and had no audio, I decided to check their website and found the update. Plug it into a USB port; it works with 2.0 or 1.1. Not included are the A/V cables. You will need and S-Video Cable or RCA Video Cable and RCA Audio Cables. We used an RCA Cable that has all 3 audio and video plugs on both ends.

When you start a recording, you are able to choose a name for the file. Then you can set it to record it until you stop it manually, or you can set it to automatically stop recording in 30 minute increments - from 30 to 180 minutes. I really like that feature, because I can set it to record to my computer when I go to bed, and it won't keep recording until I run out of hard drive space. The hardware itself has a built-in MPEG-4 encoder, so your computer's processor isn't bogged down with the encoding.

The video resolution is 640 x 480, perfect for viewing on a standard definition TV.

The Video Capture has no configurable options except for the time, so if you want to import at full quality with no compression so you can burn it to a DVD, that's not an option. This device excels in creating video specifically for viewing in iTunes.

Videos are automatically added to iTunes so you can watch them on your computer, sync them with an iPod, or watch them through your Apple TV. There is a delay from what you see on your TV to what you see in the video capture screen on your computer, but it's not a big deal if you turn off the TV. The delay is because the hardware is encoding the video before it gets to the computer. I have a MacBook Pro, and watching and recording to my computer was smooth - not choppy at all. My husband has an iBook G4, and it was choppy recording and playing back on his computer. However, when he synced his iPod to it and watched it on there, it was not choppy at all. We have a video iPod and an iPod touch and the video looks good on both. We connected the video iPod to the TV with an A/V cord (swapping the red and yellow), and it looks good that way, too.

We already had the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge. The advantage of it is that it works with iMovie. It connects via FireWire. It can be frustrating to use because of the need to constantly toggle modes every time you want to record something. If the stream gets interrupted, it will default back to the original mode, and you need to switch modes again. Also, your computer's processor gets slowed down doing the encoding. On Dale's iBook G4, when he uses iMovie to import video he has to quit most other programs to free up the processor and has to leave iMovie the frontmost application. The Pinnacle device can import in the background.

The Pinnacle Video Capture is very easy to use; you plug it in, and it just works.