Connecting MacBook Laptop to Cheap Video Mixer
In an earlier post, I mentioned how you could connect a computer to a CRT TV, in this article, I'm going to show you how you can connect an Apple MacBook Pro laptop to a cheap video mixer using a commercially available gadget as an interface.
If you are using a top end broadcast quality video switcher, then you would not need any gadgets to interface between your computer or laptop, but if you are starting out in the video production business or just started a church video TV ministry, then you budget might only allow a cheap video mixer to start with.
TV One CS-320 Scan Converter
The TV One CS-320 down converter is the gadget that allows us to easily connect any computer to a Standard Definition video mixer, and thus be able to use the graphics or whatever the PC is outputing as a video source.
A computer generates very high resolution images which are not compatible with the lower resolutions used by DV or S-Video cameras, however a very popular request in churches or business conferences is being able to mix the output of a laptop with images from a video conferencing camera or other camera.
The work of the TV one CS-320 scan converter is to down grade those high resolution graphics output from the presentation computer into a format that is usable by the video mixer.
The scan converter accepts a wide range of computer screen resolutions and then provides output in either S-Video or Composite (720×576 PAL)format to be used with any cheap video mixer.
I have been using the TV One CS-320 scan converter as part of our church's TV ministry for the past 4 months, and it has worked flawlessly allowing us combine images from our camera's with presentations, videos and graphics stored our Apple MacBook Pro laptop, and easily mix between the two using our CMX-07 video mixer.
As mentioned earlier the TV One down converter is not just for Church TV ministry use, but corporate video or wedding videography as well, and the gadget is quite affordable, so won't break your bank account.
TV One produce a slightly more expensive scan converter the CS-450, one of the added features in this gadget interface is the overlay function which allows you to overlay the graphics from the computer on top of the video images from the cameras, a function that my church services use for song words over the images of the singer or business corporate executives request for titles over images of speakers at conferences.
The TV One CS-320 scan converter is one of the most productive gadget accessories I've used with our church cheap Video mixer and Apple MacBook Pro laptop.