[MPlayer-users] HackTV Equivalent?

[Kichigai Mentat]

Hello. As a laptop user, I've found myself confined within my current  
system hardware configuration, and have since accepted that all  
upgrades/expansions must be done through USB/FireWire (Empty PCI  
slots, phhbbbppp! Who needs 'em?! ;). One of the things I've always  
been looking for, though, was a cheap USB/FireWire video capture  
method. Sure, I can capture DV footage from a DV camera at the snap  
of a finger, but analog is a bit more expensive. Until now, the  
closest I came was a WinTV USB device that didn't work with my  
laptop, even after speaking with the MPlayer community (Seems USB  
devices that don't have official Mac support cannot be made to  
function in MPlayer). Since then, however, I've discovered a program  
called HackTV (Mac only application). HackTV allows the pass-through  
ADC in most DV camcorders to be viewed and recorded. This differs  
from most other programs that work with DV cams since it doesn't  
bother with playback control.

The program doesn't seem to have any real support or development  
going, and I've found a few inefficiencies in it. I've been  
wondering, does MPlayer have currently such a function? To take  
incoming DV streams and simply play them back or record them without  
interacting with playback control? Is such a system in development?  
Or is HackTV my only refuge?

Thank you for all your help.

"The real problem with hunting elephants is carrying the decoys."
(fortune spew)