How to get TV on your Mac Will Apple ever equip its Macs with TV tuners? Plenty of users have asked it to, and Apple's own Front Row software would certainly make a smart user interface for a DVR. But as Apple's Apple TV set-top box shows, the company's more interested in persuading consumers to pay to download TV shows from iTunes than watch broadcast …
>>
While MythTV supports video capture from Firewire-enabled set-top boxes, it's limited to Linux-compatible TV tuner hardware, which pretty much means tuners on internal cards and not USB tuners.
<<
Sorry to be a pedant, but that's really not true. I've been using USB DVB-T tuners on Linux for three years and have never used an internal card. Could I ask you to edit the article to correct this please?
Pull the other one, it's got bells on !
If OfCom gets it way then there will not be HD on Freeview. They have clearly made the decision a long time ago that the spectrum released by the analogue switch off will not be used in future for TV - it is to be sold off as part of the "digital dividend" (aka a nice wad of cash for the chancellor). Once that spectrum has been sold then it won't be available for more DTV muxes and we'll be stuck (more or less) with the muxes we've got now.
So analogue switchoff won't give us space for HD and/or more channels - it is to be sold off.
Oh yes, they've had a consultation, and the claim that it isn't set in stone, but the way the consultation document is phrased makes it perfectly clear what end outcome was decided on long ago.
I've had TV running on my mac for months now...regardless where I am (work/Home/sitting on the toilet)
Hook a Slingbox to your TV source - pump it through your wirless router and bingo - Wireless TV! :D
Who needs cables? who needs to worry about getting a good signal reception? oh no, not I! :P
EyeTV might look like a good bit of software at a glance, but try using it as your main PVR software for a few weeks and you'll find it slowly drives you mad. I have a Mac Mini which is my general media center box, and EyeTV is the weakest part of that setup.
I'm going to give The Tube a try tonight, see how that goes.
I've had a eyeTV for a while and wanted to upgrade to the newer software via the elgato.com website when I moved from a PPC Powerbook to an Intel based iMac.
Imagine my surprise to find I could buy a brand new retail package with the USB eyeTV for DVB, a year's TVTV.co.uk subscription and the software for less than the price to download version 2 of the software from their website.
Needless to say I'm not a happy bunny at the moment. I emailled them, but haven't heard anything yet.
I guess they'd rather I waste money on a device I don't need and end up chucking my old eyeTV in the bin. So much for 'green' IT manufacturers :-/
Each to their own, but these are my main complaints:
1) If you start watching a recording which hasn't finished (I think this is called chase play?), when it finishes eyetv throws you out to live tv and you have to reopen the recording and find where you were
2) I'm having lots of problems with the program guide not updating, my tvtv.co.uk licence has run out, and the DVB program guide doesn't seem to keep itself refreshed
3) No series link feature - all you can do is record at the same time each week
4) Horrible remote control functions, very few of the buttons that came with my miglia tv mini are useable
I'm not totally knocking the software, but compared to sky+ or a dedicated PVR like the Topfield, I think the usability is fairly poor, which is a shame.
I have to agree with everything you said mate. I'd so gotten used to #1 that most of the time I now wait until the show has finished before starting to watch it.
Also, when 'compressing' or 'exporting' recordings there should be a 'pause' button for the operation, as it can grind your mac to a halt. I'd love to be able to do these operations in batches and remove the oringal recording once i've exported it.
I did see a 'beta feature' where you could watch 2 channels, or record 1 and watch another at the same time. I tried it, but when you changed channels both channels changed...argh! The number of times I've wanted to record something on BBC2 and watch something on another channel has been huge recently. Even better would be the ability to record both channels whilst I'm out and still be able to watch the documentary and the movie when I get home. Does anyone know if you can plug 2 of the usb ones in at once to get the ability to do this? I've not seen any mention of it anywhere.
Lastly, I'd like the deleted recordings to go into the trash, so if i've deleted the wrong one (oops! yes i've done that a few times) i can restore it.
It is good software, just needs the corners smoothing.
To view two channels at once, you will need two tuners connected to the machine. The safe way to do this is to get something like the EyeTV Diversity which has twin tuners built in. I remember reading something about EyeTV supporting two independant tuners, but I think it was more luck that it worked at the time :)
...if your CPU can handle it **and** if they are transmitted on the same frequency. What you can't do is watch two channels or more on different frequencies unless you have two tuners (e.g. the hybrid can record two different channels independently).
Quote "...to fill the gap Apple has left, and if you want to watch analogue or digital broadcasts, satellite or cable transmissions on your Mac, you can..."
The gap is there for the very simple reason that there are so many different standards out there - does Apple include an analogue only, DVB-T only, DVB-S only, DVB-C only or mixture of tuners? And why bother when a) most people don't want a TV tuner for the computer anyway and b) there are great options on offer from third parties already out there, for people to pick what is just right for them?
Get a spare Widows PC and set it up as a media server and then use the Mac as a dumb client. While there are some real world uses for a Mac (i have been told this, never seen one yet)
Mac's are just like a super car, nice to look at but rubbish to drive and useless for day to day use (just try speed bumps) where as you really can do anything with Windows PC and do it well
Minor correction to the article...
The EyeTV 610 does work with Virgin Media's DVB-C service in the UK (including the V+ HD broadcast). However, caution... using it won't be supported by Virgin Media! You also need a CAM... e.g. T-REX SuperModule 4.6
The Elgato EyeTV 610 can be ordered in the UK from the Elgato online store and, no, I don't work for Elgato.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
