Best Option for Watching TV on an iMac

[alansmallen]

If 100 is perfect, then you have an excellent signal. Is this a directional or omni antenna? Give your tuner a few seconds to try to lock on. Once the antenna's in place, leave it there. One problem with directionals at that distance is there's a very narrow angle of tolerance, but it should be easy to get that signal even if you're off.

The thing is that it cuts in and out.

 

[alansmallen]

These are pictures of the signal going up and down. These were taken within 10 seconds.

 

[Cave Man]

Your antenna is delivering a very strong signal to the Eye TV receiver, but for some reason it is not seeing that as a high quality signal. You may have reflections off buildings that are screwing up the signal. Probably need to send Elgato an email - they should be able to help you out.

 

[alansmallen]

Your antenna is delivering a very strong signal to the Eye TV receiver, but for some reason it is not seeing that as a high quality signal. You may have reflections off buildings that are screwing up the signal. Probably need to send Elgato an email - they should be able to help you out.

What should I tell them?

 

[Cave Man]

Ask why you're getting excellent signal strength, but poor signal quality.

 

[alansmallen]

So the Hybrid just died on me. Doesn't turn on or show lights. Tried it in different USB ports. Gonna exchange it.

 

[DocMacPS]

EyeTV Hardware vs Others

I've heard quite a bit about Eve TV, so I'd recommend that. As far as antennae go, you can pick them up for under $5 at a Radio Shack or whatever electronics store you have near you. Although, there might be one included, so you might want to double check.

EDIT: It appears both use Eglato's eyetv, so it won't matter software-wise

Note only ElGato's tuners come bundled with the FULL version of EyeTV - ALL the other 3rd party Mac OS X compatible tuners come bundled with EyeTV LITE which is very, very usable, but has a few tradeoffs and missing features. The sucky part is that deciding to upgrade to the full version costs so much that any money you might save with a 3rd party tuner stick is kind of moot.

That said, it's the SOFTWARE that makes the TV gizmo great, and EyeTV is simply world-class software that makes watching and recording TV on your Mac such a great experience. I've owned EyeTV units since the first USB 1.0 tuner was released in about 2002. Next to an iPod, it's one of the BEST computer gizmos I've ever owned. Luv TV on my Mac!

 

[petermcphee]

Caveman:

Just wanted to point out that you are being super helpful to OP, and in turn, helpful to readers of this thread interested in doing something similar. Cheers.

 

[jdfb]

Eye tv250 vs eyetv hybrid

Hi, this thread has been very informative, thank you.

I have been reading/researching and it seems that the Elgato is def the company to go with. Does anyone know the difference between the 250 and the hybrid? The only difference I'm seeing is that the 250 is AC powered, vs the hybrid being bus powered. Also, is there a difference between the 2009 and the 2008 model for North America?

Thanks for comments

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Hi, this thread has been very informative, thank you.

I have been reading/researching and it seems that the Elgato is def the company to go with. Does anyone know the difference between the 250 and the hybrid? The only difference I'm seeing is that the 250 is AC powered, vs the hybrid being bus powered. Also, is there a difference between the 2009 and the 2008 model for North America?

Thanks for comments

From what I remember the 250 has it's own hardware for encoding video (when you record stuff), hence the AC power. Where the Hybrid uses the CPU of your computer and therefore the speed of video encoding is dependent on how fast your computer is. I don't really record video very often and I have a 2.4 GHz iMac so I don't notice any problems.

As for the 2008 v. 2009 versions it looks like there's a slight redesign of the hardware and the 09 comes with Toast 9 Basic.

 

[jdfb]

From what I remember the 250 has it's own hardware for encoding video (when you record stuff), hence the AC power. Where the Hybrid uses the CPU of your computer and therefore the speed of video encoding is dependent on how fast your computer is. I don't really record video very often and I have a 2.4 GHz iMac so I don't notice any problems.

As for the 2008 v. 2009 versions it looks like there's a slight redesign of the hardware and the 09 comes with Toast 9 Basic.

Oh ok, So then I'm better off getting the hybrid since I have an imac as well and it's a 2.8ghz 2gb ram. Thanks for your comments, it really helps.

As far as attaching an antenna, do you have any recommendations? I live in New York City, Manhattan.