Super Macho Man has your answer too (and has massive pecs)
Dunebug38 said:
I have a few questions myself. For one....some products say they support digital cable but not from a cable box. Well my parents have digital cable and a cable box to use it. Does that mean I could not use it through their cable service or I should just bypass the cable box.
It depends on whether you want to watch ANALOG TV on your Mac or DIGITAL TV. (Note digital TV does not mean digital cable, it means DTV or HDTV - I will explain below.)
For analog TV: You would need a cable box. You would connect the output of the cable box to the EyeTV or whatever and you would then change channels etc. using the cable box.
For digital TV: You would not need a cable box (in fact you could not use a cable box, you must use the EyeTV/TVMini directly). The EyeTV 500/TVMini do all the equivalent things of a cable box. You would have to either split the cable signal before it goes into your cable box, or maybe your cable box has a cable signal passthrough jack on it. (I don't know as I don't have a cable box.)
2. What does free over-air-channels mean. I have read that elegato products offer this. Does that mean there is an antenae on the product and it can pick up free streaming channels (yes, I'm ignorant)
Over-the-air (OTA) HDTV is HDTV that is broadcast digitally over the airwaves. This would be from the NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. affiliates (and any others) where you live. The TV stations that you can receive on an ordinary TV with an ordinary antenna are also broadcasting digital signals which only DTV receivers can receive. For example, at the same time your Fox affiliate (let's say it's WNBC) is broadcasting The Tonight Show over OTA analog, it is also broadcasting the same thing in hi-def over OTA DTV.
If you want to view OTA broadcasts, most DTV stations broadcast over UHF so you will need a UHF antenna - the type of antenna you'll need varies depending on your location, e.g. distance from the broadcast towers, clarity of signal, etc.
3. What is the difference of getting an eyetv 250 as opposed to the miglia here:
http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/W...HYXG23u0Uaz221WobIas/1.0.19.1.0.8.25.7.11.2.3 According to this page -- Note: TVMini HD is compatible with ATSC/Clear QAM broadcasts.
The EyeTV 250 cannot handle DTV at all, only standard def analog. The TVMini cannot handle standard def analog at all, only DTV.
(The TVMini) will let you watch unencrypted digital TV content, but is not compatible with paid digital cable or satellite services. --What the !@#^ does this mean? I can't use it with my digital cable??
OK let me try to explain. The cable company sends out only one signal to all of its subscribers. If you have "digital cable" it means that you have a digital cable box that can receive some/all digital tier channels. ALL cable subscribers "receive" the digital cable signal, just not all can view it. The signal you are receiving from your wall jack is no different from basic cable. Whether you are paying for digital cable or basic standard cable, it's the same signal.
"Digital" cable does not mean "DTV" cable. It means that standard analog channels have been digitally encoded and compressed, like DirecTV has always done. The HDTV stations you can receive over cable are a separate thing from what you are getting with "digital" cable. As I said above, the cable company broadcasts ALL of its HDTV channels over one wire. Most cable companies broadcast your local networks (NBC, CBS, etc. affiliates) over what is called "QAM." QAM = UNencrypted digital TV over cable. Any network that is NOT QAM is encrypted and is not receivable by the EyeTV, TVMini or any other computer device.
In other words, ANY cable subscriber WITH OR WITHOUT subscribing to digital cable can receive ANY QAM (unencrypted) HDTV broadcast over cable. If you are ONLY using an EyeTV500 or TVMini, there is no reason to even subscribe to digital cable. You would only be paying extra for a bunch of "digital analog" channels that your device can't receive anyway.
And yes I know the eyetv250 does not support HD but apparently the miglia product does. Also, I want to record old vhs tapes and it does not mention it here...hmm maybe cuz that would be analog
That's right, you can't record analog videos with the TVMini because it only has a digital input, not analog. Same with the Plextor.
Maybe what I really want to know is this. What product should I get if I have digital cable, want to record VHS and want a few nice options such as hooking up a game system to my computer and having very good picture quality and a remote. Most for the value.
If you want to do all of this stuff, AND receive HDTV, you will need two devices. If you don't want HDTV, you will only need one. I am not familiar with any of the analog tuners for the Mac - only the EyeTV 500 which is HDTV only. So if I were you, I'd look for anything analog that has a no-latency mode for gaming. Most of your options would be from Elgato, so I would browse the products on their website. I know for sure that the EyeTV 250 offers all of what you're looking for but there may be a cheaper alternative.
