Help needed with USB TV Tuner

[kenshinxue]

Hi all,

New to this forum. I just bought an iMac 24', so obviously I'm considering watching TV, maybe HDTV on iMac.

Considered Elgato Eyetv Hybrid, but I have some questions:

It seems that it can only receive hdtv content through antenna or clear-QAM (free stuff over the air). Does it mean that if I subscribe to the HDTV content from, say, comcast, and I have to use a cable box to decode the HDTV content, I cannot connect to the cable box to receive true HDTV quality content?

I am really confused with its specs, but someone told me the above. Does anyone know whether there is any TV tuner that can make the iMac function like just an HDTV?

Thanks!

 

[gehrbox]

Hi all,

New to this forum. I just bought an iMac 24', so obviously I'm considering watching TV, maybe HDTV on iMac.

Considered Elgato Eyetv Hybrid, but I have some questions:

It seems that it can only receive hdtv content through antenna or clear-QAM (free stuff over the air). Does it mean that if I subscribe to the HDTV content from, say, comcast, and I have to use a cable box to decode the HDTV content, I cannot connect to the cable box to receive true HDTV quality content?

I am really confused with its specs, but someone told me the above. Does anyone know whether there is any TV tuner that can make the iMac function like just an HDTV?

The following Elgato FAQ pretty much spells it out for you:
http://faq.elgato.com/index.php/faq/more/483/

I would opt for the EyeTv 250+ instead of the Hybrid. It has hardware based Mp2 encoding. If you buy the EyeTV Hybrid your Mac's processor has to do the encoding. Makes a BIG difference if you want to record the shows for later watching and use your computer at the same time. I'd also get the Turbo.264 option to provide a means to encode to MP4 for iPods and Apple TV viewing. There are software only methods to do it, but it eats a good bit of CPU to encode the files. I have both and it rocks. Used it for a while on my Mac Mini before I got my new iMac. I didn't notice any performance hit with this combo while using the computer while recording and encoding TV.

 

[thecrackerjack]

My Dad uses the EyeTv Hybrid on his 24inch iMac Al and I have to say it looks pretty good. The technology has come along way in the last couple of years.

EyeTV seems to be the brand of choice when it comes to Tv on the Mac. Can't go wrong with EyeTV.

 

[kenshinxue]

Thanks guys.

It seems that Elgato eyetv is the only option for me now. I will not do much recording work, so the hardware encoding maybe not so useful to me.