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How do I use the 27" iMac as a TV?

L

lcseds

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2006
1,234
1,140
NC, USA
Since I have so much screen available, how can I get my HD cable feed to my iMac? I will get another cable box. Do I have to use a tuner like the Elgato? Or is there a way to use the cable as a secondary input viewable at the same time as the desktop?
 
You will likely need something like this to use your existing cable box. EyeTV is a different product as it acts as a TV receiver or whatever it is.
 
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I use EyeTv tuner on my MBP. You can have the tv running in the background while you do other stuff, have it record etc.
That box linked above looks cool, but seems like you can't watch tv and do anything else at the same time.
 
The Elgato EyeTV HD is by far and away your best option. You get Full HD on your iMac in it's own application (included EyeTV software) allowing you to work or surf the web with a TV window open in the corner of your screen. OR you can just make the video window full screen and sit back and enjoy.

With another HD cable box, you just hook it up to the EyeTV HD via component cables and hook up to your iMac via USB. It's really awesome and well worth the $199 price tag. The software is amazing as well and let's you record and edit TV and makes it super easy to export those recordings to iTunes for use on an iPhone or iPod as well.:D

By setting your HD cable box to 1080i, you also get 1920x1080 resolutions from this thing while the DisplayPort In jack is limited to 720p. Those extra pixels are definitely noticeable on a 2560x1440 iMac display.
 
Eye TV Hybrid

I have ordered the eyetv hybrid, I wanted the HD version but did not want to pay for the extra cable box. Does anyone know if the hybrid version will pick up HD channels that are available without a cable box? My cable company has a handful of HD channels that are available without a box.
 
rugonnagraduate said:
I have ordered the eyetv hybrid, I wanted the HD version but did not want to pay for the extra cable box. Does anyone know if the hybrid version will pick up HD channels that are available without a cable box? My cable company has a handful of HD channels that are available without a box.
Click to expand...

It does, BUT the reason I have the EyeTV HD is because my old Hybrid became virtually useless when Comcast decided to encrypt almost every station in my basic cable lineup (only PBS, C-SPAN, and a few other crap channels would be available). Even those free HD channels were encrypted, basically forcing me to get a dedicated cable box. The EyeTV HD is perfect for that scenario and allows you to get ALL of your HD channels on your Mac. The Hybrid is really not worth the cash compared to the EyeTV HD. I think what you get is worth the extra few bucks a month the cable company charges for your additional box.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
It does, BUT the reason I have the EyeTV HD is because my old Hybrid became virtually useless when Comcast decided to encrypt almost every station in my basic cable lineup (only PBS, C-SPAN, and a few other crap channels would be available). Even those free HD channels were encrypted, basically forcing me to get a dedicated cable box. The EyeTV HD is perfect for that scenario and allows you to get ALL of your HD channels on your Mac. The Hybrid is really not worth the cash compared to the EyeTV HD. I think what you get is worth the extra few bucks a month the cable company charges for your additional box.
Click to expand...

I wanted to buy the HD version with the plans down the road of moving the iMac and having a cable box to go off of, unfortunatly the HD version does not have a coax input to hold me over... Oh well, that is what ebay is for!!! Thanks for the input.
 
Anyone currently useing the EyeTV One hooked up to a OTA HD antenna? I think they sell for $99 now. It looks like they split the EyeTV Hybrid into two seperate devices, one for a cable connection, the other a AV style dongle. I can't find a EyeTV one locally but thinking that would cover my OTA HD channels locally.

If anyone has this setup would like to hear Pro's/Con's of that setup.

Thanks.
 
personally I hate the elgato's stuff. If I knew of any other alternative I'd try that before getting another eyetv thing. Software is annoying. Unfortunately I don't know of any alternative.
 
I have the eyeTV Hybrid. But TW Cable copy protects everything also, so SD only. Not to mention the SD picture was poor. This is on a 2 year old Hybrid stick so it is not the latest. But it was not acceptable.
 
Elgato eyeTV HD=Wow. Nice box. Got a HD cable box from CableCo and hooked it all up. This is what I wanted. The picture quality is miles better than the Hybrid eyeTV stick. The stick is awful compared to this. I have not recorded yet, but setup desired channels in the configuration so channel switching s easy. A slight delay when switching to SD channels though. Very happy.
 
lcseds said:
Elgato eyeTV HD=Wow. Nice box. Got a HD cable box from CableCo and hooked it all up. This is what I wanted. The picture quality is miles better than the Hybrid eyeTV stick. The stick is awful compared to this. I have not recorded yet, but setup desired channels in the configuration so channel switching s easy. A slight delay when switching to SD channels though. Very happy.
Click to expand...

Nice. Knew it would be what you wanted. It's a great companion to a 27" iMac giving you live HDTV (full cable lineup) while you work on other things.
 
very cool product, can u use it on all macs not just imac? I assume you could however imac gives u the most screen space. Can you hook this up to a macbook then use a ACD or other monitor?

Thanks
 
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