How to watch DirecTv on the retina display

[Pvt Newby]

I have a 27" retina display (late 2015) and direcTv (Geni GO) and an OWC Thunderbolt dock that has an HDMI slot as does the Geni Go. How do I watch high definition programming on the iMac? I also have eyeTv but it only supports composite connections. This used to be fine but along came 5k retina display...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

No until the iMac gets TB3 and DP1.3 there is no target display mode. I doubt your TV box things have a hope in hell of driving a 5k screen anyway.

Read about it here

http://www.imore.com/retina-5k-imac-target-display-thunderbolt-display

 

[Pvt Newby]

Thanks, I think. So to be clear there is not currently a way to watch 1080i programming on the retina display iMac? And before someone in the land where it's cool to be cruel tells me, I know I am slow when it comes to this stuff but it still hurts.

 

[Richdmoore]

Thanks, I think. So to be clear there is not currently a way to watch 1080i programming on the retina display iMac? And before someone in the land where it's cool to be cruel tells me, I know I am slow when it comes to this stuff but it still hurts.

You can try an eyetv HD box, along with eyetv software, I used it with a Comcast cable box a few years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-EyeTV-.../B003MVYTBU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

I found it relatively cheap on eBay, with the eyetv software not included. It was a bit of a flaky product, but it worked well enough for me at the time.

Of course, you need component out on your cable box.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks, I think. So to be clear there is not currently a way to watch 1080i programming on the retina display iMac? And before someone in the land where it's cool to be cruel tells me, I know I am slow when it comes to this stuff but it still hurts.

You can watch anything on that display as long as the iMac is driving it, you can watch anything you have an app for on the Mac anything online even anything on a hard drive or on an attached optical disk drive but you can't use another device ie another computer or game console or TV box to drive the screen. So you could watch using Netflix on your computer but not attach the TV box and use that to watch Netflix.

 

[Pvt Newby]

You can try an eyetv HD box, along with eyetv software, I used it with a Comcast cable box a few years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-EyeTV-.../B003MVYTBU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

I found it relatively cheap on eBay, with the eyetv software not included. It was a bit of a flaky product, but it worked well enough for me at the time.

Of course, you need component out on your cable box.

Thank you very much. It turns out that I have that very unit and after I read your post I looked further and saw that Elgato claims that although the connection from their unit is composite it records in HD. I looked at some of the recordings I made and they were acceptable. It's just that once you go HD it's hard to go back, sorta like a Mac. lol