iMac as Media Center with OTA Antenna input

[bennettave]

I am interested in using my Spring 2011 iMac 27" 2.7 as a Media Center/computer. I am interested in an elegant solution that takes advantage of media available over over the internet as well as through my OTA antenna. I know EYETV makes a hybrid tuner that could bring in my HD antenna signal, but I wish that the EYETV HD accepted input. I'm willing to spend money up front for a nice setup, but I am hesitent to pay a monthly fee if it could be avoided.

Maybe a Blue Ray player with HDMI that accepts OTA antenna and some sort of converter to TB? Is this coming soon?

I do not have Dish, Cable or Hulu+. I do use netflix both online and on DVD.

 

[bennettave]

Maybe we could use this product as a starting point. Are there alternatives to this? What do you think about running one of these?

http://hd.engadget.com/2011/05/16/elgato-offers-hdhomerun-tv-tuner-bundled-with-its-eyetv-software/

 

[tsugaru]

I have a WinTV HVR-950Q by Hauppauge hooked up to my iMac in conjunction with EyeTV in OS X and Windows Media Center in Win7. Works perfectly fine.

Get an EyeTV Hybrid or 250 Plus since it comes with the tuner and the EyeTV software. I had to pay for EyeTV separately.

And it does S-Video and composite input. Not the best, but passable depending on source.

 

[Panch0]

I bought the EyeTV Hybrid because it was the only one available locally (at the Apple store) and I really wanted to get up and running right away. After I decided that I liked the EyeTV software, I added a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Dual that I ordered from Amazon. Once I connected it to the Antenna and the Wired Network, EyeTV recognized it and I now have 3 tuners available ( on the off chance I ever want to record 3 programs at the same time).

The HD HomeRun is great; I think I would still connect it wired even though the new version that Elgato is bundling seems to allow wireless connections now.

I occasionally have some quality issues with my recordings, but i believe they are due to my antenna (and weather maybe) rather than the tuners or software. I get the same kind of artifacts directly on my TV, so the antenna and my location are the common elements.

Not sure why you are looking for the EyeTV HD to have inputs - what are you trying to accomplish? The iMac would be able to access content from the net directly and you could just get a USB Blu-Ray Player if you want to play physical discs - there is a thread on ripping DVD & BD discs.