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Is it possible to watch TV through my monitor?

M

mikejames

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 2, 2005
30
3
England
Hi,

I own a Mac Mini 1.42GHz with 1GB RAM. I've also got a Philips 19" LCD monitor.

My computer knowledge is quite limited so I've got a question. Is it possible for me to somehow watch TV through my monitor? I'm not sure whether its possible or not. Thanks in advance.
 
Well, the smart-ass answer would be "yes, if you drill a hole in it."

The answer you're looking for is likely to be "yes, if you buy an adapter such as those available from elgato." They work quite well.
 
It really is possible, but not without actually buying something else to help this.
The highly recommended piece of hardware is the Elgato Eye TV 200. They have the Eye TV EZ which is cheaper and does still allow you to watch TV. I just don't know if you can compress and burn to a DVD with that one. If that's not important, don't waste your cash.

There are also a few other one the market by Plextor and Miglia. Here's a link to Miglia Evolution TV. I am considering that one myself, but I would love to spend the cash on Eye TV 200 because it is firewire. I have a powerbook so I am not 100% limited on my usb and firewire ports like you are on a macmini, but I hear the eye tv 200 plugged into a firewire hub works quite well. I am not sure about the others since they are USB 2.0. I don't know how they would perform on a USB hub.
 
mikejames said:
Hi,

I own a Mac Mini 1.42GHz with 1GB RAM. I've also got a Philips 19" LCD monitor.

My computer knowledge is quite limited so I've got a question. Is it possible for me to somehow watch TV through my monitor? I'm not sure whether its possible or not. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
As the others mentioned the eyeTV works beautifully. As you're in the UK, have a look at the eyeTV for DTT. It's a USB2.0 device that'll pick up Freeview. I got one for my dad's iMac at Christmas and it's great.
The only caveats are that the included aerial is worse than rubbish (you'll need a connection to a rooftop aerial, and a good Freeview signal - which you can discover here).
You'll also want Toast if you want to burn off programmes to watch on a regular telly.
There's also the eyeTV 410 (which I have & love) but it's a bit more expensive. The DTT is £99.
Both come with a years subscription to TVTV - an online EPG, worth £15.
 
eyetv 200 is probably the way to go. the miglia and plextor solutions are usually about $40 or $50 cheaper but thats because elgato hasnt bundled their software with it and you need that software for a mac.

the the difference between the 200 and the EZ is that the 200 compresses the video to MPEG4 before giving it to the computer, which means less work for the computer. the limitations elgato puts on the EZ so that it doesnt make your computer explode are that its not always caching (so no timeshifting unless youre in record mode), and if you go into record mode, it restricts the resolution (to half for a single g4, a bit more for dual g4s, or full for a dual g5) (and then you can timeshift). its a bit annoying but if youre not planning on using the timeshifting features and you dont mind it using half your processor (60% of my 1.33ghz g4), go for the EZ. I had to upgrade to a 200 because I wanted my processor back (about 20-25%) and I wanted the timeshifting features and full quality recording.
 
Further to Nickygoat...

yes the EyeTV for DTT is good. £98 from Apple Store. The new version 2 of the EyeTV software is especially good. Integrates beautifully with Toast. If you have a Mac Mini without a SuperDrive, I recommend a Lacie 16x DVD burner if you want to export your recorded TV progs to DVD. There's a version that comes with Toast for £135, which is excellent value considering Toast 7 costs £60 or so.

One small point - the EyeTV for DTT is USB2, not FireWire. Aerial is very shakey- I can get away with it living so close to the transmitter, but even so it croaks under adverse weather conditions.
 
Thanks for all the advice,

I think the EyeTV for DTT is what I need. In the room where my Mini is there's a connection to a rooftop aerial which gets a good Freeview signal. Presumably I can hook this directly to the EyeTV device? From the sounds of it the aerial supplied isn't very good.

The pausing and rewinding live TV function sounds cool. Can't wait to get one so I can get rid of my ancient old TV.
 
If you're after a cheap option, there are millions of external tv tuners available. You can't record from them or do any of that kind of DVR stuff because they just sit in between your mac and the monitor. When they're off the mac signal goes through to the monitor, when they're on they put the TV (or video or PS etc) signal thru. Some can do tv as a window also.

For recording i'd go elgato, if you just want to get rid of your tv (and/or your mac doesn't have the grunt to do recording anyway, like mine), the tuners are for the most part vastly cheaper.
 
jsw said:
Well, the smart-ass answer would be "yes, if you drill a hole in it."
Click to expand...

The other smart-ass answer is "yes, I watch a lot of things through my monitor."


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frankblundt said:
If you're after a cheap option, there are millions of external tv tuners available. You can't record from them or do any of that kind of DVR stuff because they just sit in between your mac and the monitor. When they're off the mac signal goes through to the monitor, when they're on they put the TV (or video or PS etc) signal thru. Some can do tv as a window also.
Click to expand...
I was going to bring this up too. The OP didn't say they wanted to have the video on the Mac, just on the monitor.

Doesn't it really all depend on the monitor too? If the monitor has additional S-video or composite inputs the external TV tuner could be as simple as a $29 VCR.

More detail on the monitor please!

B
 
balamw said:
I was going to bring this up too. The OP didn't say they wanted to have the video on the Mac, just on the monitor.

Doesn't it really all depend on the monitor too? If the monitor has additional S-video or composite inputs the external TV tuner could be as simple as a $29 VCR.

More detail on the monitor please!

B
Click to expand...

Hi,

my monitor is a Philips 19" LCD 190X5

Basically I just want to have TV on it. Pausing, rewinding and recording are all desirable features but not essential for me. As far as I'm aware the monitor doesn't have an S-video input (but I might be wrong). To connect my Mac Mini to it I had to use the adaptor thingy that was supplied with the Mini.
 
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