QUESTION: What is the best way to watch TV on an iMac?

[osustudent]

Hey all:

I just ordered a new 20" iMac - my first. While I'm checking FedEx every 30 seconds to see if it will arrive before Thursday, I've been wondering if there are good ways to watch TV on it. I've heard of Elgato's USB one, but besides that, there doesn't appear to be many options out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Personal experiences with this would be great. Thanks!!!

 

[MRU]

Hey all:

I just ordered a new 20" iMac - my first. While I'm checking FedEx every 30 seconds to see if it will arrive before Thursday, I've been wondering if there are good ways to watch TV on it. I've heard of Elgato's USB one, but besides that, there doesn't appear to be many options out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Personal experiences with this would be great. Thanks!!!

I'd suggest you wait till EyeTV software is universal. They recently released a patch and a big long explanation of problems they are getting the intel support impletmented and such...

At the moment in Rosetta you can watch TV at high quality with the USB model, but can not record in anything other that medium quality otherwise it's performance is very poor.

Occasional bug in seeing the hardware too that has not been fixed yet....

Give it a month, check www.elgato.com to see if its above 2.0.1 and then you will have a better choice.

If you need it NOW then I'd go for a firewire model that does the encoding in hardware but they cost twice as much........

 

[powerbook911]

Hey all:

I just ordered a new 20" iMac - my first. While I'm checking FedEx every 30 seconds to see if it will arrive before Thursday, I've been wondering if there are good ways to watch TV on it. I've heard of Elgato's USB one, but besides that, there doesn't appear to be many options out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Personal experiences with this would be great. Thanks!!!

The EyeTV 200 is the best. Firewire too. It does all the encoding in the box, so it doesn't slow down your computer.

Its software works fantastic under Rosetta. However, within a couple weeks they will be universal, so no worries.

 

[dcv]

There are several models of EyeTV available, depending on whether you have analogue TV or digital terrestrial/cable/satellite etc.

I've recently bought the EyeTV 410, which is for DTT and has a CI slot for pay-tv. This connects via FireWire and it's awesome. I've yet to edit my recordings but they look very good and the software is pretty straightforward. It comes with a year's subscription to a TV listings service, through which you can remotely schedule your recordings. Absolutely excellent box and I really recommend it.

However as MacRumorUser pointed out, the EyeTV2 software is not yet Intel-ready, but apparently it is "coming soon".

 

[m-dogg]

Eye TV 200 + 20" iMac = Good Times!

 

[powerbook911]

There are several models of EyeTV available, depending on whether you have analogue TV or digital terrestrial/cable/satellite etc.

I've recently bought the EyeTV 410, which is for DTT and has a CI slot for pay-tv. This connects via FireWire and it's awesome. I've yet to edit my recordings but they look very good and the software is pretty straightforward. It comes with a year's subscription to a TV listings service, through which you can remotely schedule your recordings. Absolutely excellent box and I really recommend it.

However as MacRumorUser pointed out, the EyeTV2 software is not yet Intel-ready, but apparently it is "coming soon".

In the United States, pretty much our only EyeTV options is the EZ, 200, and 500 (which won't be right for most people being HD only).

We don't have the over the air SD digital stuff like you guys in Europe.

 

[JeffTL]

I use an antenna, a VCR, and a Sony video input box. It works pretty well -- though standard definition and I haven't bothered to hook up cable yet.