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Trying to cut cable, need inputs

I don't know too much of the technical stuff but this is what i know from my experience and i hope it helps.

Any Mac Mini 1.86ghz CoreDuo and better will be able to stream 720p video. Theres really no advantages to having the 2010 HDMI model compared to the others. I personally had a 2.26ghz Core2Duo and am currently using a 2010 HDMI 2.4ghz Core2Duo.

I prefer XBMC over Plex. I didnt like the fact i needed to run an older version of Flash with Plex. And i prefer the interface of XBMC over Plex. With Plex you need to go to the Media Manager (not the actual Plex program) to edit any titles or file information. On XBMC you can simply click "C" to get the contextual menu and do any editing that way.

XBMC by default uses thetvdb.com and themoviedb.com to scrap for TV and movie information. Plex by default uses imdb.com for both TV and movies if i remember correctly. I prefer imdb.com over the other two websites. At first i considered this a downside to XBMC and i didn't know i can download scrapper plug-ins for other websites. But now that everything is synced with thetvdb and themoviedb i'll be leaving it that way.

I currently have a LG LE5400 LED/LCD TV rated at 1080p. However i set the Mac Mini to 720p for larger text. I found this to be the easiest way and it really doesnt bother me. At first i tried 1080p, made all the desktop icons large, but i was still having a difficult time seeing text. I also tried Kylo since it has its "10ft interface" but i can stand that browser. Also tried enlarging text on Firefox but it distorts websites which i didn't like. Fed up i set it to 720p which has worked perfectly for me.
 
slipper said:
I don't know too much of the technical stuff but this is what i know from my experience and i hope it helps.

Any Mac Mini 1.86ghz CoreDuo and better will be able to stream 720p video. Theres really no advantages to having the 2010 HDMI model compared to the others. I personally had a 2.26ghz Core2Duo and am currently using a 2010 HDMI 2.4ghz Core2Duo.

I prefer XBMC over Plex. I didnt like the fact i needed to run an older version of Flash with Plex. And i prefer the interface of XBMC over Plex. With Plex you need to go to the Media Manager (not the actual Plex program) to edit any titles or file information. On XBMC you can simply click "C" to get the contextual menu and do any editing that way.

XBMC by default uses thetvdb.com and themoviedb.com to scrap for TV and movie information. Plex by default uses imdb.com for both TV and movies if i remember correctly. I prefer imdb.com over the other two websites. At first i considered this a downside to XBMC and i didn't know i can download scrapper plug-ins for other websites. But now that everything is synced with thetvdb and themoviedb i'll be leaving it that way.

I currently have a LG LE5400 LED/LCD TV rated at 1080p. However i set the Mac Mini to 720p for larger text. I found this to be the easiest way and it really doesnt bother me. At first i tried 1080p, made all the desktop icons large, but i was still having a difficult time seeing text. I also tried Kylo since it has its "10ft interface" but i can stand that browser. Also tried enlarging text on Firefox but it distorts websites which i didn't like. Fed up i set it to 720p which has worked perfectly for me.
Click to expand...

I'll take actual experience over tech knowledge most anytime. Cool info. so, with XBMC, can you also access online televison content, say NCIS off of the cbs.com website in a streamlined manner? And, I would assume XBMC handles Netflix, Hulu and such? Also, will it automatically find your movies and music if it is in ITunes?

Good to know an older Mini, as long as it is an Intel processor, will work just fine. Also, what do you use for an input device?

I intend to download XBMC tonight and try it on my MacBook, so I have it figured out before I get my Mini.
Thanks!!
 
I did download XBMC. I like it, but I cannot figure out how to add some add-ons that I want but are not listed, such as HULU, CNN, CBS, etc. And, I have looked hard for the answer but cannot find a clear and concise help guide for doing it. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Panch0 said:
For HTPC use, I think the HDMI out on the newer Mac Mini is worth the extra cost vs the previous gen.

I turned off Cable about 2 weeks ago after watching almost nothing but NetFlix via ATV2 for a month or so.

I'm considering adding a Roku XDS ($99) for HuluPlus, but I just connected an over the air antenna over the weekend. I'm going to get an EyeTV and connect it to my iMac for DVR function and convert those recordings to iTunes for access through the ATV. If I can figure out how to strip the commercials out of the EyeTV recordings, I don't think I'll need Hulu.
Click to expand...

As a follow-up...

The EyeTV One that I ordered through Amazon got lost in shipping, so I cancelled the order and picked up an EyeTV Hybrid at the local Apple Store.

I added a "4 port Distribution Amplifier" to the Antenna run, and that was worth the money for me. Again, the one I ordered from Amazon was lost, so I picked up a RocketFish branded amp from BestBuy. Pretty sure it's a re-branded version of the channelMaster that I originally ordered. This let my TV pick up the local NBC stations that were missing before.

On EyeTV...

The Good:
The EyeTV actually picks up MORE channels than my TV can get directly! Not sure if there is a difference in the length of the cable runs, but both are RG-6 all the way.
The EyeTV software includes editing features that allow you to mark and remove commercials. Pretty easy to use, but placing the markers is a bit imprecise. I connected a Magic Trackpad and found the side to side scrolling is much easier to control than using a mouse - go figure...
The Software also includes an Export Feature with a preset for AppleTV! It picks up tagging info from the TVGuide info and adds it to the exported file, so the info available to iTunes is pretty complete.

The Bad:
So far I have only tried 1 OTA HD recording. A 1 hour show came out to 7.4GB. THe EyeTV software reported that the recording was one hour & 3 minutes, but I was only able to view the first minute & a half. Ack! I have a couple more recordings queued up over the next couple of days - hoping for better results...

The Neutral:
I found and installed a script that is supposed to automatically mark commercials in EyeTV Recordings. I think it was called ETVComSkip. For me, the results were a little spotty, but there were a lot of positive comments. It caught all but one commercial break on one recording, but on another it missed them all. I decided to uninstall the add-in thinking that maybe it had inserted an erroneous end tag in the HD show that didn't work.
 
Panch0 said:
The EyeTV One that I ordered through Amazon got lost in shipping, so I cancelled the order and picked up an EyeTV Hybrid at the local Apple Store.

I added a "4 port Distribution Amplifier" to the Antenna run, and that was worth the money for me. Again, the one I ordered from Amazon was lost, so I picked up a RocketFish branded amp from BestBuy.
Click to expand...

Where do you live that the delivery service is so awful?!?

The Software also includes an Export Feature with a preset for AppleTV!
Click to expand...

I don't think it's preset for ATV2 just yet. Can anybody else comment on this?

The Bad:
So far I have only tried 1 OTA HD recording. A 1 hour show came out to 7.4GB. THe EyeTV software reported that the recording was one hour & 3 minutes, but I was only able to view the first minute & a half. Ack! I have a couple more recordings queued up over the next couple of days - hoping for better results...
Click to expand...

If EyeTV says the recording is 7.4GB, you have the full show. Not sure why you could only watch a minute and a half. Can you expand on this a bit more? That sounds like a very odd problem.
 
Tilpots said:
Where do you live that the delivery service is so awful?!?
Click to expand...

Virginia. It's just the one shipment that disappeared. I think it's fallen under a shelf somewhere - UPS never even scanned it as picked up.

Tilpots said:
I don't think it's preset for ATV2 just yet. Can anybody else comment on this?
Click to expand...

May not be optimized, but I've watched a recording that I exported this way and it worked fine. Of course that was an SD recording, so the bar's not very high...

Tilpots said:
If EyeTV says the recording is 7.4GB, you have the full show. Not sure why you could only watch a minute and a half. Can you expand on this a bit more? That sounds like a very odd problem.
Click to expand...

I still suspect the ComSkip script did something evil, but no way to prove it. I couldn't find any way to move past the 00:01:32 mark, so I just deleted the file - I'll repost when I have another recording to try out.
 
slipper said:
Any Mac Mini 1.86ghz CoreDuo and better will be able to stream 720p video. Theres really no advantages to having the 2010 HDMI model compared to the others. I personally had a 2.26ghz Core2Duo and am currently using a 2010 HDMI 2.4ghz Core2Duo.
Click to expand...
The newer Minis can decode H264 in hardware which makes all the difference for 1080p content.

slipper said:
With Plex you need to go to the Media Manager (not the actual Plex program) to edit any titles or file information. On XBMC you can simply click "C" to get the contextual menu and do any editing that way.
Click to expand...
Some people (myself included) think the (new) Plex Media Manager is a huge improvement over the old system (in-app like XBMC). To each his own though. :)
 
The current ATV preset in the EyeTV software is limited to 540p and not optimized to get the better quality you are able to get with the ATV2. You are better off using their iPad preset.
 
newagemac said:
The current ATV preset in the EyeTV software is limited to 540p and not optimized to get the better quality you are able to get with the ATV2. You are better off using their iPad preset.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice on the iPad preset. I did an export using the HD 720P preset last night, but haven't tried watching it yet. If the iPad preset comes in as a faster export and/or a smaller file, that may be better for me.
 
Another Follow-up on my EyeTV setup

Panch0 said:
I still suspect the ComSkip script did something evil, but no way to prove it. I couldn't find any way to move past the 00:01:32 mark, so I just deleted the file - I'll repost when I have another recording to try out.
Click to expand...

So after removing the ETVComSkip add-in, I had another show set to record. I was able to edit & play this one all the way through. Not conclusive evidence against the Add-in, but that's still my prime suspect.

I'm new at the EyeTV Editing process, but It seemed like manually marking the commercials took me as long as just watching them would have. Hopefully I'll get faster with practice. The process isn't that hard, it's just taking me a while to identify the commercials (I guess the networks are doing their best to disguise them) and position the markers. I'm probably trying to be to precise with the marker positions.

On another note, I jumped ahead a bit and added an HDHomeRun dual tuner device to my network. I'm now able to view or record 3 shows at once ( including my original EyeTV Hybrid).

Seems like some channels skip a little while watching live on the computer. I haven't worked out if that is due to weak signal strength, the tuner in use, buffering (I was running 3 shows concurrently), RAM, HDD ( again with 3 shows running at once, I may have been taxing the disk I/O), or something I haven't even considered yet.

The EyeTV software doesn't have an explicit option that I could find to "Add Tuner", but I re-ran it's set up wizard and selected the HDHomeRun, and afterward the software recognized all 3 tuners (2 in the HDHomeRun and one in the previously configured Hybrid). I haven't checked the results of multiple schedules running at once, but it didn't display any conflict, so I'm taking a leap of faith that EyeTV is just going to allocate tuners on it's own.

I also added a Turbo.264 HD - but I suspect that I didn't really need it for my i7 iMac. I'll do some comparisons of exporting with and without the Turbo.264 over the weekend. Exporting a 1 hour TV Show (~45 minutes with commercials stripped out) using the HD 720P Preset took 35-40 minutes using the Turbo.264. I haven't watched the resulting program yet...
 
Last edited:
I did the same thing, and now save over $90 a month!

Hi all,

I just saw this post and so I hope I'm not too late to the game. I too went with a Mac Mini to build a system around so that I could get rid of my cable service. I went through and experimented with Plex along with EyeTV and the Hulu Desktop App. While Plex did serve some purposes, I have since stopped using it and simply use VLC to play files. It's not a truly integrated solution, but it does work well for me.

Please check out my blog at www.tvonthecheap.com

We started it because we, too, were tired of having to go to multiple places to get the answers we needed :)

Hope your system gets up and running smoothly!

RJ
 
rjderama said:
Hi all,

I just saw this post and so I hope I'm not too late to the game. I too went with a Mac Mini to build a system around so that I could get rid of my cable service. I went through and experimented with Plex along with EyeTV and the Hulu Desktop App. While Plex did serve some purposes, I have since stopped using it and simply use VLC to play files. It's not a truly integrated solution, but it does work well for me.

Please check out my blog at www.tvonthecheap.com

We started it because we, too, were tired of having to go to multiple places to get the answers we needed :)

Hope your system gets up and running smoothly!

RJ
Click to expand...

Great site you set up. Thanks for sharing. You did what I want to do!!!!! I have it saved as a favorite now.
 
Cutting the cable

FWIW, we cut our television cable 4 months ago. There are some things we miss, but the additional $67 per month is not one of them.

Two things that make it palatable are these. (a) We live in an area that gets mostly terrific reception (ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC and a few others) with a $45 simple, powered antenna with a 6-foot-long cable sitting on top of a speaker. This feeds into a TiVo HD box with a lifetime subscription. (b) A refurb mid-2010 Mac Mini Server sits on the shelf above the TiVo. Both devices are connected to a 42" plasma set via HDMI. The Mac Mini is also connected to a 23" LCD via the DisplayPort.

So, the TiVo has season passes to all the shows we want to watch on network TV as well as Amazon On Demand (and maybe Netflix again) and the Mac Mini is used for Hulu and going to TNT, USA, and a few other web sites for television shows.

To one of the OP's initial questions: We have a couple of bluetooth Apple keyboards as well as an Apple mouse and trackpad, but none of them is the solution to comfortably control the Mac Mini. I've found the best solution is to use Apple Remote Desktop on my MBP
 
I use the Hulu and the tv networks sites to watch tv shows i like and because of the hours i work i do not really sit and watch tv intill my days off ..So wait and then when on the days off i get some snacks and pizza and soda and i go and download the shows i want to watch and then sit down and watch the 30 shows i keep track of that i like in my day off ..

Like the one person said here i found that cutting the cable box out of one life is really nice and second i love the fact that i useing the dvd places i like to shop at one line to get the show boxs sets that i would never found if i been watching regular cable tv programing ..

I found a TV show from down under called Sea Partol along with few other oveseas english language tv shows from other countrys that i started to get into and have bought there dvd boxs sets that i found Amazon UK for watching on a region free dvd player i have
 
Well, it is now Sept and I still have cable with their company provided DVR.
After a lot of thought (all summer) I think I just want to downgrade to basic cable and get rid of the cable box with DVR.

However, I still would like to be able to record programs so I could watch them later, but I do not want to get Tivo due to the cost of a subscription.

So, what would I need in order to use one of my Mac's to do this? I have seen the Elgato Home Run recorder, but did not know if anyone has used it yet?

Any info for the outstanding collective knowledge base here would be appreciated.
 
I've been thinking of cutting the cord as well. I just picked up a 2010 mini for $350! One thing holds me back: sports. What solutions do people use to get their sports? College Football starts this weekend and I can't go without being able to see the games. I know espn3 shows quite a few and that could work over the mini, but I'd like the ability for record for later playback and that gets tricky. Also there a lot of game son root sports formerly fox sports that I'd like to watch and I don't know that there is any solution. Any thoughts.
 
Jefferyd32 said:
I've been thinking of cutting the cord as well. I just picked up a 2010 mini for $350! One thing holds me back: sports. What solutions do people use to get their sports? College Football starts this weekend and I can't go without being able to see the games. I know espn3 shows quite a few and that could work over the mini, but I'd like the ability for record for later playback and that gets tricky. Also there a lot of game son root sports formerly fox sports that I'd like to watch and I don't know that there is any solution. Any thoughts.
Click to expand...

ESPM3 has Replay tab, you can watch just about anything that was shown on ESPN3 live at a later time.
 
BigDukeSix said:
Well, it is now Sept and I still have cable with their company provided DVR.
After a lot of thought (all summer) I think I just want to downgrade to basic cable and get rid of the cable box with DVR.

However, I still would like to be able to record programs so I could watch them later, but I do not want to get Tivo due to the cost of a subscription.

So, what would I need in order to use one of my Mac's to do this? I have seen the Elgato Home Run recorder, but did not know if anyone has used it yet?

Any info for the outstanding collective knowledge base here would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

What about getting an OTA DVR? Channel Master makes a pretty good one from what I hear. The cost is around $299 http://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-CM-7000PAL-Digital-Recorder/dp/B0033TJPJW but will pay for it self in a few months.
 
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