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For about $100 tuner it can, but it will only pick up unscrambled cable or OTA digital.
 
3 ways.

1. Elgato EyeTV
2. Cable box via either a) HDMI using HDMI to DisplayPort converter ($180) or b) FireWire cable and some fiddly software.

FWIW I plan on doing b.

I had put Eye TV at the top of my Christmas list, but was disappointed to find out that you can only get unlocked unscrambled channels. I have cable and would gladly pay for another box each month to get all the channels I am already paying for and the firewire seems to be the best solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKacgqxqH-Q
 
FWIW I plan on doing b.

I had put Eye TV at the top of my Christmas list, but was disappointed to find out that you can only get unlocked unscrambled channels. I have cable and would gladly pay for another box each month to get all the channels I am already paying for and the firewire seems to be the best solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKacgqxqH-Q

Note that since that tutorial Shaw has began re-encrypting the FW signal. Most Canadian cable operators encrypt nearly everything rendering the FW port nearly useless. In the US, I believe, all local stations must remain unencrypted by law.
 
FWIW I plan on doing b.

I had put Eye TV at the top of my Christmas list, but was disappointed to find out that you can only get unlocked unscrambled channels. I have cable and would gladly pay for another box each month to get all the channels I am already paying for and the firewire seems to be the best solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKacgqxqH-Q

It's free to try it mate, and it works great for all of the media needs in my home, no fuss with flimsy Elagto Software, loss of image quality ect....

Option B works for 3 Mac Mini's in my home attached to HDTV's no questions asked.

Just the same it' free to try and I am sure you will not be disappointed.
 
Got the firewire enabled box from my cable provider today ...

The box is only sporadically recognized ... I think its a bad cable connection due to the fact I'm using a 9-9 wire and then a 9-6 adapter.

When it works, it works nice!



edit - and I have pretty much all of the channels I get through cable, I don't have my premium channels (HBO, and I get Globo - a Brazilian channel) I know that's provider specific, but thought it was worth mentioning.
 
Got the firewire enabled box from my cable provider today ...

The box is only sporadically recognized ... I think its a bad cable connection due to the fact I'm using a 9-9 wire and then a 9-6 adapter.

When it works, it works nice!



edit - and I have pretty much all of the channels I get through cable, I don't have my premium channels (HBO, and I get Globo - a Brazilian channel) I know that's provider specific, but thought it was worth mentioning.

My cable box has firewire... Care to explain how I could go about doing what you did?
 
I used the video above to get going and found a lot of useful information here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=386740

As long as you have a box with firewire enabled its not too hard

It may be worth just googling your box model to find information ... odds are that a few hits will be good information out of that thread ... I wouldn't recommend trying to read the whole thing
 
I had put Eye TV at the top of my Christmas list, but was disappointed to find out that you can only get unlocked unscrambled channels.

Were you expecting something to automagically de-scramble?

Eye-TV is great as it pulls both digital or composite video from any cable box in SD/HD. If you have the iPhone app, you've got a prefect remote control for your iMac complete with program information that can also set to record.
 
Were you expecting something to automagically de-scramble?

Eye-TV is great as it pulls both digital or composite video from any cable box in SD/HD. If you have the iPhone app, you've got a prefect remote control for your iMac complete with program information that can also set to record.

I didn't know much about the process before all of this and their site can be misleading to people who don't understand clearQAM and the like.

All I know is I spent a few bucks on the right firewire cable and now for an extra $9 a month (cable box charge) I have pretty much all of my cable channels, HD and otherwise

As far as remote ... I use the cable remote ... if I need to I use my bluetooth mouse too ... or my iPhone as a VLC remote ...

More than one way to skin a cat ;)
 
As far as remote ... I use the cable remote ... if I need to I use my bluetooth mouse too ... or my iPhone as a VLC remote ...

More than one way to skin a cat ;)

Yes there is

Cable remote? I use a ZephIR to program all the cable remote keys to the mac

iPhone VLC is too slow, use apps that do what they're suppose to do right (esp. free ones)
 
I just went what I thought was the cheapest and most effective route.

Thanks for the links and tips :)
 
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