TV Tuner Card for Mac Pro???

[TheSpaz]

I'm trying to find a TV tuner PCIe Card for my Mac Pro with hardly any luck. The one's I have found don't say anything about being Mac compatible and I don't wanna get something that doesn't work. I also think getting the PCIe Card would be better than getting a USB device. Any thoughts on this? Is there a better place to search for Mac-Compatible PCIe Cards? If I HAVE to get a USB device, then I guess I will... but, why have another port being used when I could just install a simple PCIe card.

Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, and the Mac Pros ONLY have PCIe slots right? No regular PCI slots?

This is my first Pro desktop computer so I'm unsure about expandability.

 

[eva01]

As of right now, i do not believe there are any Tuner Cards for the Mac Pro. And in my opinion the tuner cards for the powermac aren't that good either.

I went with the Eye TV EZ on my powermac, I suggest you go with the same

 

[Fredou51]

The Eye TV Hybrid is a really good choice as well.

 

[BuzWeaver]

Have you tried looking into Miglia?

http://www.miglia.com/

 

[TheSpaz]

Have you tried looking into Miglia?

http://www.miglia.com/

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but, I realize there are a lot of options for the Mac but, my original question was if I could get a tuner installed in one of my PCI Express slots therefore not using up one of my USB ports. Thank you for the link though. I'm thinking about getting the EyeTV EZ or Hybrid like others have suggested. I heard EyeTV had great software. Thanks everyone for the quick responses.

 

[mklos]

There is not currently a PCI-e TV Tuner Card for the Mac Pro. The USB solution is your best alternative.

 

[TheSpaz]

There is not currently a PCI-e TV Tuner Card for the Mac Pro. The USB solution is your best alternative.

Thank you. That's what I wanted to know. Now I know that I HAVE to get a USB tuner, which might be better actually because it comes with a little box that has an IR Receiver and a Remote to control it because the Mac Pro doesn't come with a built in IR Receiver.

Thanks guys. Question answered.

 

[R.Youden]

I know that until receently (less than a year ago) Miglia made a PCI card for the PowerMac. I have one in my G4. I am not sure if it would work with the mac pro but I am sure they are knocking around on eBay somewhere, I just cant remember the name of it!

Edit: I have just found it. It is the Miglia Alchemy link. It says that it wont work with PCI express, only PCI and PCI-X which is a bit crap as I think it is a great card. Come on Miglia, upgrade it. This is one more reason for me to stick with the PowerMac! Sorry I couldn't be anymore help. If you are looking at the eyeTV products they are great.

 

[TheSpaz]

I was thinking about either getting the EyeTV Hybrid or the EyeTV 250. I'm torn between the 2. The 250 has a hardware encoder built into the unit making it so the computer doesn't have to do the work but, the Hybrid has HDTV support (which I don't even have at the moment but, I don't know about the future). I noticed on Apple's website, the ratings were higher for the EyeTV Hybrid than the EyeTV 250.

Then again, the 250 comes with a remote, so I may get that instead. I dunno... any thoughts?

 

[strydr]

I was thinking about either getting the EyeTV Hybrid or the EyeTV 250. I'm torn between the 2. The 250 has a hardware encoder built into the unit making it so the computer doesn't have to do the work but, the Hybrid has HDTV support (which I don't even have at the moment but, I don't know about the future). I noticed on Apple's website, the ratings were higher for the EyeTV Hybrid than the EyeTV 250.

Then again, the 250 comes with a remote, so I may get that instead. I dunno... any thoughts?

I bought a EyeTV500 remanufactured from Elgato. Cost the same as my mom's EyeTV200, does HDTV, and has a remote...

 

[BuzWeaver]

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but, I realize there are a lot of options for the Mac but, my original question was if I could get a tuner installed in one of my PCI Express slots therefore not using up one of my USB ports. Thank you for the link though. I'm thinking about getting the EyeTV EZ or Hybrid like others have suggested. I heard EyeTV had great software. Thanks everyone for the quick responses.

No problem, I get these questions at work quite often and since I don't check the forums while I'm at work I wouldn't have been able to give you a better answer.

 

[countach]

I used to have a Windows PCI card, and it was fairly crappy. It would drop frames etc.

Now I have a Miglia TVMax, which is kinda similar to an EyeTV 250 with a built-in hardware encoder over USB. I can record from the Miglia, and watch the show while totally flattening both cores of the CPU with movie re-encoding (which is needed if you want to watch it on the iPod), and no dropped frames or anything. Basically, with the hardware encoding, your normal computer performance is unaffected. Movie encoding is VERY expensive in CPU time. Without hardware encoding you will probably suck up a lot of your computer performance. I highly recommend going with a USB solution with built in hardware encoding like Miglia. And the EyeTV software that comes with the Miglia works great too, which is more (much more) than I could say for the crap software that came with the Windows PCI encoder.

 

[damado]

I had a dual tuner MCE system which I loved, but now my comcast dual HDTV DVR cable box takes care of it. Sacrificed features for the ability to record scrambled HD shows, but it was worth it.

Right now I'm waiting for them to come out with cablecard DVRs for the computers, then I'll switch back to using my computer to record etc. Can't wait.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The EyeTV Hybrid is incredible. And it has an IR receiver, it just doesn't include a remote. (An Apple Remote works just fine with it.) Even if you're using cable, go get a moderate quality ($30) HDTV antenna, and you will be amazed by the quality of HD on a computer monitor.

With a Mac Pro, don't worry about the hardware encoder. My CPU utilization doing software encoding on analog content is approximately 100% of one core on a 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro Core (1) Duo. That means that on even the 'downgraded' 2.0 GHz Mac Pro, you would be using up only 1/4 of your CPU power. If you have the top-of-the-line 3.0 GHz model, it would be a measly 1/6th of your total power.

 

[TheSpaz]

The EyeTV Hybrid is incredible. And it has an IR receiver, it just doesn't include a remote. (An Apple Remote works just fine with it.) Even if you're using cable, go get a moderate quality ($30) HDTV antenna, and you will be amazed by the quality of HD on a computer monitor.

With a Mac Pro, don't worry about the hardware encoder. My CPU utilization doing software encoding on analog content is approximately 100% of one core on a 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro Core (1) Duo. That means that on even the 'downgraded' 2.0 GHz Mac Pro, you would be using up only 1/4 of your CPU power. If you have the top-of-the-line 3.0 GHz model, it would be a measly 1/6th of your total power.

Can't use an Apple remote on the Mac Pro... no IR Receiver.

 

[Chundles]

Can't use an Apple remote on the Mac Pro... no IR Receiver.

Can on the hybrid though - that's what he was talking about. It definitely has one.

 

[TheSpaz]

Can on the hybrid though - that's what he was talking about. It definitely has one.

The thing is... I don't want it sticking out of my front USB port, so I was gonna put it in back... and I don't think the remote would affect it back there... that's the problem.

 

[countach]

With a Mac Pro, don't worry about the hardware encoder. My CPU utilization doing software encoding on analog content is approximately 100% of one core on a 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro Core (1) Duo. That means that on even the 'downgraded' 2.0 GHz Mac Pro, you would be using up only 1/4 of your CPU power. If you have the top-of-the-line 3.0 GHz model, it would be a measly 1/6th of your total power.

Ok, but what happens when you're doing something else on the computer that takes even more power? Do you drop frames? What happens?

 

[Fredou51]

Correct me if I am wrong but if you're just watching tv, it won't encode and use 1/5 of my 2.66GHz Mac Pro right? That's only when recording to the hard drive, right?

Frederic

 

[TheSpaz]

Correct me if I am wrong but if you're just watching tv, it won't encode and use 1/5 of my 2.66GHz Mac Pro right? That's only when recording to the hard drive, right?

Frederic

I think it's all the time. It's gotta process the video coming in right?

 

[midilance]

I'll put in a vote for the Eye TV 250. It works great!

 

[Anonymous Freak]

When viewing analog, it uses very little processor, it's only recording analog, or viewing digital (HD) that uses significant processor time.

 

[floam]

.

 

[Gorion]

I really like my EyeTV Hybrid. I connected my XBox 360 to it, and I use my 23" ACD with it. I havent figured out how to directly connect the xbox to my monitor (Is there a good way to do it?)

I also really like the tv guide that comes with it and how I can just pick shows that I want to record

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I havent figured out how to directly connect the xbox to my monitor (Is there a good way to do it?)

Not really. If you can find an HDMI-to-DVI cable that has a female DVI connector, you could try plugging the Xbox into the monitor directly, but I'm not even sure that would work.