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Tv tuner questions

famous600

famous600

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 8, 2010
705
1
So I have decided to finally cut the cord. However, am still unsure about the OTA options. Is anyone running an OTA signal through the Mac mini and running live tv in XBMC? I see elgato is on the fritz, and the only other option I am finding is hdhomerun. What are everyone's thoughts? I would like to go to live tv in XBMC and simply change the channel and view the HD OTA signal directly through XBMC so I can just leave it open 24x7. Thanks!
 
I have no problem in switching apps. I usually watch something for at least an hour. So I use a combination of XBMC, TheTube (DVB-T USB stick software) and Firefox. For live TV, I hardly use TheTube any more as it is very buggy. The live-tv websites are very good nowadays, so Firefox is what I mostly use for that.
 
Appreciated, but not quite what I'm looking for. I want to take the OTA signal from the antenna and access it through XBMC with a guide and all of that fun stuff. I just see a ton of options but nothing concrete. Is anyone here doing this with their mini?
 
dimzen said:
On the fritz? :)

The times I'v watched TV on my Macmini, I'v used my Elgato eyetv hybrid
http://www.elgato.com/en/eyetv/eyetv-hybrid
Click to expand...

Sorry. What I meant was no longer sold in the US apparently. Any idea why? The eyetv hybrid seems like the way to go, just not sure about tracking one down beyond ebay. Do the new ones even support our OTA signal?

The ones appear to be Euro only

Analogue TV standards: PAL, SECAM
Digital TV standards: DVB-T, DVB-C
 
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famous600 said:
I believe the us version is atsc. Hmmm may just have to look into an hdhomerun
Click to expand...

HD over-the-air is ATSC. Old style analog over-the-air was NTSC in the US. You definitely need ATSC support here. Having QAM tuner would allow you to tune in unencrypted digital cable signals. Even without a cable subscription you may be able to pick up certain channels over the cable feed if they haven't physically disconnected you (for example, if you still have an active internet subscription they can't physically disconnect you). These would generally just be the local channels as well as public access type channels, but it's possible if you have trouble receiving them over-the-air (ATSC) that you might still have access through your old cable jack if you have a QAM tuner.
 
It's been awhile since I poked around the el gato website, but I seem to remember they had a list of 3rd party tuners that their software was compatible with. I've had some problems with stability in the software in the past, but the latest version seems good.
 
crzyhanko said:
It's been awhile since I poked around the el gato website, but I seem to remember they had a list of 3rd party tuners that their software was compatible with. I've had some problems with stability in the software in the past, but the latest version seems good.
Click to expand...

Ya I picked up a USB tuner but it didn't work. So got an eyetv hybrid from ebay for 20 bucks shipped. That should do the trick. I would really like input from anyone who integrates live tv with XBMC
 
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