I have a lot of recordings on my Sky+ box that I'd like to capture on to my Mac Mini (and then probably watch on my iPhone). We have a rubbish antenna, so I'm not really bothered about recording live Freeview using a capture card with tuner.
I used to have a Windows laptop and an Archos 605 with DVR. With that kit, I'd set the Sky+ box to copy 8-10 hours overnight and hit record on my Archos. The next day I could then copy the content from the Archos on to my Windows laptop and use Virtualdub to join together the 2GB *.avi files (split due to filesystem constraints), remove adverts and output the individual episodes as single *.avi files. I'd then encode any episodes for the iPhone using Handbrake. Unfortunately both the Archos and Windows laptop are now broken.
I'd like to set up a similar workflow for the Mac Mini. I've read about the Elgato Video Capture device, but it seems that the maximum recording length is 3hrs and I'm not sure if I'd be able to remove adverts etc. as it's not compatible with EyeTV software. It looks like one can export to iMovie, but does that then result in a massive *.mov file that I'd have to edit, then re-encode again for the iPhone?
I've also looked into the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, but can't find confirmation on whether I could just set it to record for 10 hours and then split up the resulting file into episodes. Also it talks about real-time H.264 encoding "if your Mac is fast enough", but couldn't see any minimum specs.
If anyone has any experience of either Elgato product and could answer my questions above, or anyone can recommend a non-Elgato product that would achieve the same for a similar price, then please let me know.
I used to have a Windows laptop and an Archos 605 with DVR. With that kit, I'd set the Sky+ box to copy 8-10 hours overnight and hit record on my Archos. The next day I could then copy the content from the Archos on to my Windows laptop and use Virtualdub to join together the 2GB *.avi files (split due to filesystem constraints), remove adverts and output the individual episodes as single *.avi files. I'd then encode any episodes for the iPhone using Handbrake. Unfortunately both the Archos and Windows laptop are now broken.
I'd like to set up a similar workflow for the Mac Mini. I've read about the Elgato Video Capture device, but it seems that the maximum recording length is 3hrs and I'm not sure if I'd be able to remove adverts etc. as it's not compatible with EyeTV software. It looks like one can export to iMovie, but does that then result in a massive *.mov file that I'd have to edit, then re-encode again for the iPhone?
I've also looked into the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, but can't find confirmation on whether I could just set it to record for 10 hours and then split up the resulting file into episodes. Also it talks about real-time H.264 encoding "if your Mac is fast enough", but couldn't see any minimum specs.
If anyone has any experience of either Elgato product and could answer my questions above, or anyone can recommend a non-Elgato product that would achieve the same for a similar price, then please let me know.
