[Wolvin]

Hi Folks, I posted this in another forum, but this one seems the most appropriate:

I'm a bit lost. What exactly does EyeTV do, and which of their devices is best if I want to do the following:

I just ordered a 2.16, 24" iMac with 2GB of RAM, 500GB Drive, and the NVIDIA 7600GT 256MB. I'd like to use the EyeTV as a PVR to record shows I like, store those in the computer (although not forever or for long periods of time), and of course, I'd like to take a few things (like news coverage) and burn it to DVD to bring to my class.

When I visit Elgato they don't have a clear layman's explanation of just what it does and how. Would it be easier and better to get a basic dual tuner Tivo and forget the hassle of trying to connect to the iMac?

Also, If I have a high speed internet cable connection (via Comcast, provider of my cable TV also, although not digital cable) does it translate to my iMac being positioned next or close to the TV and cable line? I suspect so unless I want a wireless device...

Thanks for any help

[gooser]

where do you want to watch your shows? tv or mac? i don't think anything is easier to use than a tivo. i have one that'll also burn dvd's, can't edit it though, but fast forward buttons work. don't have eyetv (or want one) but people swear by them.

[analogika]

The eyetv software is great.

It is tremendously easy to use, record, program, edit, and export into any of various compression formats - including DV for editing in iMovie and subsequent burning with iDVD, or any of the formats supported by Toast, and iPod video.

You can record one channel and playback a previous recording simultaneously (though watching live TV and recording a different channel at the same time is not possible *)

You can do all this in full-screen mode, of course, and control the whole thing using the Apple Remote that comes with your computer.

Pretty much all TV interfaces for the Mac use the eyetv software nowadays - it's simply the best.

Which TV interface to get depends upon what kind of TV service you get, and how much money you're prepared to spend.

The Firewire-based devices will work with slower computers, since they do the TV decoding right in the box, while the USB-based devices are much cheaper, since they pass on the decoding to the computer. They generally require at least a 1GHz G4 to really be fun. Obviously, that is not of concern to you bastard and your stupid goddamn 24-inch iMac Core2 Duo 2.16 GHz... *sniff*

What a dream setup for eyeTV and DVD viewing. *doublesniff*

There's DVB, digital video broadcasting (-T for terrestrial, i.e. regular antenna; -S for satellite, and -C for cable). I don't know how it is in the States, but over here, image quality is in general drastically inferior to analog broadcast, at least on DVB-T.

Some devices are hybrid and give you the advantage of an analog input you can use to digitize existing analog material from your old analog video camera or the VCR.


*) technically, you *could* watch another channel on the same sub-channel if you're on DVB, but that's very limited (by what happens to be on the same sub-channel) and undocumented functionality.

[gooser]

damn! looks like you have to choose between two good choices.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by analogika

...
There's DVB, digital video broadcasting (-T for terrestrial, i.e. regular antenna; -S for satellite, and -C for cable). I don't know how it is in the States, but over here, image quality is in general drastically inferior to analog broadcast, at least on DVB-T.

...

Something is wrong if digital broadcasts are inferior to analogue. Over here in the USA, over the air digital is absolutely pristine, exactly the same as digital over cable (can't get satellite where I live but I've had it before and it was also the same).

[analogika]

DVB-T quality here is complete ****, unless it's 16:9. That's bearable. Plenty of artefacting and weird animated frizzing on what should be solid blocks of color, etc. It is a rare broadcast that actually looks good.

My TV tech friend has independently come to the same conclusion.