Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > Need a good up to date TV tuner for mac

Need a good up to date TV tuner for mac
Thread Tools
domerdel
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2008, 02:47 PM
 
Not sure what's the latest and greatest and easy to use. I have an iMac 24" 2.4 C2D, want to use it as my TV so i can toss my old 20" Tube TV.

TubeStick
https://www.equinux.com/eqnetwork/st...ck_hybrid.html

ATI TV Wonder Mac 650
http://ati.amd.com/products/tvwonder...mac/index.html

El Gato
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/main...oduct3.en.html

If you recommend one that isn't listed here, please let me know!
     
rmiller
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Columbus, OH
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2008, 08:37 PM
 
I'm using the elgato Eyetv on my Imac 24". It works really well.
Alum 24" Imac 2.8 ghz
     
idykenano
Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: surrounded by dogs
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2008, 09:27 PM
 
Granted I'm on a Macbook instead of an iMac, but I recently got an Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus and I'm loving it.
I dock my Macbook at a 19inch monitor and even that is plenty big to double as a tv in my room (college student). The recording feature is really easy to use and the external hardware on the 250 Plus allows it to play decently on my G4 Sawtooth.
     
kautz
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 10, 2008, 09:59 PM
 
We just got the elgato eyetv hybrid. Installs easily and works really well. Its nice to watch the Olympics in HD on our imac.
     
domerdel  (op)
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 11, 2008, 10:50 AM
 
what's better? the eyeTV plus 250 o the Hybrid?
     
vmarks
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Up In The Air
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 11, 2008, 03:39 PM
 
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/miglia shows an analog tuner, TVMicroExpress, and an HD tuner, TVmini HD Express.

Neither is hybrid, but both are more affordable than Elgato's offering.
     
bpl323
Forum Regular
Join Date: Aug 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2008, 01:09 PM
 
Anything from Elgato is great.
     
vmarks
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Up In The Air
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2008, 05:08 PM
 
Note that the elgato hybrids, the analog reception is mono sound.
     
analogika
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: 888500128
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 13, 2008, 07:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by vmarks View Post
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/miglia shows an analog tuner, TVMicroExpress, and an HD tuner, TVmini HD Express.

Neither is hybrid, but both are more affordable than Elgato's offering.
Neither comes with elgato's EyeTV software, either, which quite simply ****ing rocks.

Miglia used to license the EyeTV software, but dropped it a while back.

Seriously, don't bother considering the alternatives: It's that good.
     
benz
Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: HK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 16, 2008, 04:22 AM
 
hi, do anyone ve experience in using Miglia TVbook pro ? as i want to see digital TV in my mac book pro, well this miglia use PCI express card slot in MBP

thx

benz
     
tooki
Admin Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 25, 2008, 06:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by vmarks View Post
Note that the elgato hybrids, the analog reception is mono sound.
So the Hybrid is mono, the 250 is stereo?
     
analogika
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: 888500128
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 26, 2008, 01:25 PM
 
First I've ever heard that.
     
vmarks
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Up In The Air
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 26, 2008, 02:52 PM
 
It's absolutely true for some models of the USB stick device known as Hybrid. If you've got one, check it out - try and select a stereo audio program in the menus, and it should limit you to mono only. This is also true of the Pinnacle PC HDTV stick that ships with Elgato EyeTV Lite.

The other way to verify is to record, export the audio, and then look at the waveform in soundstudio or audacity - you'll see that it's two channels of the same waveform, or mono.
     
tooki
Admin Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 29, 2008, 10:32 AM
 
When I try it, I see stereo as the audio option, but manually switching to just one audio channel makes no difference, lending credence to the mono theory. Hmmm...
     
DocMacPS
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Palm Springs, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 1, 2008, 05:55 AM
 
Buy whatever TV tuner comes bundled with some version of ElGato's EyeTV. In so many ways it's the _software_ that makes the product great, the hardware is rather generic. Even the 'Lite' version of EyeTV that Hauppauge or Pinnacle bundles is quite capable of a great TV on Mac experience, and you can always upgrade to the full version. THE TUBE software of Equinux's - as of version 2.8 - ain't bad but it isn't great like EyeTV

As of late 2008, there's now more choices for OS X HD TV viewing than ever ( See this Apple Mac compatible TV tuner site for current tuner options.) Cable subscribers will definitely want a Clear QAM enabled Hybrid tuner. For ATSC antenna reception over the air QAM doesn't matter - having a really, really good antenna will matter most! And if you have the $ to spend, a HARDWARE-based encoder tuner like the EyeTV 250+ will take alot of CPU load off your computer while watching and capturing.
     
vmarks
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Up In The Air
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 1, 2008, 04:41 PM
 
The hardware encoder of the eyetv 250+ only matters for analog. For digital and HD, it's ALREADY encoded in mpeg2, so you get the same results as the cheaper hybrid tuner.
     
   
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:49 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,