TV Tuner for a laptop

for the same price of an external tv tuner, that will be mac compatible, you might as well buy a garden variety 19'' tv for 120 or so.

EyeTV will work with your mac, but not with your roomate's pc. Will also allow you to record TiVo style directly to your hard drive. It has some drawbacks, but functions as a tv tuner and PVR. Plus it is MUCH smaller than any 19/21 inch TV in your dorm room. Unfortunately, it will only work when your laptop is present.

http://www2.warehouse.com/product.asp?pf_id=DRI4415&cat=mac&blind=


http://www2.warehouse.com/product.asp?pf_id=DRI4410&cat=mac&blind=

Try the MyTVToGo from http://www.eskapelabs.com

It's a USB TV tuner with analogue inputs as well as stereo audio in/out - I've got the full-sized MyTV unit, and the new OS X.2 software for them both is fantastic. It even records programmes in Quicktime for future viewing, or recording to CD.

Originally posted by tazo
for the same price of an external tv tuner, that will be mac compatible, you might as well buy a garden variety 19'' tv for 120 or so.

Click to expand...

i doubt that would be nearly as fun to lug around, heh. plus i am sure it has a nasty picture.

Simple - EyeTV. Tuner and Tivo in one. I've had one for a couple of months and it's great.

Oops. Didn't notice the bit about PC's. EyeTV is mac only.

Well man, PC TV tuners are cheap

Just thought I'd post the link to EyeTV

http://www.elgato.com/eyeTV/

If you have the money, you can also look at Formac Studio TVR.

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=so...tv&PHPSESSID=a6284c5d0910776605c71421faf95594

Originally posted by macphoria
If you have the money, you can also look at Formac Studio TVR.

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=so...tv&PHPSESSID=a6284c5d0910776605c71421faf95594

Click to expand...

And if you have the money, make sure YOU HAVE THE HD SPACE. I just read a review or three and it is a compelling piece of kit until you realise it consumes 12GB per hour for the best reproduction. I have no desire to fill a ridiculously big 120GB Lacie with 10 hours of TV So to save space you compress the recording - and the result is similar apparently to a straight 650MB per hour recording with $200 EyeTV.

Just something to bear in mind.

I'd like to find something that I can watch HDTV on my 20" Cinema display.

I have used a USB TV tunner on my PB G4 and PC desktop and I have to say they are not very good quality (compared to normal TVs anyway.) If you want a good TV tunner for your laptop then the best you can get is the Formac Firewire one. The quality is as good as the PCI ones which are about as good as the pictures on high end Sony TVs. You should also be able to use the Formac one to record Tv in iMovie. However I think the Formac one needs an extra power adapter so you probably can't use it while travelling (you can with the USB ones).

Originally posted by billyboy
And if you have the money, make sure YOU HAVE THE HD SPACE. I just read a review or three and it is a compelling piece of kit until you realise it consumes 12GB per hour for the best reproduction. I have no desire to fill a ridiculously big 120GB Lacie with 10 hours of TV So to save space you compress the recording - and the result is similar apparently to a straight 650MB per hour recording with $200 EyeTV.

Just something to bear in mind.

Click to expand...

It only requires that amount of space if you tell it to record uncompressed video. The USB ones can only record compressed. If you want it to use up less space then choose a different codec, like MPEG4.

Originally posted by macphoria
If you have the money, you can also look at Formac Studio TVR.

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=so...tv&PHPSESSID=a6284c5d0910776605c71421faf95594

Click to expand...

I love that thing. And they just released version 3 of their software a few weeks ago, and it rocks! It's so cool. They cleaned up the interface, added new features like pausing live TV, and streamlined the way you save the video files. Plus the quality is excellent.

If you can afford it, go for the Formac. It also works as an Analog to Digital converter.

Originally posted by hvfsl
It only requires that amount of space if you tell it to record uncompressed video. The USB ones can only record compressed. If you want it to use up less space then choose a different codec, like MPEG4.

Click to expand...

Good point, which answers one of only two drawbacks I could see, so now I´m back in the pro Formac Studio camp again.


Edit: Just found out about firewire hubs so I see no drawbacks now.