So, cable/OTA give you the same input I guess. My problem, and the reason I was inquiring about the EyeTV/HDHomeRun combo package (which I can't seem to find) is that I need something that will connect to the router (not the MBP) and stream using wifi. The MBP is used portably, so it can't be used as a hardwired tv.
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Cord Cutters?
- Thread starter iRooney
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There is a great discussion here about it. Post #66 explains how his setup works, and I believe he also has some other posts on that thread with some great indepth info.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1481019/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1481019/
I think the problem I am having is that Elgato used to sell the HDHomeRun/EyeTV software as a package and they have stopped doing that.
Now, it looks like you have to buy the HDHomeRun from Silicon Dust and buy the EyeTV software from Elgato separately. In the past, it was recommended that you buy the Elgato based HDHomeRun because the one from Silicon Dust had different hardware, or FW or something, and did not play well with Macs. From their website now, it would appear that is no longer a problem.
Easy answer is I don't watch sports. Never really have. Only thing I watch is the Super Bowl and that's on network TV.
What is everyone paying for internet access?
I've cut the cable and have a Plex/iMac setup running smoothly but I still pay $70/mo. for Comcast cable internet. It's the lowest I could get it down to off contract.
I get my live sports fix from basic HD cable or MLB.tv.
I've cut the cable and have a Plex/iMac setup running smoothly but I still pay $70/mo. for Comcast cable internet. It's the lowest I could get it down to off contract.
I get my live sports fix from basic HD cable or MLB.tv.
Thank you very much!
It's really not that bad at all - and with applescripting and other aspects of the setup automated it's just about hands off once you get it all set up.
The setup was fun, if you like that sort of thing. Learned a little bit of applescript in the process and did a lot of research to find the right pieces of software to make it all hands-off. I learned a bit about triggering applescript through iCal and using a program called Hazel to monitor folders (and more importantly, subfolders) and run scripts when items are added to them.
The biggest challenge was one I took on because I wanted to learn more about it - using etvcomskipper. Fun install if you like messing with the terminal. But comskipper is a frill, not something i'd recommend.
Works like a champ.
I couldn't agree more with this!
On the very rare occasions my kids (6 and 3) watch any live TV they're always shocked by the commercials. We were watching a dog show over Christmas break on the antenna a couple of weeks ago, and the commercials were just ridiculous in frequency and length.
We have wonderful Christmases without all of the "want, want, want" brought on by constant advertising to my kids.
I didn't walk out of the woods yesterday, I know they get advertised to all the time...but at least it's not blaring out of my TV in my home.
It's very easy to monitor what they can pull from Netflix. I have to applaud Netflix for building up their "kids" section - it was pretty bare a couple of years ago when we started...it's terrific now.
$65 a month for 30/5 on Time Warner.
I call and threaten to leave every couple of months to see what their retention department will do for me.
I don't have to have 30 down for what we do, but I like the speed
$65 a month for 30/5 on Time Warner.
I call and threaten to leave every couple of months to see what their retention department will do for me.
I don't have to have 30 down for what we do, but I like the speed
It's sad we have to do that, you think it be easier just to stop screwing us customer around and just give us a low rate. Low rate, we don't call in to complain, less hold times, and then they can work on improving the cable plant.
I can't find it bundled on the Elgato site anymore either.
I just bought a new HDHR tuner from Silicon Dust, you can just get the EyeTv 3 software from Elgato and buy the tuners separately.
http://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-H...7594590&sr=1-1&keywords=silicondust+hdhomerun
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/software/EyeTV3/product1.en.html
I've seen the HDHomerun as low as $65. EyeTV software usually runs $80 or so.
Yeah, that's what I figured. The only reason I was hesitant to do that, buy from Silicon Dust, was I had read that people using Mac's were having issues with the ones they sell as they were PC based. And it was recommended the HDHomeRun be purchased through Elgato along with their software to avoid those issues. In other words, it sounded as if their were 2 "flavors" of the same thing. So maybe Silicon Dust made some changes to where the same unit is compatible with both PC and Mac.
Do you stream the recording from the HDHomeRun to your Mac using wifi? If you do, how well does it stream and is your Mac CPU heavily taxed by doing it? I have heard that recording a show with this setup is slow and CPU intensive.
The clincher was watching someone else's kids watch TV. Mesmerized by Spongebob, they soaked up a Pop Tarts ad, and the instant it was over went running to grandma pleading "we want Pop Tarts! we want Pop Tarts!" and, of course, were obliged.
No ads in my house.
Which, came Christmas, was driving my wife a bit nuts with the distinct lack of "I want" when figuring out what to buy them. All the little girl wanted was "a teddy bear from Santa", and the boy wanted "race cars" (the Pixar Cars managed an impression). Made me happy.
I have the HDHRs and an iMac *cabled* through a 4th gen airport extreme.
The HDHR doesn't do any recording - it's just a tuner. With InstaTVPro on my phone or iPad I can watch live tv by hitting that tuner on my network. Performance is good.
I went away from the Elgato EyeTV app to InstaTV Pro because I was seeing some bad resource hogging from EyeTv when streaming. When you stream to your phone or iPad from EyeTv, it's transcoding just about live...I was seeing CPU use spikes and frame drops that made streams unwatchable.
However - shows recorded and/or viewed on the iMac were perfect.
The big difference is - InstaTVPro will talk directly to the HDHR tuner, not going through EyeTV. No problems with EyeTV not being able to keep up with the streaming show transcodes.
I stream recordings from the iMac to my Apple TVs after they've been transcoded and dumped into iTunes. Performance there is just about flawless.
Recording shows is real time using EyeTV on my iMac to schedule, record, transcode and export to iTunes automatically. Transcoding afterwards to dump the shows into iTunes takes a while. I purchased the Turbo 264HD stick, which speeds things up just a bit. Your average half hour HD TV show takes about that long to convert and dump into iTunes ready to view on Apple TV.
To my knowledge, there is no difference in the HDHR box - it's just a networked tuner. The firmware is the same no matter the OS you're using to pull streams in. I just bought a second dual tuner directly from SiliconDust and have had no trouble using it in my setup.
Around $63/mo for something like 12Mb up / 3Mb down.
I get the occasional offer for standard cable TV for as little as just $2/mo more, but ... no. Just no. Don't need the mental meth.
Keep looking for someone else to provide sufficient competing product, but haven't seen anything fast enough and cheap enough to dislodge me yet (much as I'd like to dump Comcast). Don't think Uverse is quite fast enough yet, running around 1.5Mb thru my front yard. Want something fast enough that nobody would notice multiple video/remote-desktop streams competing for bandwidth.
Please, cheap fiber to the home...
Thanks for the info. So to make sure I understand, the HDHR sends the live tv signal to your iMac and the iMac transcodes that signal and dumps the mp4 file into iTunes. Sounds good. Now, is the transcoding done on the fly as the live tv is playing or is a different type of file (large size I would assume) created on the iMac (iTunes incompatible) and then the eyetv software transcodes it to an mp4 at a later time?
The recording is done through EyeTV and saved as their own file format.
I have my system set up to start transcoding as soon as the recording is done.
Transcoding is only done of the fly when streaming live TV to iPad, iPhone.
$63 / month from Comcast. That's with me owning my own modem. I don't remember the exact service I have but it's around 20 Mb/s down.
Shame on our local governments...
$70 a month for internet access is a crime. It's a monopoly and apparently there's nothing we can do about it. I suggest working with a neighbor and sharing one monthly charge, then sharing your wifi password with each other. You're on the same pipe anyway, and your cable company throttles the connection when multiple people are on at the same time anyway.
Sadly, anytime anybody tries to start a competing internet service, the cable lobby comes out and pays legislators to make it stop:
http://boingboing.net/2013/01/03/telcos-lobby-north-carolina-to.html
$70 a month for internet access is a crime. It's a monopoly and apparently there's nothing we can do about it. I suggest working with a neighbor and sharing one monthly charge, then sharing your wifi password with each other. You're on the same pipe anyway, and your cable company throttles the connection when multiple people are on at the same time anyway.
Sadly, anytime anybody tries to start a competing internet service, the cable lobby comes out and pays legislators to make it stop:
http://boingboing.net/2013/01/03/telcos-lobby-north-carolina-to.html
I've cut the cord 3 years ago. I had Cox cable in San Diego. With 1 HD receiver, 1 HD DVR, HBO, Internet, phone, etc. for their bundle discount, I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $175-$180 a month.
Now I use two Tvix M-6620N's (it's an older model) with a 3 TB drive in each as my receiver & DVR. I kept Cox for the Internet and use Vonage for the home phone. The monthly bill is about $80. I saved $3,600 over 3 years and am continually saving. I get all the major broadcast channels and also dump a ton of movies in MKV containers onto my Tvix. It's a great media jukebox as well. You can find out about them here: http://www.tvix.co.kr/eng/
A tip for you guys cutting the cord: You don't need an antenna! Just connect your tuner to your cable line. All the wiring running through your house and then out to the telephone pole makes for one hell of an antenna! Believe me, it works like a charm. If you're using an antenna now but previously had cable, just get a coax cable and connect it to your old cable outlet and get rid of that unsightly thing on your roof!
Now I use two Tvix M-6620N's (it's an older model) with a 3 TB drive in each as my receiver & DVR. I kept Cox for the Internet and use Vonage for the home phone. The monthly bill is about $80. I saved $3,600 over 3 years and am continually saving. I get all the major broadcast channels and also dump a ton of movies in MKV containers onto my Tvix. It's a great media jukebox as well. You can find out about them here: http://www.tvix.co.kr/eng/
A tip for you guys cutting the cord: You don't need an antenna! Just connect your tuner to your cable line. All the wiring running through your house and then out to the telephone pole makes for one hell of an antenna! Believe me, it works like a charm. If you're using an antenna now but previously had cable, just get a coax cable and connect it to your old cable outlet and get rid of that unsightly thing on your roof!
We're getting ready to cut the cord. I opted for the TiVo setup over the elgato with HDHR's mainly for ease of use for the wife. Well, that and I didn't want my iMac dedicated to it lol! I bought an 
TV to play with and I may start ripping more of my DVD/BR collection into iTunes. I'd love to have an all digital library especially for the kids.
From Comcast our current cable/phone/internet bill is $225. When my wife told me (yes she handles the bills and I'm fairly clueless about it all!) WTF is what went through my mind. All we watch is network TV for her shows, I watch football, and the kids watch PBS and Cartoon Network. I'm willing to lose the NFL Network and ESPN. We'll buy the 2 shows on CN that the kids watched regularly. And the TiVo will still grab everything my wife watches. The upside is that if we ever decide to plug the cord back in the TiVo will work for that.
Just got everything setup for the test run in our bedroom last night. We'll run it for a week there then move it down to the living room for good.
Hoping I can get phone/internet only for ~$75 if I threaten to leave. I can get it through ATT for ~$60 but internet would be slower. Take out the $15/month that TiVo charges and we'd still be saving around $135/month. Enough to pay for the hardware I just bought in about three months. Can't believe we've wasted so much money on tv over the years.
I'm done with cable. I'd be perfectly happy without it or the TiVo to be honest but the wife doesn't want to have to go through a computer to watch a show and she doesn't want to wait until the next day to watch it either. She generally watches her shows late at night just after they've finished recording. For football I'll just subscribe to the NFL Game Pass again. $40 let's me watch my Raiders lose the next day lol! Whatever I get on OTA broadcasts will be enough for me.
TV to play with and I may start ripping more of my DVD/BR collection into iTunes. I'd love to have an all digital library especially for the kids.From Comcast our current cable/phone/internet bill is $225. When my wife told me (yes she handles the bills and I'm fairly clueless about it all
!) WTF is what went through my mind. All we watch is network TV for her shows, I watch football, and the kids watch PBS and Cartoon Network. I'm willing to lose the NFL Network and ESPN. We'll buy the 2 shows on CN that the kids watched regularly. And the TiVo will still grab everything my wife watches. The upside is that if we ever decide to plug the cord back in the TiVo will work for that.Just got everything setup for the test run in our bedroom last night. We'll run it for a week there then move it down to the living room for good.
Hoping I can get phone/internet only for ~$75 if I threaten to leave. I can get it through ATT for ~$60 but internet would be slower. Take out the $15/month that TiVo charges and we'd still be saving around $135/month. Enough to pay for the hardware I just bought in about three months. Can't believe we've wasted so much money on tv over the years.
I'm done with cable. I'd be perfectly happy without it or the TiVo to be honest but the wife doesn't want to have to go through a computer to watch a show and she doesn't want to wait until the next day to watch it either. She generally watches her shows late at night just after they've finished recording. For football I'll just subscribe to the NFL Game Pass again. $40 let's me watch my Raiders lose the next day lol! Whatever I get on OTA broadcasts will be enough for me.
Our Dish satellite DVR died while we were on Christmas vacation and we decided to discontinue service and not replace it. We had been talking about it on and off for a few months, but it seemed like divine intervention.
Our house was already set up for a digital transition. I have an older Mac Mini with a 2 TB hard drive acting as a media server. I ripped our collection of DVDs and Blu-rays so we can easily stream movies and show to our Apple TVs in the living room or bedroom.
I was already an Amazon Prime and Netflix (disc only) member and we added Hulu Plus as our main method of watching network shows. There are one or two shows we watch that aren't on Hulu, which we'll just buy through iTunes.
Sports is probably the only thing I really miss. But with the NFL season's winding down and little interest in basketball anymore, it shouldn't be too painful. I did watch some NFL playoff games through some not-so-legal websites, however. I may sign up for MLB.com once baseball season starts up.
We weren't paying all that much for Dish service -- it was about $42 a month. What was really disappointing was the lack of decent programming overall. Most of the channels I used to enjoy -- History, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, TLC, VH1 -- have become reality TV networks.
In a perfect world, it would be nice to have a customized experience -- picking the channels or shows you like -- but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'd be really happy if Hulu Plus offered all current network TV (a lot of CBS programming is currently MIA) and if I could somehow pay for streaming access to all NFL and NCAA football games.
Our house was already set up for a digital transition. I have an older Mac Mini with a 2 TB hard drive acting as a media server. I ripped our collection of DVDs and Blu-rays so we can easily stream movies and show to our Apple TVs in the living room or bedroom.
I was already an Amazon Prime and Netflix (disc only) member and we added Hulu Plus as our main method of watching network shows. There are one or two shows we watch that aren't on Hulu, which we'll just buy through iTunes.
Sports is probably the only thing I really miss. But with the NFL season's winding down and little interest in basketball anymore, it shouldn't be too painful. I did watch some NFL playoff games through some not-so-legal websites, however. I may sign up for MLB.com once baseball season starts up.
We weren't paying all that much for Dish service -- it was about $42 a month. What was really disappointing was the lack of decent programming overall. Most of the channels I used to enjoy -- History, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, TLC, VH1 -- have become reality TV networks.
In a perfect world, it would be nice to have a customized experience -- picking the channels or shows you like -- but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'd be really happy if Hulu Plus offered all current network TV (a lot of CBS programming is currently MIA) and if I could somehow pay for streaming access to all NFL and NCAA football games.
We cut the cable years ago. Installed an antenna in the attic that gives us network TV and PBS.
We've got a huge video library on a 2TB Iomega Store Center RAID network drive. The Iomega has built in DLNA server software as do our BluRay players on our two TVs. I run the upstairs TV over WiFi but have a network cable for the TV in the family room so we can get reliable bandwidth for HD programming. One of these days I'll run a second wired connection upstairs but it's an ordeal getting the cable through the walls, etc.
I opted not to get Apple TV because I get a lot of content in .MKV files that won't play on Apple TV. The BluRay players handle them beautifully and I don't have to run them through Handbrake to change formats.
My wife watches a lot of Netfix content - particularly foreign TV series, such as BBC and some Swedish dramas - so it's worth $8 per month to keep that going.
I have to settle for network sports but Baltimore Ravens games are on network and I don't follow any particular college teams so on Saturday afternoons will tune into whatever college ball is on. We also watch golf during the PGA season and there are always significant tournaments on network. We only lose if a tournament doesn't finish on Sunday since they move any delayed tournaments to the Golf channel on Mondays.
I have to say I absolutely do not miss cable. We read more and get our news from The Wall Street Journal rather than TV news. It's much more thorough and far less biased. Neither of us follow any TV series shows and would much rather watch a movie. We're probably saving a few dollars a month in electricity since the set is off most of the time, except for a couple hours in the evening.
I also have more time to play with my iMac.
We've got a huge video library on a 2TB Iomega Store Center RAID network drive. The Iomega has built in DLNA server software as do our BluRay players on our two TVs. I run the upstairs TV over WiFi but have a network cable for the TV in the family room so we can get reliable bandwidth for HD programming. One of these days I'll run a second wired connection upstairs but it's an ordeal getting the cable through the walls, etc.
I opted not to get Apple TV because I get a lot of content in .MKV files that won't play on Apple TV. The BluRay players handle them beautifully and I don't have to run them through Handbrake to change formats.
My wife watches a lot of Netfix content - particularly foreign TV series, such as BBC and some Swedish dramas - so it's worth $8 per month to keep that going.
I have to settle for network sports but Baltimore Ravens games are on network and I don't follow any particular college teams so on Saturday afternoons will tune into whatever college ball is on. We also watch golf during the PGA season and there are always significant tournaments on network. We only lose if a tournament doesn't finish on Sunday since they move any delayed tournaments to the Golf channel on Mondays.
I have to say I absolutely do not miss cable. We read more and get our news from The Wall Street Journal rather than TV news. It's much more thorough and far less biased. Neither of us follow any TV series shows and would much rather watch a movie. We're probably saving a few dollars a month in electricity since the set is off most of the time, except for a couple hours in the evening.
I also have more time to play with my iMac.