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No need for an EyeTV

bursty

bursty

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 31, 2004
1,002
5
I used to be in the market for an EyeTV for my PB. I loved the idea of recording tv to my PB to watch at a later time or whatever. Well the other day I was browsing around a Mac Home Theater website looking for details on how to hook my MacMini up to my big screen when I came upon something interesting.

I found out that my HiDef cable box from my cable company actually had 2 firewire ports built into the unit. Its the Motorola 6200. Upon further search, I found out that this is an EXTREMELY easy way to record tv straight to your Mac, using just a few free scripts.

Heres the link for anyone that is curious to try it. So far it works amazingly well. You can even use iCal to set it to automatically record at a later time.

http://mac_hdtv_timer.home.comcast.net/


Sorry if this is a huge repost and you all already knew about this, but I searched and couldnt find anything on here, so I figured I would share it. :D
 
Heres a screenshot from the TopGear I recorded tonight on Discovery. :D

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Looks like I need a new cable box! Excellent find - I'd seen something like this a while ago, but not so well explained as in your link. Thanks!
 
jsw said:
Looks like I need a new cable box! Excellent find - I'd seen something like this a while ago, but not so well explained as in your link. Thanks!
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Theres also scripts for a few other cable boxes, not just the Motorola. I just happen to realize we already had the Motorola.
 
I spend hours and hours trying to get this to work a few months ago and finally I decided screw it. The little bit I did record wasn't nearly as good as the recordings from my EyeTV. Also the software for an EyeTV is much better than the freeware you can download. I'm just saying I wouldn't write off the EyeTV just yet. Just my opinion. I guess you can't really beat the price of recording through the cable box - nearly free.
 
macbaseball said:
I spend hours and hours trying to get this to work a few months ago and finally I decided screw it. The little bit I did record wasn't nearly as good as the recordings from my EyeTV. Also the software for an EyeTV is much better than the freeware you can download. I'm just saying I wouldn't write off the EyeTV just yet. Just my opinion. I guess you can't really beat the price of recording through the cable box - nearly free.
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Thats weird. What kind of problems did you have? I basically just tried it out of curiousity and it worked flawlessly the first time. I havent tried to edit out any commercials or anything yet, but still, for a free recorder I'm really impressed so far.
 
Well it just wouldn't record. I got it to work once with crappy quality and I never saw another picture on my screen. I used the exact same site as you. Maybe I can't read or soemthing because it just flat out didn't work. I tried for two hours one day. An hour the next and just said forget it. It's great that it works for you, but I was just trying to state that it doesn't work perfectly for everyone.
 
Yeah that sucks that it didnt work for you. The only problems I'm having so far is playing back HD TV, but thats the PB's problem. The HD video is just too intensive for my poor PB to handle. Oh well, gimme a PowerMacIntel and I'll be good to go.
 
I used to have a Scientific Atlanta SA3250HD with a firewire port. I played around with AV/C, Virtual DVHS and VLC and was able to record and play back HDTV :D Since then I've upgraded to the SA8000HD which has a firewire port - but I don't think it's enabled...
 

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Cooknn said:
I used to have a Scientific Atlanta SA3250HD with a firewire port. I played around with AV/C, Virtual DVHS and VLC and was able to record and play back HDTV :D Since then I've upgraded to the SA8000HD which has a firewire port - but I don't think it's enabled...
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Damn, I'm jealous. Hopefully when I get the MacMini setup and recording, it will be able to play HD, but I seriously doubt it. :eek:
 
Cooknn said:
I used to have a Scientific Atlanta SA3250HD with a firewire port. I played around with AV/C, Virtual DVHS and VLC and was able to record and play back HDTV :D Since then I've upgraded to the SA8000HD which has a firewire port - but I don't think it's enabled...
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I think that you can just call the cable company and say "Turn on my FireWire port!" and they are required to do so. Of course, that's based completely on hearsay...
Anyways, I wonder if my parents would mind a hole in the wall my bedroom shares with the TV room. Or perhaps running a FW cable from their room to mine. But then, that would require a cable box with FW, and I know ours don't have them. Maybe Cox would let us rent an HD-capable box without subscribing to HD content...





Also: Go Sox :p
 
Counterfit said:
I think that you can just call the cable company and say "Turn on my FireWire port!" and they are required to do so. Of course, that's based completely on hearsay...
Anyways, I wonder if my parents would mind a hole in the wall my bedroom shares with the TV room. Or perhaps running a FW cable from their room to mine. But then, that would require a cable box with FW, and I know ours don't have them. Maybe Cox would let us rent an HD-capable box without subscribing to HD content...





Also: Go Sox :p
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Yeah that website said that if your FW ports arent activated you can have the cable company load the latest firmware onto the box and activate them.
 
bursty said:
Yeah that website said that if your FW ports arent activated you can have the cable company load the latest firmware onto the box and activate them.
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The only issue you might run into with recording HDTV is that a lot of cable companies are using a broadcast flag to encrypt Hi-Def channels so that hackers like us can't record their precious shows on our Mac's. Initially when I was recording with the SA3250HD I could get all the HD channels except for HBO, Showtime and Cinemax. I was able to record Starz though, and ESPNHD, INHD, etc. Then slowly all those channels started getting encrypted and I lost interest in the entire process - which is why I didn't even call to see if they would turn on the firewire port on my SA8000HD.

I long for the day when I can browse an iTunes like store for movies and other television content in Hi-Def :cool:
 
Cooknn said:
The only issue you might run into with recording HDTV is that a lot of cable companies are using a broadcast flag to encrypt Hi-Def channels so that hackers like us can't record their precious shows on our Mac's. Initially when I was recording with the SA3250HD I could get all the HD channels except for HBO, Showtime and Cinemax. I was able to record Starz though, and ESPNHD, INHD, etc. Then slowly all those channels started getting encrypted and I lost interest in the entire process - which is why I didn't even call to see if they would turn on the firewire port on my SA8000HD.

I long for the day when I can browse an iTunes like store for movies and other television content in Hi-Def :cool:
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Wow thats interesting. I havent run into any sort of encryption yet. So far I've recorded HD ESPN, HBO, and HDNET, all perfectly. As well as the normal digital channels like regular HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc.

I think an iTunes movie store would be sooo kickass. Only problem would be downloading all that video might take a while. A 5mb song downloads a lot easier then a 5gb HD movie. Oh well, maybe someday.
 
so youre pbook records HDef fine? what are the specs on it.....hopefully my cable box has firewire on it
 
derajfast said:
so youre pbook records HDef fine? what are the specs on it.....hopefully my cable box has firewire on it
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PB specs are in sig basically. 1.25ghz, 1.25gb RAM, 80 HD, Superdrive, yada yada.

It records it just fine, but it does stutter a bit when playing that HD back. But it would work beautifully if you want to record HD, burn to a dvd, then play back on something else, maybe a PowerMac G5 or something. The HD playback is just a bit much for the PB's video card to handle.
 
derajfast said:
i have a usb port on my box.....would this work too?
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I dont know. Mine has a usb port but I didnt try it. Give it a shot, maybe it will.
 
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