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Are there any Mac specific HD DVRs with HDMI?
- Thread starter BogeyJoe
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elgato eyeTV HD. It is not an oversight that the elgato EyeTV HD DVR does not support HDMI. This would give every personal computer the ability to digitally record digital feeds of digital TV at full resolution. If this were to happen, then every Hollywood studio and most major producers would give birth not to kittens, but to fully grown Siberian tigers.
In case you did not get the point--the elgato eyeTV HD is the best DVR Mac peripheral available. The best device available does not have what you want. It is a fairly safe bet that no device that connects TV content to your Mac or other personal computer will have HDMI for the foreseeable future.
Companies like Blackmagic Design make some pro capture devices with HDMI, but they won't do what you want them to, and that is recording encrypted (HDCP) material over HDMI. Their HDMI feature is more for connecting connecting cameras than anything else.
Here's the problem:
HDMI was primarily shoved down everyone's throats because media distributors wanted a way to digitally copy protect their content. It actually had NOTHING to do with better quality, initially. In fact, analog component video has more than enough bandwidth to support a 1080p/24 signal. In general, I think HDMI is very annoying to deal with. The connectors are too small relative to the bulk of the actual cabling and therefore the cables fall out of their ports too easily. Not to mention, early HDMI devices were plagued with compatibility issues (although these problems rarely exist on newer devices). The industry standard HDMI "A" connector is easily one of the most poorly thought out standards in the history of consumer video... all in the name of keeping Hollywood happy.
Also, given the relatively sensitive nature of TDMS signaling (which requires very well constructed cables for longer lengths), HDMI has bred yet another snake oil industry for the exotic cable peddlers like Monster, who want to sell you a $100 HDMI cable to connect your $200 Blu-ray player to your $1000 TV.
Anyway...
Devices like cable/sat set top boxes and Blu-ray players won't output a signal over HDMI unless an HDCP handshake takes place, which requires both devices to support HDCP. It is illegal for a manufacturer to produce a recording device with HDCP for obvious reasons. It would defeat the purpose of HDCP.
Here's the problem:
HDMI was primarily shoved down everyone's throats because media distributors wanted a way to digitally copy protect their content. It actually had NOTHING to do with better quality, initially. In fact, analog component video has more than enough bandwidth to support a 1080p/24 signal. In general, I think HDMI is very annoying to deal with. The connectors are too small relative to the bulk of the actual cabling and therefore the cables fall out of their ports too easily. Not to mention, early HDMI devices were plagued with compatibility issues (although these problems rarely exist on newer devices). The industry standard HDMI "A" connector is easily one of the most poorly thought out standards in the history of consumer video... all in the name of keeping Hollywood happy.
Also, given the relatively sensitive nature of TDMS signaling (which requires very well constructed cables for longer lengths), HDMI has bred yet another snake oil industry for the exotic cable peddlers like Monster, who want to sell you a $100 HDMI cable to connect your $200 Blu-ray player to your $1000 TV.
Anyway...
Devices like cable/sat set top boxes and Blu-ray players won't output a signal over HDMI unless an HDCP handshake takes place, which requires both devices to support HDCP. It is illegal for a manufacturer to produce a recording device with HDCP for obvious reasons. It would defeat the purpose of HDCP.
Last edited:
Not sure what you want as an end result, but...
I'm not sure this will help, but you can copy HD television programming from a High Def TiVo over a network. This will not work with copy protected programming like on-demand movies, but it will with "regular" TV from the major networks such as ABC or CBS.
That said, it's probably more effort than most people would want to go through. Once a program is recorded on the TiVo, it must first be copied over a network to your Mac. That would probably be an mp4 file and possibly 5 or 6 GB for an hour show. You'd then need to render it to some sort of AIC for editing in FCP. The intermediate codec file could be 20, 30, or more GB, depending on your desired conversion settings.
Note of caution: I have no idea about the legality of this scheme. However, it can be done.
I'm not sure this will help, but you can copy HD television programming from a High Def TiVo over a network. This will not work with copy protected programming like on-demand movies, but it will with "regular" TV from the major networks such as ABC or CBS.
That said, it's probably more effort than most people would want to go through. Once a program is recorded on the TiVo, it must first be copied over a network to your Mac. That would probably be an mp4 file and possibly 5 or 6 GB for an hour show. You'd then need to render it to some sort of AIC for editing in FCP. The intermediate codec file could be 20, 30, or more GB, depending on your desired conversion settings.
Note of caution: I have no idea about the legality of this scheme. However, it can be done.