EYETV for the Macbook

[lidomkj]

I am trying to decide between these 3 tv tuners for my aluminum Macbook. I want to be able to record TV shows to export to my iPhone and make DVDs of different shows for the kids. I am tired of having my kids tie up my 52 inch HDTV since that is the only one that has the DVR attached and Comcast does not have the multiple room DVR. I can then watch my shows on my notebook/iPhone or send the kids to their rooms with a DVD. A side benefit is I can transfer all the VHS tapes we have stored away to DVD.

I am mainly interested in which one will provide the best quality hooked up to cable and the over the air digital HD channels.

I did not search, so there may be other options that would work better, so please let me know if there are other products you have used that I missed.

Also, does anyone know if there is an easy way to "hack" the Comcast DVR to allow the usb ports to export video from the hard drive to my laptop? That would keep me from having to buy these.

http://store.apple.com/us-k12/product/TR373LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDExOA&mco=MjQzMzY2Mg

http://store.apple.com/us-k12/product/TU132LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDExOA&mco=MjczNDY3NQ

http://store.apple.com/us-k12/product/TR374LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDExOA&mco=MjQzMzY1NA

 

[HLdan]

The Elgato EyeTV is the best and very affordable solution. I use my 24" iMac as my livingroom TV/multimedia center and I have EyeTV connected to it. It decodes 1080p HDTV perfectly through direct cable or a converter box. Elgato teamed up with TitanTV that provides the DVR functionality that allows you to program shows for no monthly charge or contract. Elgato has been making TV tuners longer than any other company and they specifically make for Mac only.

http://www.eyetv.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/home.en.html

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

+ 1 for the Elgato.

 

[lidomkj]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

Should I get the one with hardware encoder or the cheaper version that relies on the CPU?

 

[lidomkj]

bought the low end model at the Apple store. I will let everyone know how it works out. I ended up paying $119 after they matched the manufacturer website since it was on sale right now. I did not want to have to pay shipping and if I have a problem with it, I can just take it right back to the Apple store.

 

[lidomkj]

The eye tv is fantastic!!! Picture quality is amazing and if I connect to the output from the cable box, I can record anything, including the DVR recordings, HD, On Demand and premium channels. It works great with over the air signals and connecting directly to cable without using the cable box using the eyetv built in tuner. I just can not get as many channels using these methods.

No more buying movies/TV shows from iTunes or paying extra for the digital copy DVDs!!!! Many times I just pay for it to avoid having to go through the hassle of using Handbrake. Now I can just watch the movie and record it at the same time.

I had something similar for my PC and it would stutter all the time even though it is a high end HP with dedicated graphics card.

The cool thing is I can stream recordings right to my iPhone over the network or automatically export right to iTunes and sync to my iPhone/video ipods.

One question, when it is exporting, the CPU spikes to almost 100 usage. Do you think upgrading to the built in H264 encoder or buying the H264 usb accessory would be worth it and reduce the CPU usage?

 

[hhlee]

+1 for elgato

 

[Primejimbo]

Also, does anyone know if there is an easy way to "hack" the Comcast DVR to allow the usb ports to export video from the hard drive to my laptop? That would keep me from having to buy these.

No, the USB are inactive and if you try anything you could end up paying for it and paying fines