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nortmansdad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
21
0
I have read a lot of posts about different TV tuners. What I am looking for is an external tuner that I can plug my cable box into and be able to record all HD channels (including HBO HD, Cinemax HD, etc.) Which tuner will be good for this? A lot of posts are saying that those channels are "encrypted" but I believe if I use the cable box instead of over-the-air that I can record any of the channels that I receive. Can someone please advise me on this? Thanks :D
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
.... What I am looking for is an external tuner that I can plug my cable box into and be able to record all HD channels (including HBO HD, Cinemax HD, etc.) ...
What you are looking for is not an HDTV tuner. You intend to use your cable box as the tuner. You are looking for an HDTV recorder. By law, all HDTV cable boxes are supposed to have FireWire ports. This should allow you to connect your box to your Mac or to any other FireWire-compatible device.

Quite frankly, I think that you would be much better served by replacing your cable box with an HDTV-compatible DVR. The DVR has a FireWire port.
 

pianos101

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2006
189
0
Philly Area
Yes, the OP is definitely looking for a simple video "recorder" and not a full-fledged tuner. However, plugging a cable box into a mac via firewire i THINK does take into account the encryption (there might be ways around this...) and therefore he will probably only be able to record non-flagged programs (or flagged, whichever is "non-encrypted" broadcast).
 

nortmansdad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
21
0
thank you for your help. actually you are right, i do not need a tuner...i just want to bypass the encryption and i believe the firewire will not do that. basically i think i still need the "tuner" plugged into the cable box to bypass the encryption. what should i buy? also, is there any free software that can actually record the video?
 

nortmansdad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
21
0
thank you for your help. actually you are right, i do not need a tuner...i just want to bypass the encryption and i believe the firewire will not do that. basically i think i still need the "tuner" plugged into the cable box to bypass the encryption. what should i buy? also, is there any free software that can actually record the video? :confused:
 
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