iMac as TV (Television)/hooked up to satellite, Is this possible?

[::Lisa::]

Hi all,

I have satellite TV.. Sky. We are upgrading our package and having Multiroom now which means we will have a box downstairs for our regular satellite and box upstairs which will be able to change channels etc.

Now, I plan on buying an iMac for my bedroom. But I have a decision of buying a LCD TV or using the iMac as a TV as well as a computer. Now it would save me money (as I'm definitely getting an iMac) and I would certainly be happy if it was possible to use the iMac as a TV and hook up the satellite to the TV. Is this possible? If so, please could you direct me to anything I would need to do this?

I was looking into Apple TV, but it just seems to be a Wifi gadget that allows me to watch iTunes movies/music etc on a TV. What I want is clearly different.

Thank you for reading and taking the time to answer.
-Lisa

 

[imac/cheese]

I would recommend you check out elgato.com

 

[itsaka]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

The only downside to running any kind of tv channels is having to do it through a USB dongle type of third party addon since the iMac does not have a video-in port.

 

[Sir Tony]

I use a Slingbox Solo to watch TV on my iMac. It works great and I can watch TV from my phone, laptop, at my work computer, and have complete control of my DVR box anywhere!

http://www.slingmedia.com/go/slingbox-solo

 

[::Lisa::]

I would recommend you check out elgato.com

Awesome! Thanks ever so much for responding.

I just went to "which product is best for me" and checked satellite and Firewire and it game me this product.

Have you bought these products before? Just asking as I don't want to buy it and it be the wrong one. If it is the wrong one, would they accept a return? I could call them I suppose, see what they say.

 

[Applespider]

I had a quick look into this at one point and seem to recall something that suggested that although there's a clever EyeTV thing that works with satellite boxes, for some reason it doesn't work with Sky's encryption. Will be very interested if there is a way to do it since I'd quite like to get rid of the old CRT myself

Found this on the Elgato site

Does EyeTV 310 support Sky PayTV service?

No. Sky is a proprietary system that only supports its own encryption system and set-top box. If you would like to watch Sky with EyeTV, you can connect EyeTV 250/EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0/EyeTV EZ/EyeTV USB to your Sky set-top box. Channels on your Sky set-top box cannot be changed automatically using EyeTV, therefore you must ensure that the cable/satellite box is tuned to the channel you wish to record.

 

[aristobrat]

Now, I plan on buying an iMac for my bedroom. But I have a decision of buying a LCD TV or using the iMac as a TV as well as a computer. Now it would save me money (as I'm definitely getting an iMac) and I would certainly be happy if it was possible to use the iMac as a TV and hook up the satellite to the TV. Is this possible? If so, please could you direct me to anything I would need to do this?

Kinda? Below would work in the US. Not sure if there's something wonky about how things work in the UK that would mess it up.

RF-out from the satellite box to RF-in on an Elgato product.

On your iMac, you'd have the Elgato software always tuned to Channel 3 or Channel 4 (or whatever channel it is that your satellite box uses for RF-out).

You'd use the satellite remote to change the channels. You'd have to use the Elgato remote to change the volume.

You wouldn't easily be able to use the cool "recorder" feature of the Elgato to automatically record shows as the Elgato has no way of changing the channel on your satellite box. But if you just wanted to watch TV, that'd work. (Or at least it does in my room).

 

[::Lisa::]

I had a quick look into this at one point and seem to recall something that suggested that although there's a clever EyeTV thing that works with satellite boxes, for some reason it doesn't work with Sky's encryption. Will be very interested if there is a way to do it since I'd quite like to get rid of the old CRT myself

Found this on the Elgato site

Does EyeTV 310 support Sky PayTV service?

No. Sky is a proprietary system that only supports its own encryption system and set-top box. If you would like to watch Sky with EyeTV, you can connect EyeTV 250/EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0/EyeTV EZ/EyeTV USB to your Sky set-top box. Channels on your Sky set-top box cannot be changed automatically using EyeTV, therefore you must ensure that the cable/satellite box is tuned to the channel you wish to record.

Thanks for posting that. That's a bit of a bummer eh!? Onwards with the look. I have plenty of time. I just wanted to see if it was possible and it is, well kinda with the Sky thing. Thanks for posting.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

The only downside to running any kind of tv channels is having to do it through a USB dongle type of third party addon since the iMac does not have a video-in port.

Ah yes. I searched Firewire on that site and came up with the product I linked to in my last post which was looking good until the poster above stated that it doesn't work with UK Sky TV.. ugh! I did prefer a Firewire as it wouldn't look as unsightly as a USB but I don't suppose it really matters if its only for a few hours or so each day. Hmm. Thanks for posting.

I use a Slingbox Solo to watch TV on my iMac. It works great and I can watch TV from my phone, laptop, at my work computer, and have complete control of my DVR box anywhere!

http://www.slingmedia.com/go/slingbox-solo

Thanks ever so much. I will have to look into that one. I haven't looked yet but I assume it allows satellite to be tuned in?

Kinda? Below would work in the US. Not sure if there's something wonky about how things work in the UK that would mess it up.

RF-out from the satellite box to RF-in on an Elgato product.

On your iMac, you'd have the Elgato software always tuned to Channel 3 or Channel 4 (or whatever channel it is that your satellite box uses for RF-out).

You'd use the satellite remote to change the channels. You'd have to use the Elgato remote to change the volume.

You wouldn't easily be able to use the cool "recorder" feature of the Elgato to automatically record shows as the Elgato has no way of changing the channel on your satellite box. But if you just wanted to watch TV, that'd work. (Or at least it does in my room).

Thanks for posting. Yes I don't mind using 2 remotes and the Sky remote to control actual sky channels and on/off on the actual box and the other remote for iMac TV channel (to tune in) and volume etc. I'm not really bothered about recording stuff, just viewing pleasure kwim? Just for the simple of viewing TV on the iMac rather than having 2 screens in the same room (if that makes sense?) Thanks for posting.

 

[whonut]

hi, i am wondering about practically the EXACT same thing, so i just wanted to clarify, u can watch and navigate sky with the EyeTV thingy, but u just can't use some EyeTV features, am i right?

 

[ruk110]

i use the elgato hybrid one and have been for years now. it works really well! is there any way to watch HD freeview on the mac?

 

[nzmac]

I use a Slingbox Solo to watch TV on my iMac.

 

[00lakes]

HDMI input for iMac..?

Hi, I've been researching the same issue for my friend and stumbled across this..

http://www.kanexlive.com/products/cseries

It looks as though the Kanex XD gives your iMac an HDMI input for use with PS3 XBOX etc.. so I assume it will work with any HDMI input including SkyHD.

One problem, it seems to only work with 27inch iMacs.. Also, the price.

They have products for older iMacs too. I cannot vouch for these products yet, if he buys one I'll post the results for sure. Thanks