I'm trying to figure out the best way to import a TV signal into my Mac. I'm in the United States, and am using a desktop Mac G5, dual CPU, 2 Gigs memory, with Panther (10.3.9 - I'd rather not update this machine). What I want is to be able to receive the TV signal from my cable (coax) so that I can watch live TV, as well as record shows in a timed fashion. I'd like as good image quality as possible, and would prefer to write the content onto an external drive (firewire).
I've examined a bunch of options. First I got Elgato's Hybrid based on the positive reviews. Not only does this thing require Tiger (10.4) but after about 10 minutes of use the video stream started to have huge stuttering - it's not smooth at all. Can this be fixed? If not, is there a better product that does the encoding in hardware? I'm assuming this would have better performance. I'd love a firewire or a PCI card solution (since the USB2 bus can be plagued by problems caused by slow USB devices) but I'll take USB2 if that's the only option. I can't seem to find a currently-available internal card... What device do people like for this? Is recording to an external drive fast enough for the video stream?
Then someone suggested a Slingbox instead, which sounds like a fine idea except for 2 things: 1) does the Slingbox client work well on Panther? 2) is there any software that can use the Slingbox feed to time-shift as well (record)?
If someone knows the various options, please help. I'm drowning in a sea of products that seem to do what I want but are associated with all sorts of discussion about problems etc., and compatibility and performance issues.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
I've examined a bunch of options. First I got Elgato's Hybrid based on the positive reviews. Not only does this thing require Tiger (10.4) but after about 10 minutes of use the video stream started to have huge stuttering - it's not smooth at all. Can this be fixed? If not, is there a better product that does the encoding in hardware? I'm assuming this would have better performance. I'd love a firewire or a PCI card solution (since the USB2 bus can be plagued by problems caused by slow USB devices) but I'll take USB2 if that's the only option. I can't seem to find a currently-available internal card... What device do people like for this? Is recording to an external drive fast enough for the video stream?
Then someone suggested a Slingbox instead, which sounds like a fine idea except for 2 things: 1) does the Slingbox client work well on Panther? 2) is there any software that can use the Slingbox feed to time-shift as well (record)?
If someone knows the various options, please help. I'm drowning in a sea of products that seem to do what I want but are associated with all sorts of discussion about problems etc., and compatibility and performance issues.
Thanks in advance,
Mike