TV for Mac breakdown? Elgato Miglia 410 10-4 28.WHAT?!?!

[arcsbite]

Hey.
I was wondering if anyone uses one of these TV for Mac set ups? from elgato or any company and could break it down for me?
I went to the apple store online and they have 3, one is Miglia and 2 are Elgato...the price ranges differ drastically and they all "seem" to do the same thing, only one in a set top box, one in a usb stick..

...it's Re-heaalllyy confusing me.

I am using an iMac and will be using a macbook/pro in the coming few months.
I'm moving house and canceling sky (as I rarely watch it)
but would like to be able to watch and record through my Mac.

I'm currently on dial up (due to the move) and searching ever site that makes them is getting difficult..

so...what are they? what do they do? why does one cost £70 and one costs £200?
which do you have?
which do you recommend/hate?

thank you

 

[pjarvi]

I haven't tried recording or pausing live tv, but I have an Elgato EyeTV EZ. I've used it with a Mac Mini G4 1.2Ghz/1GB ram, and Macbook 2.0Ghz/2GB ram.

On the Mini, watching TV will eat up anywhere from 30-100% of the CPU depending on the quality level chosen, and would not be suitable for doing any recording. Playback glitches occasionaly when the CPU gets above 90% usage.

On the Macbook, I don't have a CPU monitor installed yet so I don't know how much of a load playback is, but it's been flawless and silky smooth even with Safari open. I still haven't tried recording though, there's just nothing good on. Getting the USB cable plugged into the MB was a pain. It was a really tight connection.

Sorry I can't be of more help about recording.

One thing though, the EyeTV EZ came with a Terratec remote control that absolutely sucks. It only works for me if I hold it a foot or less from the IR receiver.

 

[Addo]

I've got the Miglia TV Mini which I think is pretty good but it's only good for the Freeview channels - I'm tempted to get the Miglia TV Micro as well - that will take care of any analog channels i.e. if your stuck in a hotel and fancy watching 'Tug TV' for nothing then the Micro should work as most hotel TV systems will be analog. (plugging in external receiver into the hotel's aerial socket tends to bypass most hotel pay per view systems )

I think the main difference between the USB type receivers and the set top receivers is that the set top variety will decode all the signals whereas the USB variety won't - it passes that over to your Mac to do which I'm guessing why the processor load goes up.

Also I read on the EyeTV 2.3 update readme, that they now support a few extra USB receivers - I think I saw a Hauppage one which is a analog/digital all in one can't remember the model number but I believe it's made more for the PC market and as such I think I saw it selling for around £40-50 somewhere...