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al3000

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 16, 2005
275
1
England
I moved to uni about a week ago, and took a tv with me. The TV's been cramping the desk space, and as I only want to watch tv very occassionally I thought watching it through my powerbook would be a better idea.

I know a few people who do this with windows pcs, and they can record as well. Is there anything like this for mac? I remember looking about a year ago for something similar but not sure what's available now. I am not really bothered about an aerial as I will be plugging it straight into the aerial socket in the wall.

Thanks for any advice! :)
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
I think this would do the trick. No composite input for recording off A/V inputs besides cable/antenna, but should work for you - just note that recording will tax your PB excessively if you use the higher quality recording.

I have an elgato Hybrid which works well on me Intel Macs but is a bit taxing on my 12" PB.

There are also hardware encoding ones (i.e., the speed of your Mac doesn't matter as the device encodes the video for you) but those cost a bit more.
 

IscariotJ

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2004
637
66
UK
The EyeTV Hyrid works wonderfully, recording programs is a doddle. Well worth getting. Apparently, you can run a console through it, too, but I haven't tried that. There is an eyetv thread somewhere, though, I'm sure someone was going to test it.
 

al3000

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 16, 2005
275
1
England
Do you think my PB could handle the eyetv hybrid ok? Its the 15" model with 1GB ram.
 

Scarlet Fever

macrumors 68040
Jul 22, 2005
3,262
0
Bookshop!
sounds like you will be fine.
Streetwise specs on eyeTV Hybrid said:
Macintosh with a PowerPC® G4 processor (500 MHz or faster), G5 or Intel processor
256 MB of physical RAM (512 MB recommended)
USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X v10.4 (or later)
A 1GHz G4 processor or higher is recommended for viewing and recording High Definition broadcasts.
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
al3000 said:
Do you think my PB could handle the eyetv hybrid ok? Its the 15" model with 1GB ram.
I've got a 1.5 GHZ 12" PB with 1.25GB RAM, and it works fine with SD video (the HD stuff doesn't seem to work so well), but I can't record at the highest quality with all the top settings.

So, yes, it works. :)

I'd still recommend the 250 for a G4 system, though, because it doesn't tax your system at all. It doesn't record HD, but HD is very dicey on the G4s anyway.
 

IscariotJ

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2004
637
66
UK
al3000 said:
Do you think my PB could handle the eyetv hybrid ok? Its the 15" model with 1GB ram.

I'm running the Hybrid on a 1.33 iBook, and find it runs OK. The EPG lags a little, but I've had no issues with watching programs in full screen.
 

ftrtrk

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2006
26
0
Here's another question about Eyetv,

I have an early generation EyeTV, I think like 250, but it's a box, that coverts and then sends as usb to the computer. Should I upgrade, is the picture enhanced? Is it worth the $150?

Thanks
 
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