Watching and Recording TV on My Mac.
October 9, 2005 5:28 PM Subscribe
I'd like to be able to watch tv and record it on my G4 iBook. I know that there are a plethora of ways to do this on the PC side, with a special card or whatnot. Is there a (cheap!) way to do this with my mac? It has to be external, obviously, since I'm going to be using it with the iBook.
I looked into this and it seemed that EyeTV was all that I found. It is pretty expensive.
I'd say the best option is to buy a extremely cheap pc, through a pvr-150 in it and then stream the recorded tv to your i-book. Because the pvr-150 uses hardware recording, the pc doesn't need to have a good processor at all. I used it in a pentium 2 400 mhz and it worked beautifully.
posted by meta87 at 7:12 PM on October 9, 2005
I'd say the best option is to buy a extremely cheap pc, through a pvr-150 in it and then stream the recorded tv to your i-book. Because the pvr-150 uses hardware recording, the pc doesn't need to have a good processor at all. I used it in a pentium 2 400 mhz and it worked beautifully.
posted by meta87 at 7:12 PM on October 9, 2005
If you don't want to involve a Wintel box, then check this tutorial out. If you don't mind using a Wintel box, then this one might be good too.
Keep us posted, I'd like to know how you get this working and how you like it if you do.
posted by pwb503 at 7:15 PM on October 9, 2005
Keep us posted, I'd like to know how you get this working and how you like it if you do.
posted by pwb503 at 7:15 PM on October 9, 2005
Hauppauge seems to provide external USB tv tuners that are (claim to be) Mac compatible.
posted by misterbrandt at 7:38 PM on October 9, 2005 [1 favorite]
posted by misterbrandt at 7:38 PM on October 9, 2005 [1 favorite]
If you want cheap, you could borrow a camcorder, hook your home entertainment system up to its inputs and run its output into the firewire port on your iBook.
You can then import video on the fly with iMovie and do what you like with it from there.
It's certainly not NEARLY the best solution for watching shows and flipping channels and whatnot, but if there's a program that you want to digitize, it will get the job done.
posted by bcwinters at 9:01 PM on October 9, 2005
You can then import video on the fly with iMovie and do what you like with it from there.
It's certainly not NEARLY the best solution for watching shows and flipping channels and whatnot, but if there's a program that you want to digitize, it will get the job done.
posted by bcwinters at 9:01 PM on October 9, 2005
If you're a Comcast Digital subscriber, you can pull it straight off your DVR.
You could also hack a Tivo and run Tivo Tool.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:14 PM on October 9, 2005
You could also hack a Tivo and run Tivo Tool.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:14 PM on October 9, 2005
eyeTV is pretty much the way to go for a Mac. If you're feeling adventurous, O'Reilly has a more DIY approach.
posted by mkultra at 10:28 PM on October 9, 2005 [1 favorite]
posted by mkultra at 10:28 PM on October 9, 2005 [1 favorite]
Another option is this plextor item. Elgato's ITV USB is a little cheaper, but near as I can tell, none of the self-contained options are "cheap."
posted by adamrice at 7:07 AM on October 10, 2005
posted by adamrice at 7:07 AM on October 10, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by qwip at 5:33 PM on October 9, 2005