You can *record* digital content with about a 500Mhz G4 (although the new tuners all seem to be USB2 so you'd need to find a used or reconditioned EyeTV 500 - which has a FireWire interface - to do this on a really old Mac like, say, my disused Cube), but in order to *play* HD content without frame drops you need either a Dual G5 or a Core Duo machine. but on the other hand, you need the disk space for the compacted file to be written out before the original is deleted.
#ELGATO EYETV 500 HDTV SOFTWARE#
The good news out of that is that EyeTV software makes it pretty easy to cut out commercials and "compact" the file, an operation that is throttled more by disk speed than CPU.
#ELGATO EYETV 500 HDTV TV#
If you want to record live TV you need a very large hard drive. The downside is that for HD broadcasts in ATSC format, the data rate reaches about 18Mbps, or roughly 6 GB per hour.
If, for some reason, your cable provider has "clear QAM" channels (digital channels that aren't encrypted) then you can tune them with any capable device, such as a newer and reasonably high-end TV or one of these USB2 tuners. Digital cable doesn't have to be encrypted, and you only need a Cablecard (or dedicated digital cable receiver) if it is. I thought for digital cable you had to have an IR blaster or a cablecard to change channels on the cable signal? I may buy an EyeTV Hybrid when they come out, 'cause EyeTV software supports multiple devices and a second tuner might come in handy. If you get clear QAM though, you can get rid of the receiver and just plug the cable straight into the TVMini HD.
If you only have access to encrypted digital cable, you'll need to keep using your cable company's receiver, as there aren't (yet) any CableCard-enabled receivers for the Mac. The new EyeTV Hybrid only does ATSC/NTSC (over-the-air) and not QAM (digital cable), but other widgets can do clear QAM (like the Miglia TVMini HD I just bought - I only want ATSC, but the EyeTV Hybrid isn't shipping yet). Online scheduling is pretty cool too, although I don't know how well it would work in Canada (US scheduling works with ).Īs for the hardware, just make sure you get the right widget for the type of connection you want. The full-screen interface works just as well as TiVo, and I say that as a long-time TiVo bigot. Overall, I rate Elgato's hardware and software combo very highly, and have be recommending it to my friends and co-workers. I just save out the mpeg2 file and convert it to h.264 using ffmpeg. I'm pretty picky, and it's so slight it doesn't annoy me.ĮyeTV is nice because it offers simple editing tools and very easy ways to save or export recordings, though I think its encoders leave something to be desired '” though perhaps I'm not configuring them right.
Only time I notice anything is when the EyeTV starts recording in the background while I'm listening to iTunes then sometimes the music just barely skips. And my old G4 notebook has no trouble handling the HD streams either. Very nice.īecause EyeTV just records the raw mpeg2 stream received by the DTT stick, quality is very good. And when the delivery man turned up, and my friend rang, I just paused the live telly show and went back when I was ready. I've never been one to watch much telly, but all of a sudden, I'm recording the nightly Simpsons re-runs, so no matter when I get home, I can veg out with Homer for half an hour, and skip through commercials. I just bought the DTT stick, a tiny USB digital free-to-air tuner, and combined with EyeTV, it's OMFG fantastic.