Anyone know of a good (but inexpensive) way to watch TV on an iMac? HDTV/Digital wouldn't be neccesary, but it would be a plus.
Welcome to Ai,
Ummm, elgato is probably the most well known, there are some other card based systems that I can't remember the name of... do a Google and you will find some more.
Anyone know of a good (but inexpensive) way to watch TV on an iMac? HDTV/Digital wouldn't be neccesary, but it would be a plus.
This one from Elgato is the cheapest I have seen. It is $169. Anyone have any experience with it? I am also looking for somthing cheaper but I do not want to buy it if it really sucks.
The Elgato EyeTV USB uses USB 1.1 instead of firewire and also has reduced maximum resolutions and a few other things. It is cheaper for a reason so you may want to look at it a bit closer.
Sorry for being lazy, but this is a cut and paste from a reply I made to another thread....
The internals of the new iMac G5 may make it hard to have internal TV tuners added, but there is no reason why PowerMacs can't have a BTO option or some easy way to intergrate the TV into the GUI. Its all about GUI and Apple could do trend setting design in that realm.
For example:
Smart Channels - "Never scroll thru 800 channels trying to find the Packer game and switching to ESPN and FOX Regional again. Just set up an NFL Smart Channel and they are all sitting there....in TABBED WINDOWS!" Finally the word "channel" actually converges with real channels.
Spotlight Global Searching - "Type in 'Swift Boat Liars' into your Finder and grab all of the email, websites and TV channels with thier interviews and commercials are taking place...it not only finds files via metadata, and websites via Google, but automatically finds the latest being broadcast on the 24-hour newschannels."
Home Broadcasting - "Send TV audio and video to any speaker or laptops in the home without needing to be tied to the TV's cable line" Okay, companies might not like this one in apartment buildings especially, but it would be great for all of those music channels!
Effortless Recording - "Yeah, TiVo, but with Smart Channels and that Apple interface." Commercial editing is a hot topic. But also if recording coincided with Smart Channels, those Swift Boat ads and football games could be recorded automatically without having know when they are happening.
Pixar/Disney Content - "Get real digital feeds of the Disney, Pixar and Miramax libraries only in QuickTime!" Now that Disney has made all the money on VHS sales of classics, those will deteriorate in the next 5 years, how do you get families to pay for them again?
I've never used TiVo so I don't know how good the product or company is, but obviously Jobs may be one of the few in the world who could package this and get industry buy-in. The industry only has a few more years before DVD P2P will become significant and every family will have one geek in it to find it.
Lastly, TV seems to be a big push by the Microsoft Windows Media advertisements of late. If Apple doesn't give customers a choice, Dell and HP and Sony will. These kinds of abilities also make some kind of home hub/server/appliance/box a more intriguing option.
Comments
Originally posted by ishmael
Anyone know of a good (but inexpensive) way to watch TV on an iMac? HDTV/Digital wouldn't be neccesary, but it would be a plus.
Welcome to Ai,
Ummm, elgato is probably the most well known, there are some other card based systems that I can't remember the name of... do a Google and you will find some more.
iDunno
Originally posted by ishmael
Hmm, so it looks like there are no options that cost less than a TV? I was hoping to save room in my dorm room, but I guess its not worth the cost....
Actually it is. you can record shows to your Mac with it.
Originally posted by ishmael
Anyone know of a good (but inexpensive) way to watch TV on an iMac? HDTV/Digital wouldn't be neccesary, but it would be a plus.
This one from Elgato is the cheapest I have seen. It is $169. Anyone have any experience with it? I am also looking for somthing cheaper but I do not want to buy it if it really sucks.
http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvusb
Has anyone tried the AlchemyTV products?
I'm getting a Powermac on the next purchase, and would prefer an internal device instead of the EyeTV's external boxes.
How's the interface of Alchemy? And how's the TV schedule interface? [do they use TitanTV?]
The internals of the new iMac G5 may make it hard to have internal TV tuners added, but there is no reason why PowerMacs can't have a BTO option or some easy way to intergrate the TV into the GUI. Its all about GUI and Apple could do trend setting design in that realm.
For example:
Smart Channels - "Never scroll thru 800 channels trying to find the Packer game and switching to ESPN and FOX Regional again. Just set up an NFL Smart Channel and they are all sitting there....in TABBED WINDOWS!" Finally the word "channel" actually converges with real channels.
Spotlight Global Searching - "Type in 'Swift Boat Liars' into your Finder and grab all of the email, websites and TV channels with thier interviews and commercials are taking place...it not only finds files via metadata, and websites via Google, but automatically finds the latest being broadcast on the 24-hour newschannels."
Home Broadcasting - "Send TV audio and video to any speaker or laptops in the home without needing to be tied to the TV's cable line" Okay, companies might not like this one in apartment buildings especially, but it would be great for all of those music channels!
Effortless Recording - "Yeah, TiVo, but with Smart Channels and that Apple interface." Commercial editing is a hot topic. But also if recording coincided with Smart Channels, those Swift Boat ads and football games could be recorded automatically without having know when they are happening.
Pixar/Disney Content - "Get real digital feeds of the Disney, Pixar and Miramax libraries only in QuickTime!" Now that Disney has made all the money on VHS sales of classics, those will deteriorate in the next 5 years, how do you get families to pay for them again?
I've never used TiVo so I don't know how good the product or company is, but obviously Jobs may be one of the few in the world who could package this and get industry buy-in. The industry only has a few more years before DVD P2P will become significant and every family will have one geek in it to find it.
Lastly, TV seems to be a big push by the Microsoft Windows Media advertisements of late. If Apple doesn't give customers a choice, Dell and HP and Sony will. These kinds of abilities also make some kind of home hub/server/appliance/box a more intriguing option.