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DellApple
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Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
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 Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:12 am Post subject: How can I stream TV through my Mac Mini? |
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Hi,
Can someone reccomend a USB 2.0 tuner card that I could hook up to my Mac Mini so that I can watch TV on on monitor? Over the last several years, I've wanted to do this but the reviews for these TV tuners have not been that great.
Thank you! |
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g5g5
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Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Posts: 2716
Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:34 am Post subject: |
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I've heard the Elgato TV Wonder USB 2.0 is great but I don't personally own one. Some of the features require dual G4 or G5's so you might want to read into it and see if you can do without those features.
http://www.elgato.com/downloads/EyeTVwonder/DataSheet_wonder_E.pdf
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1.25GHz Mac Mini / 1.8GHz iMac G5 / 2.0GHz C2D Mac mini (2009)
4GB iPod mini / 2G iPod shuffle / 16GB iPhone 3G
Apple TV 2
iLife's a Bitch! |
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akeros
Junior Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 31
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:57 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
I was also interested in this. So it seems that to view TV and record VCD quality single G4 like mini should be fine, but if you want to record with better quality you need more power.
I guess only someone who has a mini and a dual powermac AND the eyeTV, can tell us if everything is smooth on the mini and up to which quality.
Anybody here fits the bill ?
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Mac Mini 1.58Ghz 1Gb & Sharp Laptop PC
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DellApple
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Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:05 am Post subject: |
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| To be quite honest, I do not care to record TV to the Mini. I have an external DVD burner for that. I only want to watch TV. Besides with the lack of quality TV today, nothing is worth recording anymore. |
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akeros
Junior Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 31
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:06 am Post subject: |
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Then you might just be happy with this then 
Worth asking for a trial at your local mac provider, isn't it?
EDIT: By the way, I've just noticed you joined the forum the same day as me lol Well done mate!
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Mac Mini 1.58Ghz 1Gb & Sharp Laptop PC
Ipod Shuffle 512Mb |
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devo
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Joined: 23 Jan 2005
Posts: 5274
Location: Dunwoody, GA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| http://www.eskapelabs.com/mytv.html is a division of Hauppauge and they make a USB TV Tuner for the Mac. It should work with the mini but it's USB 1. I would probably go with the Elgato since it's USB 2.0. |
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DellApple
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Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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I just checked out the EyeTV USB 2.0 and it's like $299 after the rebate. Holy Cow. I was just at Sams Club and they sell a 15" HDTV for $299. Either way, too rich for my blood until I find a job.
Thanks guys!
Pat |
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devo
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DellApple
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DellApple
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Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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Hold on, it says its an analog box. Does that mean I can not see my digital channels on the Mac? That will not work as I need to be able to watch the baseball package I have with Comcast. I might wait now. Do some research on this product.
thanks
Pat |
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devo
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Joined: 23 Jan 2005
Posts: 5274
Location: Dunwoody, GA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Yea its analog but you may be able to trick it using your cable box and setting the TV Wonder to a preset channel like 3 or 4. I'd email them and ask about digital cable. |
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DellApple
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Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| devo wrote: | | Yea its analog but you may be able to trick it using your cable box and setting the TV Wonder to a preset channel like 3 or 4. I'd email them and ask about digital cable. |
Their website says that EyeTV 500 is the only model that supports digital cable. Thanks anyway; I should be saving my money anyway. Wife will kill me! |
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hoping
New Member
Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 6:39 pm Post subject: tricking the box |
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I don't have a mini (if anyone would like to donate one feel free) but I can tell you that with my TV setup, we have the digital cable box plugged into the vcr then into the TV (for reasons too complicated to list) this setup offers multiple outputs (depending on your vcr) and you may be able to send the signal from there to the tv tuner and change the channel with the cable box.
hope this helps |
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dgpdx
New Member
Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Portland, Oregon, US
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| DellApple wrote: | | To be quite honest, I do not care to record TV to the Mini. I have an external DVD burner for that. I only want to watch TV. Besides with the lack of quality TV today, nothing is worth recording anymore. |
If you want a single-monitor solution without recording you may be interested in my setup. I've got the component output from my digital cable box going into a View Sonic NextVison N6 video processor. $199 at: http://viewsonic.com/products/tventertainment/tvvideoprocessors/nextvisionn6/
This box has both VGA and DVI output ports and coax audio ouput. I run the VGA ouput to my monitor's VGA port and the audio to my sound system (a Boze Wave Radio). My Mac Mini uses the montor's DVI port and sends its audio to the N6 box where it's passed through to the radio.
My monitor (see below) switches automatically to the active input. If your monitor has only one input then you'll need a switch. There are several available, both for DVI or VGA, some even automatic (the cheapest solution would be the manual cable swap, of course. 
Since you watch baseball, you'll need a monitor no slower than 8ms, otherwise a pitched ball seems to stutter its way to plate (very annoying!). Believe me on this, I went through several monitor returns before finding it out the hard way! I use the View Sonic VP191b and am very happy with it. Even standard def TV looks better on it since the N6 will interpolate to the higher resolution of the monitor vs. a TV set. HDTV looks great on it!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not financially associated with any products mentioned herein.
--
Don |
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