Recording Cable TV Shows using Mac Mini

Hi munirul-

You need something like this: eyetv 250 plus. Check out their other products as well.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

I used an EyeTV 200 with My Mac mini for two years. It worked very well. I would recommend El Gato products. They do have several different models depending on your location and the type of TV signals you want to receive/display/record. They're always responsive when you have technical support questions (via e-mail) and keep their software up-to-date with Mac OS X and QuickTime. I now use the EyeTV Hybrid with my iMac. Their solution includes both the hardware and the software.

-Doug

The EyeTV is pretty sweet. Just keep in mind that if you're using a digital cable box (one with channels over 125 or a program guide) you will need to go from (wall > cable box > EyeTV) rather than just (wall > EyeTV) with an analogue box. A Programmable universal remote makes this function seamlessly rather than requiring you to switch remotes.

munirul wrote:
Hi:
does anyone know how to record cable tv shows using Mac Mini?
please discuss the hardware and software issues.
Munir

There are several possible ways, some depend on the type of Cable TV system you have. First I am going to assume you are an American. While Cable TV is available in other countries, for example here in the UK, it ***** so bad in the UK that you are unlikely to be using it here.

Now, with American Cable the first possible method has already been mentioned by others which is to use an analogue connection from your cable box to an Elgato EyeTV 250 (possibly discontinued). This is an analogue tuner for a Mac and will let your Mac record the signal. There is also the more expensive EyeTV 250Plus which includes a chip to do the conversion to MPEG2 and take the load off your Mac. This method will work whether your Cable box is analogue or digital.

If your Cable box uses "Clear QAM" then you could get the HDHomeRun box from Elgato. This not only will provide a direct digital signal with no loss of quality, but will also provide two tuners, and can be shared across your home network. There is also the EyeTV 500 see http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv500 but this also may have been discontinued.

Finally, if your Cable box has a FireWire connection (and by law they have to give you the option of this) then you can connect the box via FireWire to your Mac and run software on your Mac. Again this will be a direct digital capture with no loss of quality. See the following two pages for information on how to do this.

http://www.ammesset.com/irecord/
http://project-tigershark.com/people/rob/blog/2007/01/14/cable-tv-mac-firewire-h d-pvr/

Note: I am in the UK and have no direct experience of any of the above, and can only gnash my teeth in frustration at how spoilt for choice US TV/Mac users are compared to the pathetic massively DRMed situation here in the UK.