PVR Hardware for Mac?

[adamthole]

Do they make any good PVR hardware/software for the mac? Any suggestions?

[galactica]

you mean something like this........

http://www.macintoshdigitalhub.com/reviews/eyetv/

[adamthole]

Yeah, something like that, but one that has mpg-2 encoding. mpeg-1 is for the birds...or something.

[galactica]

sorry, that the only one im aware of. Perhaps someone else will know...............

[g4jedi]

There are also:

http://www.eskapelabs.com/mytv.html

and

http://www.televio.com

I've heard good things about the Televio product.

I plan on getting one someday. I do miss my ATI Xclaim TV that worked fine until I upgraded to OSX.

[jbcandkc]

Here's another

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=solutions_converters_studiodvtv&PHPSESSID=963eaf065ed...247b11b2c28278

I don't have one so I can't say how it is, but it looks cool and if I had $400 laying around...

jbcandkc

[jgva]

Im now going to buy an Imac and im looking for the same solution but all the USB based are poor on resolution and the firewire are just analog to digital converters, you need a external analog tv turner (i have it) but can not shedule records.
Can anyone answer these questions about the mac ( i never use one, so forgiveme if it´s too obvious)
Is it posible to schedule a task to record a tv program a certain hour without the help of a software like a PVR? And how big is the file tranferred via firewire of an hour of video? Can the imac convert directly from DV to mpeg1, mpeg2, quicktime...?
Thank a lot
Regards from Spain
Jaime

[AntnyMD]

The Formac product Studio DV/TV now has software that enables you to schedule recordings. I believe it (the software) came out just this month (August 2003). It records material in the DV format and not MPEG-2.

[jgva]

I´ve checked the Formac but it very expensive and i have too convert after recorded, i keep looking thank you for your answer.

[AntnyMD]

I started thinking this morning that it might be worth getting BOTH the Formac Studio DV/TV, and that ADS Instant DVD thing. The advantage to having both is you don't need to spend computer processing time doing a software conversion to MPEG-2. The advantage to getting the Formac is there are some things you want to edit, like cutting out the commercials. The new TV scheduling software that now comes with the Studio DV/TV is a nice free extra. So lets see, the Formac costs $399 (cheapest I was able to find it on Yahoo was like $349). The ADS unit costs another $249. So thats $648 for a personal digital video recorder setup that captures high quality motion pictures into your computer.

Comparatively speaking, a TiVo unitl will run you $349 (Amazon) for an 80-hour unit. One year of subscription service is $156 (you have to pay annually, or buy the lifetime service at $299). I think there is also a one-time setup fee. The learning curve on how to get your programs out of TiVo and into your Mac can be steep. So let's say you opt for lifetime service plus an 80-hour recorder ... Thats $648!

[All prices are US$, as of August 18, 2003.]

[Equus]

I've been using a PC program called DishRip to pull recorded movies off my Dishplayer. These movies are recorded in MPEG-2 already which makes things a lot easier. It's a little involved, requiring you to put the Dishplayer hard drive into the PC, and use the DishRip utility to extract the movie files into MPEG-2/.mp2 (this takes just a few seconds). I then copy the files over to my eMac and author them with Sizzle. I AM having some trouble with the non-standard aspect ratio that Dish broadcasts in, but I'm confident I'll get over that hurdle soon.

The upshot is the cost is minimal. A big hard drive for the dishplayer, and a DVD burner. The DishRip software is free, Sizzle is free, etc.

I'll let you know when I have it perfected if you like.

Eq