Comments on: Use your mac as a television

By: Tasha

Tasha — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:49:45 +0000

Does anyone know if this would connect video game systems as well? I am looking to get rid of my TV and use just my 17-inch MacBook Pro, but I don’t want to give up my ‘old-school’ gaming systems (PS1 and SuperNES). Will this connect the video of those systems so I can still play my beloved games?

By: Brandy B, SC

Brandy B, SC — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:15:43 +0000

i bought mine on newegg.com and got a decent price.

i love it! perfect for a small dorm room. mac’s remote control can even change channels for the program.

what’s more, you can record anything on tv!! i mean, how much do you pay for that service with a regular television?

if you have parallels and etc. installed, you might be able to buy a windows-based tv tuner, which are generally considerably cheaper!

thumbs up!

By: Ethan

Ethan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:53:05 +0000

Ok So I have had the eyetv hybrid for about 3 years now (obviously this ones predecessor but it is basically identical save for the clear qam signal I believe) here is the biggest problem I have:

The unit simply acts as a exterior graphics card to interpret the signal, but still uses your processor a whole lot. On my macbook pro (version 3,1), I get absurdly high temperatures thanks to the tuner… I might suggest the more expensive and larger eyetv 250 plus as I am told it does all that externally and just inports the final signal through USB

By: Clarkson

Clarkson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:09:17 +0000

At the price you pay for a Mac, you won’t have any $$ left over for a TV anyways

By: sandi

sandi — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:26:04 +0000

How can we use a stand alone computer monitor as a TV monitor without dedicating our Macbook to the task? We currently have a boxy TV, a VCR, a DVD player, a digital converter box and an antenna making a lot of clutter. We are fine with connecting our Macbook to the larger monitor to view DVDs, but very regular TV we hope to keep the Macbook free. We have no intention of signing up for cable and want to avoid buying a digital TV.

By: Dale

Dale — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:25:14 +0000

The above article gives me hope … I have a Dell Computer which can also be used as a HI DEF TV … to date I’ve gotten all kinds of advise about getting it to work as a TV but no one seems to know including Dell … I have Hi Def Satelite for my TV … the computer comes with “TV Input Device” and the instructions say to connect the Device to Digital Antenna Cable … If you want to watch over-the-air HDTV broadcasts on your computer, then you will need some kind of hardware TV tuner and an HDTV antenna according to the article above … please tell me what I need to have TV receptionn on this Computer … thanks … Dale

By: localhost

localhost — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:23:38 +0000

Also you can try not watching tv at all, and save your money plus get more time. I threw away my tv set in August 2009.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:06:11 +0000

What a fascinating device! I’ve seen many different ways of getting my tv on the big screen, but I think that even the millisecond of lag would really bother me.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:15:42 +0000

@Molly – I use 250plus with Comcast coax cable (no converter box), no problem. Not sure about Hybrid though.

By: Jeannine

Jeannine — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:20:33 +0000

I WANT one of these but do not have a Mac. How can I duplicate this one but for Windows? I would be very happy to give up cable tv except for my little remote for pausing, replaying, fastforward, etc. I could use a vcr as I used to, but I have fallen in love with the DVR. Any suggestions will be much appreciated!!!

By: Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:21:13 +0000

Wow that looks pretty nice. I’m gonna look into this when I get myself a Mac in a couple of months. Quick note. You know your url has the “n” missing off of television? Just checking! Grammar Nazi

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:08:36 +0000

I’ve got an eyeTC 250 and a 250 plus, can record 2 shows at once. Just had to put a splitter on the cable line. I have analog cable so (Cox) so can confirm that it works this way (no cable box upstairs with this setup) works straight from the cable.

If you have an eyeTV you need to check out ComSkipper:

http://code.google.com/p/etv-c.....er.py?r=54

It’s a little on the nerdy side, but I didn’t have any trouble setting it up and the forum is full of helpful people.

Comskipper tags the commercials in your recordings automagically (does a pretty good job) so you can come in after the fact, compress the recording in the editor and have a clean copy to watch without having to skip (or without compressing, pre-tagged commercials which skip all at once when you skip forward.

Cheers

By: SM

SM — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:27:32 +0000

Yes, like Stan, I use my small and cheap LCD TV as second monitor with my laptop. I use the rabbit ears to get my 3 PBS channels and such, but I can also have Netflix streaming fullscreen on the larger screen while I check e-mail on my laptop. It’s awesome!

By: Rae

Rae — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:09:16 +0000

Living in an RV, I’ve decided to use my 24″ iMac as my media centre. The sound is good enough for music (which can be heard from stem to stern) and the picture quality is excellent. My den/study is only about 50 square feet, so a 24″ screen feels HUGE and the Apple remote makes you forget that you’re watching movies on a computer since it controls volume in addition to playback.

I haven’t had cable in years, but an EyeTV tuner is on my list of wants since most RV parks I stay at include cable in the rent. It’d be nice to watch shows when they’re on instead of waiting for the DVDs to come out.

Another thing I like about the EyeTV tuner is that it acts like ‘rabbit ears’, meaning you can capture the free digital signals. This would be nice when I’m overnighting in an urban area and don’t have access to free wi-fi; chances are I’d be able to watch tv instead.

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:58:30 +0000

What about the other way around?

I have made my TV into my computer by using my mac mini with a 42″ full HD 1080p LCD TV.
Paired with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. The whole setup was cheaper than buying a iMac.

Part of the television experience is sitting on the couch and relaxing with friends/family not at a desk on your own watching everything on a small screen.

During the day you can use the TV as your computer and write all emails etc while having eyetv on the side at a size that is bigger than an entire computer screen.

A few years ago it would not have been worth doing because the quality of television sets could not come close because 1it was too expensive and 2 the quality wasn’t there.
The other advantage is that you do not need all of the extras such as DVD player, speakers or even a separate desk.