I've done a lot of searching here and have not been able to get my answer. So I'll ask now. :)

I have a spare mac. G4 MDD 867 dual processor. I have it hooked up to my Viewsonic 37" HDTV via the VGA port. It's great for iTunes visualizer and quicktime/VLC stuff on the TV and stereo.

What I want to do is find some hardware/software that will turn my mac into the equivalent of a tivo or replaytv. Right now I don't even have digital cable, and won't for probably a year, and I get almost no HDTV reception over the air (according to antennaweb). I only want to use it for automated recording of shows. A replayTV or tivo with a lifetime subscription is way expensive, especially when I have a spare mac.

EyeTV250 does not seem to do tuning. Looks like it is only a device that does video input and output. ElGato's website has this: "EyeTV 250 and EyeTV Hybrid can tune analog cable. They have cable ready (analog) tuners just like a regular TV, for channels up to 125." But when I look at all the connections on the 250, there is not a connection for the cable. How can it tune when you can't connect the cable?

Any info I find on the hybrid seems to focus on OTA HDTV, which I don't care about. Can I use the hybrid with their software as a regular old DVR?

For their software, EyeTV. Do I tell it to "record No Reservations" and it will know when that show is on and will record it?

Thanks for answering my questions! This forum has been invaluable for research that I've done!

Let's work backward:

For their software, EyeTV. Do I tell it to "record No Reservations" and it will know when that show is on and will record it?

No, the software in this respect is much less sophisticated than Tivo. If you like the Tivo 'Season Pass' concepts, how you can set it to record first-run only and not to record repeats, well, that's why a Tivo user pays the monthly fee or lifetime subscription. You have to be much more hands on with EyeTV, week in and week out.

But when I look at all the connections on the 250, there is not a connection for the cable. How can it tune when you can't connect the cable?

Those USB devices, the 250 and the Hybrid, can do analog and have a coax in--so you just connect your cable to it, run a scan, and you'll be all set.

What I want to do is find some hardware/software that will turn my mac into the equivalent of a tivo or replaytv

The exact "equivalent" doesn't exist. But you can certainly achieve a lot of what you want, given your limitations. You'll just have to be more hands-on and the actual process of recording and watching shows will be less efficient. But many of us have left Tivo behind long ago.

I've done a lot of searching here and have not been able to get my answer. So I'll ask now. :)

I have a spare mac. G4 MDD 867 dual processor. I have it hooked up to my Viewsonic 37" HDTV via the VGA port. It's great for iTunes visualizer and quicktime/VLC stuff on the TV and stereo.

What I want to do is find some hardware/software that will turn my mac into the equivalent of a tivo or replaytv. Right now I don't even have digital cable, and won't for probably a year, and I get almost no HDTV reception over the air (according to antennaweb). I only want to use it for automated recording of shows. A replayTV or tivo with a lifetime subscription is way expensive, especially when I have a spare mac.

EyeTV250 does not seem to do tuning. Looks like it is only a device that does video input and output. ElGato's website has this: "EyeTV 250 and EyeTV Hybrid can tune analog cable. They have cable ready (analog) tuners just like a regular TV, for channels up to 125." But when I look at all the connections on the 250, there is not a connection for the cable. How can it tune when you can't connect the cable?

Any info I find on the hybrid seems to focus on OTA HDTV, which I don't care about. Can I use the hybrid with their software as a regular old DVR?

For their software, EyeTV. Do I tell it to "record No Reservations" and it will know when that show is on and will record it?

Thanks for answering my questions! This forum has been invaluable for research that I've done!Just a few quick answers to your questions. Please note that I don't have any first hand experience with any of the Elgato (or Miglia) products. I have, however, done extensive research on all of these products (including reading many reviews and posts on this and other forums). So take any and all of my comments with a big grain of salt.

1. The EyeTV 250 does indeed have a connection for analog cable. It's called the "antenna/cable" port. Just make sure you buy the NTSC version if you live in the USA.

2. The EyeTV Hybrid adds ATSC tuning, however, you lose the hardware encoding for NTSC. Your MDD G4 may need/want the hardware encoding, so if you don't want HiDef, then the EyeTV 250 may be a better bet.

3. One quick comment regarding your referral to your Cable subscription as "analog cable", yes, that's technically true. However, if you're like most folks, you have "digital cable" as well, you just don't have the equipment to decode it. Most folks use the cable company's Digital Set-top box to get the digital channels. Some folks upgrade to the HD box that adds the digital HD channels.

A few (enlightened???) folks don't pay anything extra to get HD from cable without upgrading their subscription to a Digital Tier (adds ~$30). These folks, me included, use a QAM tuner to receive the digital and HD channels that the cable companies don't encrypt. These channels typically include the local HD channels and maybe one or two additional HD channels that they forgot to encrypt.

Anyways, so what does this have to do with you? Well, if you get a device with a QAM tuner, you may be able to do a few HD channels without paying the cable company anything extra. The Miglia TV Mini HD+ will do QAM, but it doesn't come with EyeTV software. You may be able to find the highly recommended EyeTV500 on eBay, but the 500 doesn't do analog channels, so you may need the 250 (or a used EyeTV200).

4. As for using Macs as Tivo/ReplayTV replacements, it can be done and done nicely. There are advantages/disadvantages to either platform.

Pros - unlimited storage space (just add hard drives); Internet based program guide; cheap, as long as you have the computer already.

Cons - not a CE appliance (meaning you can't just stick it in your media cabinet); typically need to use keyboard/mouse; need significant hardware specs for HD; connecting to a TV may be tricky (certainly not plug-n-play).

Hope this helps you get an idea.

ft

We're getting there. :)

my high level goal is easy automated recording ("Season Pass") for <$200 without a monthly fee. That's it.

ftaok - based on what chefklc said, it can't be a replacement. There is no "season pass" equivalent. That is very disappointing to me. I already have a DVD recorder and can do it manually. Thanks for the QAM tidbit.

I guess it's off to eBay for a used replaytv or tivo with lifetime subscription.

chefklc, you say "But many of us have left Tivo behind long ago." What alternative are you all moving to and why? My issue is price. I can't afford to plunk down $400 and $500+.

Well, first let me say that all I know about Tivo is what I've read. However, I think I understand what a Season Pass means. The only thing I've found that does that, and does it beautifully, I might add, is a bitt0rrent system.

Except that a downloaded file first needs to be found, then SLOWLY downloaded. I'm not talking about network TV hits like American Idol (or whatever). I'm talking about shows like Digging for the Truth, No Reservations, Bizarre Foods, Gilmore Girls, Ham on the Street. I know I can find Gilmore Girls, but even if the others are available, it would be a slow download that would not be done by the next day when I want to watch.

Right, it all comes down to how you prioritize things, and priorities could be particular features, the time and effort involved in setting up and maintaining something, the interface, whether your family can use it, how well a device interacts with your content provider, etc, which means this is always going to be a personal decision. Most of us here within the forum are very understanding when it comes to appreciating these tough, personal decisions. We do see the grey in between the black and white, and many of us have been right where you are, we have cable, used Tivo and used EyeTV.

Like you, I was a cable subscriber, and many years ago, what now seems like an epoch ago, I had a Series 2 Tivo. Loved it for what it was, just like I loved Netflix years ago, until I got an HDTV. Then I realized what abject crap analog cable was, and how poor the Tivo recordings were. The Series 2 became a dinosaur, and I gave it to my parents, who still have it and use it with their big Sony CRT and Comcast analog cable. They LOVE it.

Still, it was tough for me to give up the Tivo software, I loved it, it was well worth the 12.95 a month, but give it up I did because at that time a HD capable Tivo for a cable subscriber was nowhere in sight. Neither was Apple support. I wasn't prepared to wait 3-4 years for one (January of this year it shipped) and I wasn't going to downgrade to high def lite via satellite, which did have Tivos which could record their rate-shaped, bit-starved content. A lot of folks switched then, since the satellite-Tivo deals were very sweet.

chefklc, you say "But many of us have left Tivo behind long ago." What alternative are you all moving to and why? My issue is price. I can't afford to plunk down $400 and $500+.

Cost is an issue, undeniably. But at least you have that Mac already...

I still have analog cable as well, pushed my Macs more into this arena, and picked up a couple of EyeTV500s and still record high def with them--often what Comcast passes through to us over their coax is the equal of OTA. In order to do this, though, I had to de-prioritize something very addictive like the Tivo Season Pass. You gain some things, and have give up others. A fact of our increasingly complicated digital lives--and if your other main issue is price, well, believe me--it costs to play this game and try to move forward, sometimes it costs a lot. Especially if you have to purchase the hardware outright and don't choose well--many an archaic dvd recorder with lousy tuners and guide data are piled up on the side of the home theater road. I still have my Panny E80 from 2003 collecting dust high a top a shelf which cost about the same as the last Mac I bought--a core duo Macbook.

In your case, though, I think you have focused in on your choices--you're content with analog for the time being, you already have that Mac which many of us feel still has a place in the home theater like you're contemplating, you could go the EyeTV route but not if something like the Season Pass proves to be such a dealbreaker. As far as cost, well, yes, that first hurdle from standard def and analog to digital and high def is a very costly upgrade. It is getting less costly every year but one of the ways some of us deal with that cost, and try to mitigate the hit, is to move toward a Mac-based whole house system for all of our audio and video needs. That's kind of been the point of this forum, to help open doors, share possibilities and help people make their own decisions--something like mentioning that Hybrid which could handle your analog needs now but down the road could record OTA high def for you, something like the Miglia that ftaok mentioned which could do analog now but also record QAM when you're ready.

Short term, long term, budget, none of this is easy. Good luck...

No, the software in this respect is much less sophisticated than Tivo. If you like the Tivo 'Season Pass' concepts, how you can set it to record first-run only and not to record repeats, well, that's why a Tivo user pays the monthly fee or lifetime subscription. You have to be much more hands on with EyeTV, week in and week out.

The lack of name based recording with EyeTV is a huge disappointment. I haven't figured out if this shortcoming is due to Tivo/Replay/etc patents, or if Elgato simply hasn't added the feature.

But here's something I just found out. You can come very close by using the titantv website and nothing more. It will apparently interface with your eyetv or miglia device, and with 1 click, schedule a recording of a show. So for $120 or so, I can have something close.

I'm confused, you didn't realize you could schedule an EyeTV recording by looking at the guide, finding a particular episode and clicking once? Yes, it is that easy. But that's a far cry from a season pass, which is set once and then forget it for the next year. (Just fyi, I never actually use the TitanTV website for anything, I find it easier to manage everything for my two tuners from within EyeTV; if my HDTV is off I just VNC into its Mac from whatever other Mac I'm on, EyeTV is pretty much open all the time, then check the schedule. A few minutes per week, but it's every week. No set it once and forget it, no detecting repeats, etc.) And you probably know this already but you'll need two tuners if you want to record two shows at the same time.

I have no idea how the eyetv software works. I thought that I had to find when it was on, then schedule the eyetv by day and time. Which is too hard for the wife to do. I can't even get her to use the DVD-R. But to go to the titantv website and choose the recordings for the week, from any computer (not just the one with the device attached), is something she can do. I don't have the option to VNC in from work, firewall.

I checked ebay for a used TiVo with lifetime, yikes. No way I'm paying $700! That's insane (for my lifestyle).

So it looks like I will have to give up on the season pass concept since nobody else does it.

I understand about needing 2 tuners for 2 channels at once.

I think there is a good chance in time that Sage TV for OSX will be released with HDHomeRun hi-def, networked, OTA and QAM support. Then you will have a solid EPG, over the network video streaming etc. without resorting to the EyeTV500 rummage sale search. I've been reading this forum since its beginning and it's been apparant that EyeTV has needed a competitor in OSX for a long, long time.

Jim beat me to it - but he's right. I will add that SageTV has a feature called "favorites" that sounds like what you want: "Favorites Manager -- Never miss your favorite shows whether it's first runs, re-runs, or all episodes." But, you'll have to wait.

But that's a far cry from a season pass, which is set once and then forget it for the next year.Does the season pass remember that you recorded a first run, and deleted it, so that it doesn't continue to rerecord it? It's one of my biggest gripes about TVGuide. For instance, I'll record the Bill Maher first run. Then I'll watch it later that night, and delete it. Then TVGuide will record it again during the first week of play (the show replays a dozen times or so in the first week). And every time I have to delete it again. I suppose I could leave it on until the next week's show runs, but when you do this sort of recording with a dozen or so shows, you don't like to leave a bunch of watched first runs cluttering up the index (kids you know--delete it after you watch it, or I'll delete it for you whenever i want).

Well, that is one of differences with more advanced software--usually Tivo will remember a recorded first run and then quickly deleted show, if it gets good guide data for that show from the networks; some shows, though, have always been problematic for Tivo in a Season Pass first run/repeat context, going back years, the biggest offender for me was always Comedy Central's 'Daily Show.' It had to do with poor advance show data supplied by the networks. Most Tivo users chose a repeating record by time/channel for those, rather than a "season pass" and just deleted a recording if it turned out to be a repeat, rather than a "first run only season pass" which recorded it 4 times a day since the guide data was missing or incomplete. There was no elegant or seamless solution with those few shows. Those were the exception, rather than the rule.

And memento, I think you need to check out a few reviews of the EyeTV software, it's quite easy to navigate around quickly, find shows, advance day to day, and one click record. It pales in terms of options and seamlessness versus Tivo, but most users find it much easier to use than, say, the clunky inelegant pretend Tivo software somebody like Comcast uses for their dvrs. You want a nightmare, you try that. No one switched to a cableco supplied dvr because of the user experience, it was solely because of the low entry rental cost and no upfront hardware purchase, unlike Tivo and EyeTV.

EyeTV software is actually quite good depending on your priorities. We may bitch about it versus Tivo, but then we've been recording DRM-free high def with it for years, editing commercials out, moving it around the house and Mac to Mac with no problem, unlike what we were ever able to do with Tivo.

I did quite a bit of research into EyeTV last night and ultimately ordered the 250. It looks like they have the best software, though not perfect. And the 250 does the conversion, so my computer can still multi task (stream internet radio, run iTunes visualizer, etc). I know the 250 is not HD, but I don't expect to be getting that for at least another year.

SageTV - I've been watching that one for too long. Maybe in a year when I finally get HD.

Regarding the Tivo & Mac DVR comparisons, does anybody have first hand experience with Tivo HD / 3 and HDhomerun on a Mac regarding picture quality comparisions?

Thanks.

There are some shows that TitanTV/EyeTV work fine with -- I set it to record The McLaughlin Group every week, and since it always on at the same time, and is always a new episode it works great. Unfortunately the ratings hunters keep moving prime time shows around thus ensuring that fewer people can find then and see them...

For me a Tivo would be a non starter for two reasons -- disk size limitations -- I am struggling to find free room on my dedicated 500GB HD, and am considering upgrading to 1TB. Going backwards is inconceivable. Also, I tend to edit out and save music clips I am interested in (like bands playing on SNL, or Leno, Letterman, etc.) Totally not giving that up. Also ability to burn DVDs and export to i/Phone/Pod is great.

Regarding the Tivo & Mac DVR comparisons, does anybody have first hand experience with Tivo HD / 3 and HDhomerun on a Mac regarding picture quality comparisions?

Thanks.
Since connecting a new Pioneer plasma, I have been switching back and forth between broadcast cable HD and my intel mini DVR (MythFrontend). Aside from a color adjustment that Pioneer makes difficult for the HDMI input, I can see no PQ difference between broadcast and DVR.

I know the 250 is not HD, but I don't expect to be getting that for at least another year.

SageTV - I've been watching that one for too long. Maybe in a year when I finally get HD.

You are so missing out. I just upgraded a standard definition Tivo to a DirecTV HD DVR and I'm kicking myself for not getting HD sooner. You really should call up your cableco or sat provider and see if they can give you a HD trial. Once you watch Bikini Destinations or Planet Earth in HD you will know what I mean. The picture quality is amazing. I don't think I could ever go back.