I am in the process of changing my house over from Windows PC's to MAC's. I am getting ready to start building a Home AVS system. The part I am looking for the MAC to do is the PVR part. I currently have a Mac-mini and like the lack of noise and the small footprint. I am trying to get to a HDTV PVR that can record two programs at the same time. The other system I have been looking at is MythTV. I love the software, but don't like the noise and large footprint of the PC for Linux. I also am concerned that any card I use to get the signal will only be able to get the lower cable channels, and not get the higher ones. I am surrounded by tress so I don't think satellite is an option. Any ideas would be welcome since I am just starting down the Mac road, and this is really my first real attempt to do this. Thanks for the help. All opinions matter.

Joe

I am getting ready to start building a Home AVS system. The part I am looking for the Mac to do is the PVR part.

Apple makes some great products, and they handle certain parts within a home theater better than others. Unfortunately for you, you've picked a "part" that Macs don't do easily. It takes a little extra effort and/or expense. I use a core duo Mac with two EyeTV500s to record two high def programs via QAM at the same time and am (almost) completely satisfied. If not for the infrequent digital audio kernel panic issue I'd be completely satisfied with EyeTV. I'm not sure, though, what you mean by:

I also am concerned that any card I use to get the signal will only be able to get the lower cable channels, and not get the higher ones.

Which mac mini do you have?

Maybe "lower channels" is referring to NBC/ABC etc as opposed to HBO/Showtime? If the channel is set to Copy-Once, only the cable company's DVR can record and play it back.

Do you have a TV with a digital tuner? If so, you can probably test the signal strength for the available OTA stations (are you in the U.S.?). Proper signal strength is a huge factor. I live in the first-floor apartment of a 3-story house; some days I get a great signal, some days not.

I have an EyeTV500 as well, and it's great for taping PBS (no commercials and I get a great signal for that station). Editing out commercials is a pain, and the amount of hard drive space that shows eat up means that there's constant maintenance to free up space. It's great for what it does (Monsters Inc. looks great in high definition), but when the Fall season starts up, I always wish iTunes was selling shows in true HD.

What I meant by the high channels is that if I remember right you could get channels 1-80 without a cable box, but if you wanted any channels above that you needed the cable box. I am using Comcast and the digitial channels are in the 200 range. I did not want to do something just to find out I could not get those channels, unless I wanted to fork our more money to them.

The MAC mini I have is the 1.83 MHZ Core duo.

Joe

chefklc is correct. You will most likely only be able to receive the major networks with any device that is not supplied by your cable/satellite/FiOS company. Everything else will be encrypted. (I occasionally receive ESPN-HD unencrypted over QAM, but that's sporadic.) If you use a set-top box you could use it (controlled with an IR blaster) to record the lower and higher channels and your second tuner to record major networks. Unfortunately, the Elgato EyeTV 500 is no longer available and doesn't have an IR blaster anyway. The follow-on Elgato products also don't have IR blasters and are not quite as robust as the EyeTV 500.

So, if you need access to encrypted channels, my opinion is that a cable company HD-DVR is currently the best solution. If not, the EyeTV Hybrid would a good choice. (FWIW, I recently got Verizon FiOS tv service and have the Motorola QIP-6416 DVR. The interface isn't nearly as good as my ReplayTV, and probably not quite as good as TiVo, but it is easier to use than the EyeTV software, doesn't crash or cause kernel panics and has dual tuners, but it also costs me $13/month, whereas the EyeTV is a one-shot cost.)

Joe, I've been a Comcast basic cable customer, in terms of high def with an EyeTV device, that means you plug the coax cable into the device, you don't need any cable box or STB, and you'll be able to record anything that's "in the clear" or otherwise referred to as unencrypted QAM, as Lazlo said, for me it's ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and the CW. Since I watch a lot of network programming, I'm very happy. You can still pick up EyeTV500s in the used marketplace, I found my second one for under $100 on Craigslist. What's nice about the 500s, besides being firewire, is that they have two inputs, so you can hook up OTA with an antenna and QAM via a coax simultaneously.

I wouldn't get hung up on where a channel is--at least in terms of what the cable box is telling you--because the actual frequency, where the channel actually is, is usually hidden from the consumer and remapped (by the box and by the cable company.) To find your QAM channel locations, sometimes your TV or tuner will scan them and pick them up, some times you usually have to do a little digging on your own and/or drop in on a local HDTV discussion group.

If you have two tuners, the 1.83 core duo Mac like yours is more than powerful enough to record two high def streams and play back a third program.

But you should realize that you'll need a different tuner (than the 500) to record analog cable channels, the 80 or so you're getting via basic cable, if those are important to you. And no Mac DVR add-on yet can record any of those encrypted or premium channels.

That's where it can get complicated, and expensive, and why as Lazlo also mentioned for many folks renting the cable company HD DVR is a decent deal: no upfront hardware costs, more versatility, no repair costs, etc. It's usually a lot easier to edit, archive and move around high def that you've captured with an EyeTV device, though, once it's on your hard drive you can do with it what you will, which is why so many of us go that OTA or QAM route.

There's no guarantee you can get anything off the DVRs supplied by the cable, telcos or satellite providers. It's not in their best interests to allow you to do so.

The other system I have been looking at is MythTV. I love the software, but don't like the noise and large footprint of the PC for Linux. Then why not run the Myth FrontEnd on the Mini? The back end can be a cheap noisy box somewhere else. Because there is no A/D conversion, recording from multiple HD tuners does not need much in the way of CPU horsepower (cheap ~2GHz AMD would be plenty). The processor power is only needed on the front end to decode and display the HD stream - for which your core duo is well suited (I'm using the 1.66 GHz model). Finally, you can fill the box up with a RAID of 500GB drives and get yourself TB's of redundant storage (those HD programs add up...)