I just bought an eyetv 500 and I think I made a mistake

Hello Jicarv,

If I am reading your post correctly, you can't pickup analog cable signals with the EyeTV 500 QAM tuner. The EyeTV 500 is digital ONLY. ( QAM is digital ) You have to recieve the digital package from your cable provider to get those channels. - And I personally don't know what other channels works and what doesn't, I only get digital basic comcast and it gives me ALL major networks in full HD - works great.

That's a good thing, it means it's working properly.


Analog, digital, NTSC, ATSC, QAM--it can get confusing--these are all different tuners. Some TVs and DVRs have several different tuners inside, some don't. The 500 does ATSC and QAM, it sneers dismissively in the direction of analog cable. PBS is often QAM, you sure it's not HD in your area?

So, what you need is something that can also record NTSC standard analog cable, the Hybrid, 200, 250, TV Mini HD+ et al.

(Just fyi, you don't normally need a digital cable package or tier to record QAM high def with the 500--it's right there in good old basic cable, as you've discovered. That's what being transmitted unencrypted and "in the clear" means.)

If you want to sell your 500, lots of folks here would be interested.

Personally, if you're gonna keep the 500, I'd recommend you try to find the 200 used--it's firewire as well--and we've had users report these two work well together in a dual-tuner setup.

There seems to be nothing but incompatibilities and overloading bus issues when combining these newer USB devices. But good luck with the Miglia if you do go that route--and do report back if and when you get your hands on one.

Everyone's new to world of Mac PVR, so don't worry. I tell you, I think El Gato discontinued the EyeTV 500 because no "average joe" consumer could understand what it actually did, even after reading about it, so customer support and returns were a nightmare. Pity, too, because the 500 is an incredible device, unsurpassed, actually.


I don't have a 200 and don't care about analog anymore, but I recall some forum regulars doing the 200/500 combo thing successfully. You'd probably have to go back to early 2005, though, when we first figured out you could go dual tuner with the 500s--best bet is to read through the infamous 'HDTV from Mac OS X from El Gato' thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=417707

And yes, running the one copy of the EyeTV software, with one activation code, is all you need for dual (or greater) tuners--just daisychain them, go into EyeTV preferences and you should see it recognize that multiple devices are connected. This isn't officially supported or guaranteed.

I'd suggest holding off on the Miglia TVMini HD+ for a bit, by the way. It may or may not do everything you want. Miglia isn't releasing a lot of info on the device, and it may have some shortcomings. For me, the lack of an analog hardware encoder would be one, as this means no live buffer on analog TV, only on HD content (assuming they stick with the EyeTV software). Also, the EyeTV Hybrid (a similar USB product) appears to suffer from repeated "Can't connect to the device" issues, which may (or may not) affect the Miglia as well.

My pleasure, glad it's worked out so far. By the way, how much did you pay for it? eBay?