[brussell]

I'm not sure which product I need.

I have two older G4s one a DP500 and the other a DP450 both running tiger and have 2 gigs of ram. I also just purchased a new 2 gig Macbook. What I would like to do is have one of the the G4s (preferably the 450) set up to record as a PVR and use the Macbook to do the playback. I have just purchased a gigabit router as well as having a couple of 10/100 802.11G routers. My thought was to have one of the towers act as the recording and storage device and stream to the new Macbook via a wired gigbit connection for playback.


Is this possible and what would I need to do it?


Thanks!


Brad

 

[chefklc]



Quote:
What I would like to do is have one of the the G4s (preferably the 450) set up to record as a PVR and use the Macbook to do the playback.

A few years ago I'm pretty sure El Gato said you needed at minimum a G4 500 MHz to run the software to record--so I'd double check with them what the current minimum system requirements are for EyeTV 3. But your plan is sound, lots of us use an older tower to do the actual recording and serving, with playback handled by a high-def-capable core duo Mac in a media extender role. Having everything wired up through a gigabit switch or router is definitely the way to go.


Which product you buy depends--one's a single tuner that requires USB 2 that can do ATSC, QAM and NTSC, the other is a dual tuner that'll get plugged into your router that can do ASTC and QAM. If you don't care about NTSC, frankly, the HD Homerun seems the way to go, not least of which because that dual 500 has gigabit but not USB 2, right?

 

[brussell]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chefklc /forum/post/12848021


If you don't care about NTSC, frankly, the HD Homerun seems the way to go, not least of which because that dual 500 has gigabit but not USB 2, right?

Thanks for the reply!


All three have gigabit and I have added USB2 cards to each.


If I were to get the eye tv 250 does the hardware included do the encoding and would that ease up the requirements?


Would it work to run my cable signal through my VCR for a NTSC tuner and then out to the HDHR for clear QAM high def channels? I understand this would not allow me to record NTSC programing but I think that would be ok and I like the network advantage of the HDHR. This would also allow to stop renting the setop box from Comcast just to get high def to the projector I think.


Is it the eyetv software that allow you to serve the files or is that hardware dependent?


Thanks again!

 

[bommai]

The hardware encoder on the 250 is only for analog (NTSC channels). HDHomeRun has no encoder and no need for one since it does not have NTSC. Your older mac should be able to record ATSC/QAM as long as you are not doing anything else on the machines. Also, don't mess around with VCRs!!

 

[archiguy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by bommai /forum/post/12849200


The hardware encoder on the 250 is only for analog (NTSC channels). HDHomeRun has no encoder and no need for one since it does not have NTSC. Your older mac should be able to record ATSC/QAM as long as you are not doing anything else on the machines. Also, don't mess around with VCRs!!

Huh? I just got an EyeTV 250 primarily to mess around with VCR's! I've got a bunch of old tapes and camcorder footage I need to digitize (to my Macbook) and burn to DVD's. Figured the 250 having that ATSC tuner was just a nice bonus. Are you saying the 250 doesn't do tape conversion well?

 

[chefklc]

archie, don't worry, for what you're trying to do the 250+ will work out just fine. what bommai is probably referring to is that most of us here have already moved way past analog and vcrs--though I still have a JVC DVHS gathering dust somewhere. We've already dumped our Tivo Series 2 and been recording ATSC and QAM for years--and he wanted to discourage brad from doing something dumb like this:

Quote:
run my cable signal through my VCR for a NTSC tuner and then out to the HDHR for clear QAM high def channels?

 

[bommai]



Quote:
Originally Posted by archiguy /forum/post/12849509


Huh? I just got an EyeTV 250 primarily to mess around with VCR's! I've got a bunch of old tapes and camcorder footage I need to digitize (to my Macbook) and burn to DVD's. Figured the 250 having that ATSC tuner was just a nice bonus. Are you saying the 250 doesn't do tape conversion well?

Sorry - I did not mean it that way - if you have digitizing to do, then 250 will be fine. I just don't deal with NTSC anymore - that is why I said that.


Edit: looks like chefklc already read my mind

 

[Alfiejr]

the 250 makes it easy to transfer your old VHS tapes, good for all us old timers

. also, if you can get a good OTA broadcast digital signal, you can use the nice EyeTV software to record network and local hi-def programming. so that's a two-fer good deal.


but if your cable box is your main TV source, you want to go with Home Run because it can tune all the ClearQAM digital cable channels without a box. which includes a lot of them now, and that will be more when 100% digital kicks in next year. at that point the 250's analog input will become useless anyway except for plugging in old analog equipment.

 

[spryde]

FYI, the new EyeTV 250 and Hybrid have clear QAM tuners in additon to the ATSC/NTSC tuner. Also, the cable companies have been asked/required? to broadcast analog until at least 2011/2012. Let me go find a link to pin down the exact details of that.


In any case, the analog side of the 250/Hybrid still have many years of life left in them.


SP

 

[spryde]

Following up...


From Wikipedia (verified using FCC site...)

Quote:
On September 12, 2007, the FCC voted 5-0 on requiring cable operators to make local broadcasts available to their users, even those with analog television. This requirement lasts until 2012, when the FCC will review the case again.

SP

 

[Alfiejr]

thanks. well it's confusing. from the Elgato FAQ page:


"How does EyeTV 250 Plus compare to HDHomeRun?


"The EyeTV 250 Plus is a USB 2.0 device, so it connects directly to your Macintosh, unlike the HDHomeRun which connects to your local network via ethernet.


"The HDHomeRun has two tuners capable of receiving either digital ATSC, or Clear QAM. The EyeTV 250 Plus has a single tuner capable of receiving analog TV, digitizing analog video, or receiving digital ATSC TV. The EyeTV 250 Plus does not support Clear QAM.


"The EyeTV 250 Plus can receive analog TV signals from antenna, or cable services via the coaxial connector, or from composite/S-Video sources via the analog break-out cable. HDHomeRun cannot receive any analog signals."


but from the Elgato 250 Plus product page:


"EyeTV 250 Plus is a hybrid TV tuner for the Mac with a powerful hardware encoder for higher quality recordings and smaller sized video files. EyeTV 250 Plus receives free-to-air HDTV, analog TV, and Clear QAM digital cable. EyeTV 250 Plus offers a complete solution for converting videos from VHS tape to DVD-Video."


but, you know, i own one. so when i connected my cable line to it to see what happens, i got the cable analog channels only. could not tune any Clear QAM digital channels. so ... the FAQ page is right and the Product page is wrong alas.

 

[chefklc]



Quote:
the FAQ page is right and the Product page is wrong alas.

well, yes and no: the 250+ was just updated with new hardware to include QAM--announced a few days ago at Macworld. So, old 250+, no QAM; new 250+ has QAM. El Gato said on their support site that if you ordered a 250+ from them this week you'll get the updated model and it'll come with EyeTV 3.

 

[Alfiejr]

ah, well if newly announced products are in the mix, wait a month to compare the upcoming Equinux TubeStick Hybrid and read reviews. they say it will tune all three - OTA digital, ClearQam, and analog cable. the software also offers some interesting features that Elgato does not - especially remote viewing via .Mac. at $129 it is a lot cheaper too. although it looks like there may be some subscription ... not clear.

 

[grubavs]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfiejr /forum/post/12853676


the 250 makes it easy to transfer your old VHS tapes, good for all us old timers

. also, if you can get a good OTA broadcast digital signal, you can use the nice EyeTV software to record network and local hi-def programming. so that's a two-fer good deal.


but if your cable box is your main TV source, you want to go with Home Run because it can tune all the ClearQAM digital cable channels without a box. which includes a lot of them now, and that will be more when 100% digital kicks in next year. at that point the 250's analog input will become useless anyway except for plugging in old analog equipment.

We live on the west side of the SF coastal hills = no OTA, even analog. Comcast took over our local cable company about 5-years ago. We still have no HD or On-Demand (they say it's the Coastal Commission preventing them from replacing the "old cable"), but they'll let us pay $70/month for "Digital Cable". We are not able to take advantage of those 3-month free Digital/HD deals. As for ClearQam, I just re-ran my SXRD's tuner set-up. We get an ungodly number of music channels (

), and FLIX (

), the Golf Channel (

), and some Comcast Sports thing (

)... that's it! My guess is the ClearQam will be less and less available as digital becomes more required/accepted.

 

[bdraw]

Just a suggestion, but I find it is much easier (and better) to use a DV camcorder to convert from VHS. You can dub tape to tape and some DV camcorders have fantastic encoders in them. Then you can easily rip anything from DV to your computer that you need and you always have the backups on DV tapes which are very inexpensive.

 

[Boult]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfiejr /forum/post/12857448


thanks. well it's confusing. from the Elgato FAQ page:


"How does EyeTV 250 Plus compare to HDHomeRun?


"The EyeTV 250 Plus is a USB 2.0 device, so it connects directly to your Macintosh, unlike the HDHomeRun which connects to your local network via ethernet.


"The HDHomeRun has two tuners capable of receiving either digital ATSC, or Clear QAM. The EyeTV 250 Plus has a single tuner capable of receiving analog TV, digitizing analog video, or receiving digital ATSC TV. The EyeTV 250 Plus does not support Clear QAM.


"The EyeTV 250 Plus can receive analog TV signals from antenna, or cable services via the coaxial connector, or from composite/S-Video sources via the analog break-out cable. HDHomeRun cannot receive any analog signals."


but from the Elgato 250 Plus product page:


"EyeTV 250 Plus is a hybrid TV tuner for the Mac with a powerful hardware encoder for higher quality recordings and smaller sized video files. EyeTV 250 Plus receives free-to-air HDTV, analog TV, and Clear QAM digital cable. EyeTV 250 Plus offers a complete solution for converting videos from VHS tape to DVD-Video."


but, you know, i own one. so when i connected my cable line to it to see what happens, i got the cable analog channels only. could not tune any Clear QAM digital channels. so ... the FAQ page is right and the Product page is wrong alas.

see this page; http://faq.elgato.com/index.php/faq/more/634/


At MacWorld Expo, Elgato announced new version of EyeTV and updated hardwares... which now includes Clear QAM supports