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TV on Snow Leopard

A

Avvocato Effetti

Senior member
Here is the question.

I want to watch HDTV on my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard.

What's the best hardware/software combo to set up to get that done?
 
Elgato EyeTV. Pretty much the definitive tuner for Mac. Theres the USB key sized EyeTV Hybrid or the bigger DVR EyeTV 250 Plus, which has a built in decoder.
http://www.elgato.com/

The 250 Plus is on sale right now for $150. The Hybrid is also $150.
 
Software: hands down I'd recommend EyeTV. IMHO it's the best TV software on any platform.

Hardware: Right now, I'd recommend the EyeTV Hybrid tuner. Currently you can get it bundled with eyeTV and remote for $150, which is a great deal for a complete Mac TV tuning solution. The hybrid is nice because it does NTSC and FM as well as ATSC/QAM.

Otherwise: I'd recommend my fave, the HDHomeRun from silicon dust. It's more of a 'whole house' TV solution, as it delivers dual channels of ATSC/QAM (no NTSC) to every computer on your (wired) ethernet network. (Does not work via wireless).

ATSC/QAM works great on a Mac. If you need to tune a source through a digital sat or cable set top box, then it get a lot more complicated (and expensive) on the Mac as far as channel-changing hardware and software.
 
Thanks for the input.

Here is a draft of what I propose to do.

Purchase an additional Time Warner setup box with DVR. This will be a dedicated setup box to feed a Slingbox.

Purchase a Slingbox and connect it to the above setup box and to my wired Linksys home network.

Replace my current Linksys router/wireless B access point with a new AirPort Extreme (dual N) base station with a built-in hard drive.

Plug in both internet modem and sling box into the Airport Extreme. Distribute wired ethernet and wireless dual N through the house. One issue, the AirPort extreme doesn’t have enough ethernet outlets for my current setup.

Pick up and control HDTV on my MBP through its integrated dual n capability.

What am I not thinking about?
 
I have a Slingbox Solo installed remotely so I can watch my teams, and that's basically my setup, minus the DVR and LAN aspect. However, both ends of my setup have Fios, so we usually get bitrates in the ~2000kbit range. Works great.

I can only imagine how much better it'd be on the same LAN. One word of caution, the Slingplayer software for OSX is a bit behind Windows. There's no guide built into the app itself, for instance, so you'd have to use the DVR's guide.
 
Most likely yes and yes. I mean, I'm on 20 mbit Fios in both directions and get good bitrates. Wireless N offers way more than that over short distances.
 
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