Any of you guys use something like EyeTV to watch TV on your Mac? I’m thinking of getting a new Mac desktop with a 21’’ screen and ditching my (very) old box TV.
I already use my computer to watch DVDs, but want to be able to watch TV as well. I’m in the UK and only want access to the freeview digital channels.
The reviews look good, but I wanted some first hand opinions from people I trust (that’s you lot).
I used the original EyeTV for a long time and enjoyed it immensely. It’s got a lot of editing and export options that are nice if you want to edit out commercials or record or rewatch episodes. The interface is simple enough that anyone can figure it out. Recording quality is basically as good as your cable signal permits, so you’re not going to be sacrificing anything there.
We have two of them, and they are great. But the little toy aerial they supply is virtually useless, we had to connect them to our main household TV aerial to get all channels well. Also do make sure you keep their software up to date, they regularly make real improvements in both patches and entire new versions (which you have to pay for, but are worth it IMO).
I also got great support from them while I was working out the reasons for poor pictures; contributing to the problem were 1/ the aerial issue as above 2/ one of the units was older than the other and just not as good and 3/ the software version; they gave me a free upgrade form 2.xx to 3.xx which helped a lot.
And finally, being digital TV you need to periodically re-scan the spectrum for new channels as they are brought online. That also seemed to help with older channels going “off”, that is their signal apparently getting weaker. Another important thing to realise about digital TV is that unlike analog there are two states: great reception and none. So it’s critical to have good signal strength, including a good aerial.