Mac as DVR

thesophist · Apr 17, 2007

Hello all,

I was wondering if there was a way to use my new MacBook as a DVR? I love the TV show "House M.D.", but I work most of the time that it is on. I would love to be able to set my wonderful mac to record it, but I am not sure how to do it. The Macbook does not have an S-Vid connection, so a new switch like myself is kinda at a loss. I do not mind downloading any software that I need to, but I am looking to spend as little money as possible seeing as I am a poor college student. Thank you for your time and efforts in advance!

bmcgonag · Apr 18, 2007

thesophist said:
Hello all,

I was wondering if there was a way to use my new MacBook as a DVR? I love the TV show "House M.D.", but I work most of the time that it is on. I would love to be able to set my wonderful mac to record it, but I am not sure how to do it. The Macbook does not have an S-Vid connection, so a new switch like myself is kinda at a loss. I do not mind downloading any software that I need to, but I am looking to spend as little money as possible seeing as I am a poor college student. Thank you for your time and efforts in advance!

I'm not sure, haven't used my mac for this yet, waiting for the mini (soon i hope) but check out the EyeTV - elgato site for options. I believe these are about the best option for what you are wanting to do.

The other route would be install parallels on your Macbook, then install Windows and try one of the many USB2.0 Windows solutions for recording TV.

check out "Windows TV Tuner USB 2.0" on google, and you'll be immediately overwhelmed. Sift through, and see what you find.

Best,

Brian

coach_z · Apr 18, 2007

i have heard good things about the elgato products when attempting to do this....
-chris

giulio · Apr 18, 2007

If you have a Firewire cable and a firewire-capable cable box, you're all set. The programs are free and you can rip down the pure mpeg stream right to your macbook. No conversion, no analog, no quality loss, VERY BIG files.

I've done this with my old TiPB and it does work pretty sweet.

The program will tell the cable box what channel to turn to, and then proceed to pull down the mpeg stream into a file.

And no, it's not illegal. Is a VCR illegal? Just don't go posting the file all over the internet / bittorrent.

giulio · Apr 18, 2007

Oh yeah.. the programs:

AVC Browser Enhanced
iRecord (the dvr program)
MPEG Streamclip (cut the streamed filed, save as mpeg)

giulio · Apr 18, 2007

"One more thing"

If your cable box does not have the firewire connection, you can request a new box that does have it. It's actually a law, they are required to exchange the old box with a FW box - for free - if you request it. That's what I had to do to get this to work.

skibrat · Apr 18, 2007

where do you get the AVC software. I've looked a bit for it with no luck. This sounds interesting.

bmcgonag · Apr 18, 2007

skibrat said:
where do you get the AVC software. I've looked a bit for it with no luck. This sounds interesting.

Check this site, has some good info, and links. haven't tried the links.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2349&p=3

Brian

giulio · Apr 18, 2007

That story is over 2 yrs old. But I remember it, as it is how I started to figure things out.
As the story states, some of the programs are available on the OSX xCode install CDs

thesophist · Apr 18, 2007

Wow, thanks for all of the help! I still have some specific questions. Right now I have a 27" Sanyo box TV (not HD and not flat screen) and my TV connection is through a pair of rabbit ears, haha. I am a poor college student. I am sure that a basic DVR program would work (like iRecord) but I still do not know how to connect the Mac to the TV. Thanks for the help and I hope to hear from you soon! Have a great day!

giulio · Apr 18, 2007

If you don't want to pay for something like elgato, you'll need an mpeg stream through firewire. I don't think rabbit ears will do that =)

bmcgonag · Apr 19, 2007

I found that the AVC Browser is in cluded in the FirewireSDK package available on apple.com site. But it doesn't look like the app in the tutorial above. Is that a tweaked version? If so, where can you get it, the links are dead, and google searches basically just bring up the same link.

Thanks,

Brian

giulio · Apr 19, 2007

The tutorial is over two years old. You probably downloaded a much updated version.

bmcgonag · Apr 19, 2007

I know I did. From 19 to 23 on SDK version

I can get the DVR to show up for output, but not input. Not sure why.

Brian

giulio · Apr 19, 2007

Do you have the cable box's firewire port connected to the laptop's firewire port?

bmcgonag · Apr 20, 2007

Firewire is connected.

Double checked it and all.

Like I said the setup works in Windows, but I prefer not to use boot camp if I don't have too.

Would be nice if Parallels had firewire support.

Brian

giulio · Apr 20, 2007

I remember having to install xcode... and it may have something to do with allowing certain comm through firewire.

bmcgonag · Apr 20, 2007

I have xcode installed, but I'll check the comm thing.