- Joined
- Dec 23, 2011
- Messages
- 291
- Reaction score
- 20
- Points
- 18
- Location
- Portland, OR
- Your Mac's Specs
- 21.5" iMac 3.06 I3, 16Gig Ram, OSX 10.6.8
In retirement I'm always trying to find a way to save a buck. My Social Security checks put me below the poverty level so I try to be frugal with my money. In that effort I decided to research the possibility of watch tv from my cable company, Comcast, on my 21.5" iMac. I read the ideas on the internet and decided to go the cheap route, a firewire direct link to my Comcast control box.
I have a Motorola RNG150N box which is designated a High Definition device. Let me say up from the resulting picture on your iMac from this hookup is not in HD. The process is pretty straight forward. Hook the firewire port from your cable control box to your iMac firewire port, load two pieces of free software and bingo, you've got tv on your Mac.
The two pieces of software are VLC (VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!) and firewiresdk26.dmg, a utility program free from Apple on their developmental page. Lots of luck in actually finding it as they keep changing the name and moving it around. My guru friend dug it up and downloaded it. He actually hooked up the whole system and got it running smoothly. I bought the firewire cable itself from PCH Cable in Beaverton, OR. Computer and Audio Video Cables at Discount Prices You will never get good quality cables cheaper anywhere. It's a candy store for geeks.
Since I already had VLC on my iMac once my friend acquired the Apple software we were in in less than 5 minutes. You get an on-screen channel changer with the software setup plus the ability to record programs using VLC. So cool, so easy, so cheap!
I have a Motorola RNG150N box which is designated a High Definition device. Let me say up from the resulting picture on your iMac from this hookup is not in HD. The process is pretty straight forward. Hook the firewire port from your cable control box to your iMac firewire port, load two pieces of free software and bingo, you've got tv on your Mac.
The two pieces of software are VLC (VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!) and firewiresdk26.dmg, a utility program free from Apple on their developmental page. Lots of luck in actually finding it as they keep changing the name and moving it around. My guru friend dug it up and downloaded it. He actually hooked up the whole system and got it running smoothly. I bought the firewire cable itself from PCH Cable in Beaverton, OR. Computer and Audio Video Cables at Discount Prices You will never get good quality cables cheaper anywhere. It's a candy store for geeks.
Since I already had VLC on my iMac once my friend acquired the Apple software we were in in less than 5 minutes. You get an on-screen channel changer with the software setup plus the ability to record programs using VLC. So cool, so easy, so cheap!