EyeTV Hybrid Help

Here's my situation.

I am close to buying EyeTV Hybrid 2008. I have Comcast cable here in Oregon. I called them up mentioning that I want to record cable to my computer. I asked them what the bit rate was as that is important for quality on the computer, evidently. I asked if it was MPEG-4 and she said yes, the cable does transmit in MPEG-4 quality, not MPEG-2, etc. But she said that she supervisor advised here I wouldn't get the digital cable quality just with a coax cable from the wall, even more so with the digital update in February. She said that I needed to get a digital cable box (no problem for me) then take the cable from the box to the computer for recording.

So now I have some questions, please.

1) I've read online that using a digital cable box inbetween the cable from the wall and your computer decreases quality. Is this true?
2) The Comcast gal told me that there are digital cards to install into the computer. I have a Mac, naturally, so I don't believe that's possible to get the signal. Am I missing anything with this?
3) Is EyeTV Hybrid the best option for me? I believe it is.


Many thanks for your time with helping me out. There's no number evidently to call Elgato, otherwise I would.

Whenever you speak to a cable or phone company tech, it's a roll of the dice who you're going to get on the phone and whether or not they're knowledgeable. I can't say whether the person you spoke with is or isn't, but I believe you were given some misinformation.

1. The digital box is probably something that Comcast is going to issue to its customers. Verizon has already issued them (my provider). As far as the box degrading the signal, I can't tell you if that's true or not but without the box you may not get any signal after Feb 2009.

2. Digital card for the computer? I don't think so. In any event to use the EyeTV Hybrid you don't need it.

3. Is the elgato EyeTV Hybrid the best option? You need to decide. They also offer a more expensive model that does not use your machine's CPU as does the Hybrid. If I were going to buy one, it would be the Hybrid. Unfortunately, for Verizon FIOS TV customers neither model will work right.

Regards.

I recently bought an elgato eyetv hybrid. At first I thought it was a POS. I have a G4 mac quicksilver 2002. With a 1.5 USB. So I had to buy a PCI 2.0 USB card (belkin).

At first it kept freezing up but then I booted it without it plugged in, and chaned the settings to not autosearch channels. Then I ran the setup wizard, and that seemed to work.

So ... in the end ... I'm happy with my elgato eyetv hybrid / belkin PCI usb 2.0 combo.

The Elgato hybrid has a quam tuner for digital cable if you split the cable
ahead of the box and run it to the Elgato it will work for everything that is not
scrambled if you want it all then it will have to come from the box to the Elgato but if I'm not mistaken the channel change will only be able to work
from the box.