TV capture card recommendation for Mac

m_stan

Have a Mac Pro with lots of free USB and PCI slots. Looking for a recommendation for a TV capture card - preferably PCI as it saves me a USB port. Any recommendations from those who have one setup and working? Thanks

Talisman

As far as I know there are no Mac OS X drivers for the likes of the Pinnacle PCI tuner cards. You are entering a realm where Elgato is king and they have decided that if you want to use their software you really need to use their USB dongles.

There used to be a German/Austrian company called Digital Everywhere that created the hardware for Elgato. Elgato decided to source the hardware elsewhere because they were selling it with their own "Apple tax" - for example Elgato were selling the satellite DVB-S tuner for €240, Digital Everywhere were selling the almost identical hardware for €120 and were also offering a DVB-S2 tuner with CI for €180. The big difference between the products was the connection - Elgato used USB, Digital Everywhere used Firewire. Elgato also shipped the EyeTV software with their products. Digital Everywhere had two versions of their product - external (FireDTV) and internal (FloppyDTV), both connected to the computer via a Firewire port. Elgato effectively put Digital Everywhere out of business when they decided to source the hardware elsewhere and they were also talking about pulling support for the Digital Everywhere hardware from their software.

Anyway the reason for the little history lesson is that Digital Everywhere has risen from the dead in a manner of speaking because it has been acquired by a German company called Digital Devices. So keep an eye out for them and there will quite possibly be a few threads appearing on the Elgato support forums.

Liameter

Talisman wrote: »

The big difference between the products was the connection - Elgato used USB

To clarify: ElGato now use USB but when they were selling rebadged FireDTV tuners they used Firewire. I still use several of these and they still come up on eBay each month.

The "ElGato EyeTV200" is the analogue tuner and analogue video input box with Firewire connection. It can be had for as little as £30 off eBay and the EyeTV software still works with it. Or at least the last version I downloaded still works!

If you want a Freeview tuner look for the EyeTV400 or 410 and the satellite tuner is the 300 or 310. (The latter type has a CI slot).

To be honest, you don't want an internal card because it's likely to be "deafened" by electrical noise inside the computer - even the well-screened Mac.

Talisman

Liameter wrote: »

To clarify: ElGato now use USB but when they were selling rebadged FireDTV tuners they used Firewire. I still use several of these and they still come up on eBay each month.

You're right - I was thinking of the Terratec Cinergy S-USB, just got a bit muddled.

Liameter

I had a Terratec (analogue terrestrial). Sent it straight back for a refund. Half the channels were missing and the rest were breaking up badly. I never decided whether my processor (at the time) was too slow or whether the tuner was very "deaf". Either way, it didn't work with my computer, where the EyeTV200 worked perfectly.

There's a third manufacturer. Trying to remember the name...

Actually, there are two more. One is Hauppage (Google it). Still trying to recall the other. Maybe began with M...

Ah, yes: "Miglia" (meeleea). Here's a good list:-

http://gigaom.com/apple/mac-tv-tuner-roundup-eight-tuners-to-tap-into-your-tv/


.

Talisman

Wasn't Miglia an analogue only tuner? I remember it's plus point was that it was the same shape as a Mac mini.

Liameter

Click on that link I posted then click on the Miglia link. I never owned one. All I know is that it originally used EyeTV software then ElGato pulled the plug so they had to quickly write their own. I was told that it wasn't very good software! Maybe it's improved now. However, as the OP's question was for a "video input" card, the Miglia might still be relevant.