Filed under: Hardware, Software, Video, How-tos, Tips and tricks
PVR to Mac Solutions: Which do you use?
Dear TUAW readers, you've been so helpful in my quest for information on a digital camera that people from across the Weblogs, Inc intranet have been Since you all know that I have a ReplayTV and use mReplay or DVArchive to grab shows for mobile viewing on my Powerbook, I thought I'd turn the question around to you: What PVR do you have and what do you use to grab shows off of it? Do you use something in particular to grab shows off of your TiVo box, or perhaps enjoy HDTV conversion to the Mac over Firewire with your Comcast PVR? Do you use a Mac mini in combination with an El Gato EyeTV?
Please let us know what T.V. to Mac time-shifting set-up you employ. Any special insight from those of you using the Motorola DCT6400 would be greatly appreciated by Judith. Hey, Judith! ;-)
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CB said 9:31PM on 7-14-2005
We got a Tivo at first and now we can't be bothered to part with it. I really, really wish Tivo2Go was Mac compatible and not DRM'd.
For my Mac viewing pleasure I set up a headless MythTV box. It records the shows, chops out commercials, and automatiaclly converts to MPEG4 for viewing on my Powerbook. Best of all, I can manage the whole thing using the MythWeb interface. It works well enough for what I want to do.
Reply
John P. Speno said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I use DVarchive with my replays. Didn't know about mReplay, though I think I looked at it when it was just a dinky wxPython program several years ago. My how you've grown! I shall check it out!
Reply
nick santilli said 4:59PM on 7-19-2005
Well, I've got the DISH PVR. No solution (but I haven't looked yet).
anyone got any DISH to OS X solutions to share?
good topic. hope it nets some great tips!
Reply
iFelix said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have used elgato eyeTV and eyeHome and found it to be a fantastic combination which works. Using tvtv.co.uk allows me to pick and choose my viewing pleasure.
Reply
some dude said 4:43PM on 6-30-2005
I've got two words for you: "bit" & "torrent"
Reply
Casey Kelley said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Hey C.K., I think I can help you and Judith out. Visit http://macteens.com/more.php?id=410_0_1_0_C for a basic rundown.
The article says 6200, but it works fine on the box Comcast gave me. Not sure exactly of the model number, but I'm pretty sure it's the 6400. Matches all the specs.
She'll have to get the latest Firewire SDK here: http://developer.apple.com/sdk/ Scroll down for Firewire SDK 19.
The sad part is that the audio seems to not play back for me anymore. I got my G5 with Tiger and did everything I used to on my G4 with Panther. I even bought the $20 Apple QuickTime MPEG2 Decoder which didn't help (thanks a lot), and when I try to play it back through VLC, it seems to shut down my entire audio hardware somehow! No sound coming out and if you even try to start playing back audio, a force quit of the application is in order. A restart is required to get it to come back "online". This worked fine on my G4 with Panther (although choppy). Maybe it's just a bug with VLC, Tiger, or maybe the SDK itself. I'm working to find a solution. If any of you guys can help, please do!
Reply
C.K. Sample, III said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Hey, Casey, Thanks for the info. I have a question though: have you tried running the files through ffmpegX and converting them to MPEG4. I'd be interested if that would fix the audio probs ( I suspect the audio track is there and it simply isn't demuxing properly through QuickTime).
Reply
jpmist said 9:01PM on 7-09-2005
I have an EyeTV 200 on my Mini with output to my TV. Kinda neat. The Eye Tv channel guide is no replacement for the Replay's guide, but the shows I record with it are far easier to work with because they're already on the Mini drive. Saves having to pull the program off the Replay, which takes far too long.
The EyeTV software is pretty impressive, the editing function works perfectly and it's good to see El Gato has a new version that's
Tiger compatible.
I use mReplay to pull files off the Replay and prefer it to DVArchive simply because it's easier to use. I hoped that the Mini/EyeTV setup would replace the Replay, but until the program guide gets a lot more sophisticated, I use the Replay 80% of the time and use the EyeTV to record mainly the stuff that's worth burning to DVD.
I'm still really miffed that I have to upgrade QT pro again, but I've found that if you simply rename your old Quicktime Player from 10.3.9 it'll still work in Tiger.
Reply
JFM said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have a series-1 tivo with an ethernet board added. I can download raw MPEG-2 files directly from the TiVo without any DRM. Check out the forums on http://www.dealdatabase.com for more info about video extraction hacks.
Reply
Paul Wren said 9:47AM on 6-24-2005
I have two ReplayTV units (one per TV), and a Mac I use as a server (it has a very large FireWire HD) running DVArchive. All three hang on the home ethernet (100Base-T), and I move programs I want to keep for later viewing to the server (we can stream 'em back at any time to the Replays, as you know).
I also dump movies & shows to my PowerBook via DVArchive for viewing when I travel.
If only there was a one-step process for converting those DVArchive MPEG-2 files for burning them to DVDs...
Reply
Casey Kelley said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
C.K.: That worked perfectly. I never used to re-encode my videos. VLC played them at a pretty decent framerate.
And... WOW... ffmpegX is confusing. I was completely flustered trying to use that. Guess I have some learning to do with that UI. It's not bad, you just have to get used to it I guess.
Reply
pb said 1:03AM on 11-02-2005
ReplayTV with mReplay to pull down and mPlayer to view over Airport connection. Cool thing is you can download shows, stream saved shows and even stream live TV.
It's fantastic what you can do when all the stupid DRM crap is missing.
Anyone know if it's possible to extract off of Comcast Motorola box?
Reply
Elliot said 5:12PM on 8-08-2005
In response to the audio bug in VLC in Tiger, I saw a post on one of VLC's forums that provided a workaround. I can't find it now, but if you have more than one audio output on your mac, the audio is probably coming out the other one. You used to be able to go to the Audio Menu and then pick your device out of the Audio Device list. In Tiger this is grayed out. The trick is to go to the Help menu and then move your mouse across to the Audio menu, the menu will be restored, and you can choose the correct device.
Great topic choice by the way.
Reply
Thom Brooks said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Two Mac-based HTPC systems in our place (see my url):
iMac G5 20" 1.8ghz/1.5gb/250gb, EyeTV200/v1.8, and a
Mac mini 1.42ghz/1gb/80gb+400gb ext., EyeTV 500(x2)/v1.8
Also an EyeHome.
The iMac records stuff from analog cable, like BSG. The Mini records anything that's OTA HD, like Lost, Alias, etc. I got a second 500 so I would be able to get stuff that overlapped.
With the Sharp Aquos' digital tuner, I can be watching something else OTA HD while recording with the mini. That built-in tuner also includes i.Link (firewire), which I can use Virtual DVHS (from the Apple firewire SDK) to play transport streams directly to the TV. However, I haven't had much of a need to play them because I've found that for the most part, the mini can keep up.
There have been some issues with the setup...
The Aquos' EDID on the DVI port doesn't send a native 16:9 resolution as an option, but Gefen's DVI Detective and DisplayConfigX fixed that. And the Aquos doesn't accept discrete IR codes to switch between inputs, but it does have a serial port. So, an IRTrans + iRed + pySerial + some python and applescript code does the trick instead.
Each subsequent version of EyeTV keeps getting better and more stable, but there are still always some issues that their rabind userbase would like fixed, and features added.
A recent EyeHome software update finally made the Tomcat-based server solution more stable, but it doesn't play HD content. Their new EyeConnect software supports UPnP, however, for other third-party devices that do.
Worst of all has been the M-Audio Sonica Theater USB. After a year and a half, they finally released a driver to go from 1.5.7f1 to 1.6. It didn't improve anything for me; in fact, it causes my mini to kernel panic on a regular basis. I'm still trying to work out the issues.
Anyone who is seriously interested in exploring different configurations would do well to check out the AVS Forum specific to Mac HTPC, which is at:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=115
HTH,
Thom Brooks
Chicago, IL
Reply
Gord Barnes said 2:37PM on 6-20-2005
I am using DVD Studio Pro and burnning a DVD. When the process gets to 85% or so I get a window saying - Formatting failed not enough space on output media. I have 101 G of memory left. Does anyone know what my next step would be??
Needing Help
Reply