TV Recording on the Mac

On 11/21/06, olibou <olibougmail.com> wrote:

> I participate in a project in wich we have to evaluate TV programs from competing networks. Because we are building a database, we want to capture the different programs to file and archive them.

> So, is anyone aware of a way to achieve such thing on a Mac? Are we just making things too complicated? Maybe it would be cheaper and more convenient to get some VCRs, or DVD recorder to do the job and then convert the programs?

EyeTV supports multiple tuners if you connect multiple devices.

At 15:26 -0800 21/11/06, olibou wrote:
>
>On the PC side, I did find an NVidia Dual Tuner card and the Vista View
>Saber 2020 dual Tuner card. That last one has the added bonus of
>supporting, trough the driver, a dual card setup (hence, the possibility
>of recording up to 4 tv programs simulatneously). It doesn't quite fit the
>bill, but still.
>
>So, is anyone aware of a way to achieve such thing on a Mac? Are we just
>making things too complicated? Maybe it would be cheaper and more
>convenient to get some VCRs, or DVD recorder to do the job and then
>convert the programs?

The Elgato 410 DTT box lets you watch one channel and record another from
the same multiplex - which may get you there.

The EyeTV software recognises 2 (maybe more) boxes so it should be able to
record two streams if your machine has the horsepower.

HTH

        f

With EyeTV you can use more than one tuner at once - you'll just have to buy more than one tuner. Then you run one copy of EyeTV for each tuner.

You may run into problems with hard drive and CPU speed though, unless you buy the (older) tuners that are physically bigger and have hardware encoding (so will send your computer a lower quality file, which is easier on your computer's hard drive and CPU when recording.)

There is some new Elgato product with dual tuners, but I don't think this works in the 'states.

Cheers, Felix

On 21-Nov-2006, at 16:26, olibou wrote:
> So, is anyone aware of a way to achieve such thing on a Mac? Are we
> just making things too complicated? Maybe it would be cheaper and
> more convenient to get some VCRs, or DVD recorder to do the job and
> then convert the programs?

Well, to be honest if I were in that situation I'd probably turn to
the Internet. Assuming the shows are at least somewhat popular,
you're going to find them on the torrent sites. And, since at least
according to the networks, taping and archiving is just as evil and
immoral and wrong as downloading, what's the difference.

OTOH, if you're talking about 6 "Meet the Press" type talking heads
shows, you might have more of a problem.

You are going to need multiple computers, which is probably OK
because you're going to need multiple sources anyway. A single COAX
cable can only tune one channel at a time, so you need a drop for
each program you want.

DirecTiVos include dual tuners, but getting the show archives still
involves ripping it via analog outputs, and you'd need three DirecTivos.

Now, if you are part of some organization you might be able to get
the networks in question to GIVE you the shows.. Possibly worth
looking into.

--
...gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed
they were not here,

On 11/22/06, olibou <olibougmail.com> wrote:
> I would like suggestions by my fellow tidbitzen on the following problem...
> I participate in a project in wich we have to evaluate TV programs from competing networks. Because we are building a database, we want to capture the different programs to file and archive them.
> TV capture solutions are manyfold on the PC side and a bit more scarce on the Mac OS X side. But none seem to exactly adress a constraint we have to cope with: of the 6 TV shows (network news programs actually), 5 of them air at the same time.

I had quite satisfactory results using a Formac Studio external
DV-converter firewire box and BTV (shareware) to record one channel at
time using a 450Mhz cube back when I first moved to Paris. And I've
heard very good things about the Miglia Director's Cut 2
(http://www.miglia.com/products/video/director2/). So, I'd think with
any current(esque) machine you'd be fine.

But the data stream is pretty formiddable, to try to record 5 data
streams simultaneously is probably a recipe for disaster unless you
want to invest in a RAID array that can accommodate the data fast
enough.

It would most like end up being less expensive to get 5 separate Mac
Minis and a converter box for each. The added bonus is that then you
would also have 5 DVD burners and archiving to DVD would be a faster
process.

Christopher Appell
European Market
SpecialtyJobBoards.com
FreeRecruiting.com
JobMart.com

On 21 Nov 2006, at 23:26, olibou wrote:

> TV capture solutions are manyfold on the PC side and a bit more
> scarce on the Mac OS X side. But none seem to exactly adress a
> constraint we have to cope with: of the 6 TV shows (network news
> programs actually), 5 of them air at the same time. Solutions
> allowing the recording of TV shows through PCI/PCIe cards or
> external USB 2.0 abound, but not many allows the recording of
> simultaneous shows (we operate with analog cable).

EyeTV 2.0 from Elgato may possibly allow you to create the system you
require. Although I have no experience with the exact system you
wish to use, I run a system on a Core Duo Mac Mini that has two USB
2.0 DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) Tuners, and the software is
quite happy recording from both at the same time. I was told by a
member of Elgato staff at the recent Mac Expo show in London, that
within reason the software would recognise as many tuners as were
connected to it (I personally suspect that it would stop working
before I ran out of USB 2.0 connectors). In your case I would
suspect that it might be necessary to split the task across two
CPU's. Elgato themselves make several different variants of TV
hardware, and the software also supports hardware made by other
manufacturers.

<http://www.elgato.com>

Regards,

Patrick Keene,

Den 23/11/2006 kl. 22.21 skrev Felix Lawrence:

> With EyeTV you can use more than one tuner at once - you'll just
> have to buy more than one tuner. Then you run one copy of EyeTV for
> each tuner.
>
> You may run into problems with hard drive and CPU speed though,
> unless you buy the (older) tuners that are physically bigger and
> have hardware encoding (so will send your computer a lower quality
> file, which is easier on your computer's hard drive and CPU when
> recording.)

Using my TVMini from http://www.miglia.com there is a poorly
documented feature in EyeTV whereby I can watch several (digital)
channels simultaneously with only one receiver(!).

It works by opening new windows with ctrl-alt-cmd-O (IIRC), and these
windows can have the content that I desire.

I have not tried to save the shows yet, but the channels look very
well in my eyes.

Cheers,

Kim

If I had to do six shows at a time, I'd get three double TIVOs.

TIVO works. And, if you miss a show it might pick it up later.

Working with TV shows over networks is laborious. I can't believe anyone does it over the internet.

TIVO is nothing more than a digital recorder, that has a schedule built in that it renews by checking the schedules. Once you have a show on TIVO, you can either dump it to a disk, or burn it to a DVD--preferably on a burner right on the recorder.

I don't know what your budget is, but you would be hard-pressed to do it cheaper. It is true that TIVO screws up your life with some copy protection, but that can be circumvented by burning the DVD or using Direct Show Dump (sp?).

I have tried to network movies in my house, and let me tell you, bandwidth is not a trivial issue.

Cable TV may seem like a stoneage technology, but the bandwidth is incredible. A lot bigger than the internet.

You can buy DVD Recorders, complete with tuners, for less than $100, (I bought one at Staples for $49.99 after rebate.) You could use five of those to record your programs to DVD and then use HandBrake on the Mac to convert the DVD data to Quicktime-compatible MPEG-4/AAC files.

I have a dual Tuner Comcast DVR, an EyeTV 500 hooked to a Intel Core Duo Mini recording HDTV, and EyeTV 200 recording analog cable, another Comcast box with an R5000HD from Nextcomwireless installed to send USB decoded digital video from any of the 400 channels to a Win XP box, also on the network. So I can record 5 shows at once. But it ain;t easy!

I also download Torrents when these machines don't work!

Ron

I think the torrent approach (if possible) might be the
simplest/cheapest.
But the triple-tivo approach sounds like the most fun. :-)
and just recently, it got much easier for mac users to strip the DRM
from a TiVo recording:

   http://tivodecode.sourceforge.net/
   http://forums.macosxhints.com/showpost.php?p=339291

This is the crucial step to allow subsequent archival (to hard drive or
DVD).

Historically this was only possible via the PC-only "Direct Show Dump"
that Clyde refers to below.

HTH
rob

Hello again

First, many thanks for every bit of information.

Now, let's say I have a brand new Macbook and 3 plextor PX-TV402U. (http://www.plextor.com/english/products/TV402UMac.htm) Can the macbook usb infrastructure handle the load of 3 concurrently operating units? Encoding in mp4, I'd say yes, but still, usb ain't firewire.

It was said earlier that running spawns of Elgato eyetv allowed one to record on more than one analog device. Anybody actually ever did that?

Thanks

Olivier