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What do I need to watch TV on my iMac?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 / Media Center
I am very close to buying the 24 inch iMac but want to make sure that I will be able to watch TV on it. I currently have digital cable from Cablevision and want to be able to hook up the cable from my wall and then split it with 1 cable going to my Internet cable box and the other going into a TV tuner then into the iMac. Two brands I have heard of are Elgato and the ATI TV Wonder HD650. I look forward to your response.
I recommend Elgato equipment and specifically the EyeTV 250 Plus tuner.
This will handle all the unencrypted Digital signals coming from your Cable company. It will not work with all channels however, as some channels are encrypted by your cable company to protect the content. This tuner will also work with the analog signals on your cable system as long as they continue to provide analog signals.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Hello again Jacob,
I thought I would follow-up your great answer with another option. If you are looking to just watch TV on your Mac, without having to hook up anything to it I would suggest a SlingBox. http://www.slingmedia.com/ They are great, and allow you to watch your TV or TIVO anywhere in the house, ir even on a laptop anywhere in the world. The beauty really is that you hook the box up to your cable or TIVO and a fast internet connection. Then you are watching TV just as you would sitting in front of it.
Just my 2cents.