[SUGGESTION BOX] EyeTV or other Video Input Device?

[Mr Ten]

Just pondering the option of having some video input into my desktop, either tv signal or gaming system (s-video, hd, rca?) and not sure what options are in front of me. Just got:

Dual Core 2ghz / 23" ACD / 2.5 gb total ram (may get 2 gb more)

It's a rare novelty thing, who knows, I may get addicted, but I need some stimulation with the long hours I spend on the computer. Any suggestions? Price doesn't bother me, but if it's $1000 or something more, I'm not that interested.

Thanks. :)

[scrouds]

well if you want to run a game system, you have different requirements then for tv. the game system needs something with low latency, whereas tv doesn't really care if you have a second or 2 delay between what goes on the wire and when you see it.

therefore, in terms of eyeTv, the eyeTV wonder USB is a good bet if you want to run a gaming system.

The 200 has an onboard video encoder, which is great because you can record that straight to disk and use very little processor cycles. But will introduce a lag in the video response that isnt good to enjoy video games.

Other brands run on the same principle. If it does onboard encoding, good for tv and not taxing yourf processor, but bad for games. If it sends the computer uncompressed video, then chances for it being good for gaming go way up.

[shell]

What he said, I'm happy with my Plextor ConvertX (EyeTV) for watching and recording TV, but there's a noticeable lag if I try to plug a video game console in, the lag seems to be as long as 4 or 5 seconds at times.

[SpecMode]

I've yet to try gaming on my Powerbook, but the TV Wonder USB 2.0 (manufactured by ATI, may still be available through Elgato's website) should be more than sufficient for casual TV viewing or videogaming; way back in January, Elgato had this particular model on the Macworld Expo show floor to demonstrate gaming performance.

[Franz Josef]

Elgato's EyeTV is very good indeed for casual TV viewing (and no doubt for non-casual viewing). Depending on model, it's only a couple of hundred dollars - I would recommend it. The user interface is good (also now exports in one click to iPods) and the model I use (EyeTV DTT) is certainly no CPU hog.

[rasmits]

If you ask your cable company for a firewire equipped set-top box, which they are legally obligated to provide, you can record programming with some freeware apps out there.

Not as polished as eyeTV, I'm sure, but it gets the job done. Plus, you can convert the files easily to an iPod or DVD format.