Using a Mac as a TV?

Hey there everyone,
I want to join the mac revolution. I also want a new TV... as I am not rich I thought to myself, can I use a Mac as a TV and connect it direct to my satellite box (via some sort of perihperal if necessary). The question is, do people do this?
Would a Mac make a good tv screen too?
Thanks in advance!

Hey there,
I'd definitely recommend the "killing two birds with one stone" approach. I used to have a tv, ut started watching so much tv on my mac, that since I've moved, I haven't yet taken my TV out of the box (about 4 months now.)
EyeTV is a great option, mainly because their software is so full featured, but you're going to have to purchase one of their video tuner devices. However, there is a free method, as alluded to above:
If you're in the US, there's FCC regulation that states that ALL cable providers have to provide you a cable box with a firewire (1394) output that delivers the channels unencrypted (there are some caveats, but that pretty much is what the law states) so, take a look at your cable box and see if there's a firewire port on it (usually 4 pin, the small one.) If there isn't, you're within your rights to call your provider an demand one, and they are required to provide it to you for free.
Once you have one of those, you simply plug a irewire cable from our cable box into your mac, and using VNC you can watch the stream. You're going to need a pretty beefy mac, especially if you're watching in HD. A tutorial on doing this is available at http://project-tigershark.com/people/rob/blog/2007/01/14/cable-tv-mac-firewire-h d-pvr/ and software for setting up timed recording is at http://www.ammesset.com/irecord/
There are also a ton of useful links on the topic of mac and tv here: http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/how-to-turn-your-old-computer-into-the-u ltimate-media-center-100-resources-and-tools/
Hope that helps,
Greg

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