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frared LED at the end) to emulate a remote control. In theory, the EyeTV HD can change
channelsonanyset-topbox(suchasacablebox,satellitereceiver,oradigitalconverterbox).
Why would you do this? I can think of a few reasons—the best one being that you're a cord
cutterwhorelies onfreeover-the-air broadcast channels (whichoftenprovide betterpicture
quality than cable and satellite) for live TV. You can connect an over-the-air antenna, like
the
Mohu Leaf
(about $40) to a digital converter box (like
this one from IVIEW
, which fea-
tures component video outputs that should work nicely with the EyeTV HD), then connect
theconverter boxtotheEyeTVHDtocapturefreebroadcastTVtosupplement native Apple
TV content.
Inmycase,Ihavethecheapestcablepackagethatmyprovideroffers.Theincludedcablebox
is terrible, and with the EyeTV HD, I can skip its interface entirely.
Hook Up the EyeTV HD
TheEyeTVHDrequiresafewconnections.Iwon'trepeatitssetupguide,butI'dliketooffer
a few pointers:
•
Where to put the EyeTV HD:
TheEyeTVHDmustconnecttobothyourMac
(via USB) and your set-top box (via composite, component, or S-video). If those
aren't near each other, making the connection can be a real headache. The spe-
cified limit of USB is 16 feet (about 5 meters), but the cable that comes with the
EyeTV HD is only about 2 feet long (less than 1 meter). There is no specified
maximumfortheA/Vcables,butsincethey'reallanalog,thesignaltendstode-
grade with length.
Anotheroption,andtheoneIchose,wastoplacemycableboxinmyoffice,con-
necting it to the living room set-top box with 25 feet of coaxial cable.
•
Picking the output port:
The EyeTV HD has both a component video output
port and an A/V breakout port with an included adapter for composite and S-
video.
The idea is that you connect a high-definition set-top box to the TV via HDMI
and also connect it to the EyeTV HD with component video, which is the only
analog output that can do HD. (Composite and S-video are only standard defin-
ition.)
But, how you connect the set-top box to the EyeTV HD depends on your setup.
I have a bare-bones cable box with only composite (yellow for video, white and
red for audio) outputs, so I connected it to the EyeTV via the aforementioned
