Freesat on a Mac

[Roobsa]

I've been looking at ways to watch my spare Freesat box on my Mac however these things tend to confuse me somewhat. I'm looking for a bit of clarification about what I need, hardware and cables wise. My Freesat box is hooked up to the aerial fine, and I think what I need is one of these Cinergy S USB Mac plus an LNB cable.

If someone could correct/confirm this is what I need, it'd be much appreciated.

 

[Stiggy]

By 'aerial' I hope you mean 'dish'?

You will need a co-ax cable from an output from the LNB on your dish to the DVS-B box.

You will also need software on your Mac to play/record the transmissions.

You won't technically get 'freesat' as you won't see the full freesat EPG, but you will get 'now and next' data for each channel.

 

[YellowSphere]

You also wouldn't get any HD channels with that box. You'd need a DVB-S2 receiver for that.

 

[nwhitfield]

For HD you could consider the latest versions of the Elgato Eye TV 310:

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/int/mainmenu/products/tuner/310/product1.en.html

 

[Roobsa]

By 'aerial' I hope you mean 'dish'?

You will need a co-ax cable from an output from the LNB on your dish to the DVS-B box.

You will also need software on your Mac to play/record the transmissions.

You won't technically get 'freesat' as you won't see the full freesat EPG, but you will get 'now and next' data for each channel.

Yeah, I did mean dish, it was late when I wrote that.

Thanks for the replies, will check out the EyeTV 310, it's just a fair bit more expensive than the Cinergy.

 

[Stephen Neal]

You also wouldn't get any HD channels with that box. You'd need a DVB-S2 receiver for that.

DVB-S2 is not required for BBC HD, ITV HD or Luxe HD. These all share transponders with SD service and are thus broadcast in DVB-S not DVB-S2. They ARE in H264 rather than MPEG2 though - so you need a powerful Mac to decode them. (My Intel Macbook isn't quite up to full 1080/50i H264 with proper de-interlacing)

 

[Stephen Neal]

The Digital Everywhere FireDTVS2 is the same electronically as the EyeTV 310 I believe - and can work with EyeTV 3 in the same way with the latest firmware. I have one that I use on my Mac in both Windows (Bootcamp) and Mac OSX - it connects via Firewire.

The advantage of this model over most others is that it accepts a Conditional Access Module (CAM) via a Common Interface (CI) slot. This allows you to watch encrypted content with a suitable CAM and viewing card. With the right CAM and a Free-to-View card you can get C4HD this way - which is DVB-S2 and encrypted, but subscription-free. If you have a Sky HD box and a Sky HD subscription you can also watch and record Sky HD channels in this way. (Useful if you want to archive stuff - but in this way you can only record one channel per CAM/Card combo)

HOWEVER - if you are interested in HD - check that your Mac is powerful enough to cope with 1080/50i H264.

 

[YellowSphere]

DVB-S2 is not required for BBC HD, ITV HD or Luxe HD. These all share transponders with SD service and are thus broadcast in DVB-S not DVB-S2. They ARE in H264 rather than MPEG2 though - so you need a powerful Mac to decode them. (My Intel Macbook isn't quite up to full 1080/50i H264 with proper de-interlacing)

I stand corrected.