Apple updates QuickTime Broadcaster (and how to turn your Mac into a PVR)

Apple has posted an Intel-compatible version of QuickTime Broadcaster, its free live encoding software that lets you produce professional-quality live events for online delivery (or record directly to your hard drive). QuickTime Broadcaster supports video capture from most FireWire-equipped sources, including DV cameras, some webcams and DV converter boxes.

QuickTime Broadcaster is Apple’s award-winning live encoding software that lets you produce professional-quality live events for online delivery—quickly, easily and affordably. MacNN notes the release of the Universal version of the application, version 1.5.1.

More info and download link here.

MacDailyNews Note: Take the output of your cable or satellite box, pass it through a DV converter, plug that FireWire output into your Mac and, using QuickTime Broadcaster, your Mac is now a PVR. Use Apple’s QuickTime Broadcaster AppleScripts that will start, stop, record, etc. QuickTime Broadcaster in conjunction with a script scheduler such as iDo Script Scheduler (US$24.95). The best thing is that what you record will be encoded live to your drive in a format you specify (for example: iPod video) in QuickTime Broadcaster’s preferences – no additional encoding necessary!

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32 Comments

  1. haha, “DV converter”… you mean a $400 peice of equipment that I dont have… I guess I could use my handycam… anyone know of a cheap dv converter?? I dont want to use my $$$$ camera

  2. If you have digital cable, your provider is legally required to offer a box that has FireWire out. You can simply connect your box to your Mac with a FireWire cable and record that way. This is kinda old news.

  3. I have a comcast DVR box for digital cable. I’ve been using a couple of programs to grab content (haven’t been able to hack into the content stored on the DVR itself, yet) with a couple of programs, but they are pretty clunky. This sounds much better.

  4. EyeTv200 is made to do exactly that…take your cable and schedule/record TV shows onto your computer and then use iMovie to edit them. I guess you could use QTB instead of the EyeTv software……

  5. Will EyeTV do HDTV from cable?

    The Soccer World Cup is looming and most of the games should be in HDTV. I have a cable box with DVR and I dearly would love to transfer some of the games to my mac for archiving to DVD.

    Anyone know if this can be done in a realitively easy manner?

  6. Um, PVR NOT. More like a digital tapeless VCR. The beauty of TiVo and others like it is it can change channels on its own, do dual tuners (like my TiVo) and record things based on tastes or get every ep in a series. Plus, they don’t require much attention (until your disks start getting full). Worlds different.

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