Mpeg-4 hardware encoding

[jhar257]

I was thinking of buying an external firewire/usb2 (don't care which) TV recorder to watch TV on my mac mini. I would also like to use it as a dvr. So far i have only found 3 products that fit the bill
1. Elgato Eyetv 200
2. Plextor Convertx PVR PX-TV402U-NA/MAC
3. Miglia Evolution TV

Do any of you out there use any of these products? I am especially interested in how much CPU they use while recording/watching as I would like to work at my computer at the same time. I am also interested in recording to mpeg-4/divx. Thanks for any help.

 

[gost8go]

I am interested in the answer to this as well. I have a powerbook.

I found this one as well...http://www.eskapelabs.com/mytv.html

 

[daveL]

I was thinking of buying an external firewire/usb2 (don't care which) TV recorder to watch TV on my mac mini. I would also like to use it as a dvr. So far i have only found 3 products that fit the bill
1. Elgato Eyetv 200
2. Plextor Convertx PVR PX-TV402U-NA/MAC
3. Miglia Evolution TV

Do any of you out there use any of these products? I am especially interested in how much CPU they use while recording/watching as I would like to work at my computer at the same time. I am also interested in recording to mpeg-4/divx. Thanks for any help.

My wife uses the EyeTv 200. In the latest update, they added mpeg4 encoding. The encoding is done in hardware on the EyeTv, not the Mac. She uses it on an Imac G5 1.8 GHz with minimal load on her system; she performs other tasks without any performance issues.