And when you plug one into a TiVo HD or a Home Theater PC, those devices suddenly have access to all the same digital content as your cable box would. Your cable company is mandated by law to offer them.

(Yes, satellite subscribers, you’re completely out of luck-the satellite companies escaped the wrath of this particular law.) CableCard is, basically, a digital cable decoder in a small card. How do I do this?ĬableLabs' CableCard is a congressionally-mandated standard that lets companies other than your local cable outlet create devices that work with digital cable, including scrambled premium and high-definition content. I want a way to use an EyeTV with a cablecard somehow. Hi Jason, I’m interested in recording TV on my Mac, but I don’t want to use over-the-air programming. Take this note I received last week from reader Robert M: But that’s an analog capture of a formerly digital signal.)

record digital programming from some source other than over-the-air ATSC broadcasts? (Sure, you can attach your Mac to a cable or satellite box via something such as Elgato’s line of EyeTV products. Over the last year there’s one question that keeps floating up in e-mail I get from readers and on our forums: Why can’t Mac users in the U.S.

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