Record Live TV

by Steph

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In a related video, we showed how to install a TV antenna to watch TV for free. In this video, we are going to cover how to schedule/record live TV.

Equipment/Materials:

• Antenna
• HD TV
• Computer (Apple Mac Mini)
• TV Tuner (HDHomeRun CONNECT)
• Recording software (eyeTV3)

First we setup a HD antenna, which we covered in another video. In this setup you will plug the antenna into the tv tuner and not into the tv directly.

The TV tuner I use is called HDHomeRun. Connect the antenna to the TV tuner. This device will provide a TV signal on the computer through the wired home network. Next, plug the TV tuner into the wireless router.

Mac mini or other computer

HD TV

Connect your computer to your TV. Mine plugs in with HDMI which is a standard connection on most TVs.

HDMI cable in Mac mini

HDMI cable in TV

In order for the TV tuner to show up on the computer, we need to visit myhdhomerun.com to download the tuner software. Follow the instructions for your tuner software.

Once the tuner is active and recognized by the computer, you can download software that allows you to watch/schedule/record TV. The software I use is called eyetv3.

• Install the software and open eyetv setup assistant. Go through the prompts and choose the correct hardware from the list. This device actually has two tuners, meaning you can record two different channels at the same time.
• Click auto-tune to search for channels. Depending on your area,the number of channels you get will vary.
• When finished, the live TV viewer will pop up and you can surf through channels using the on-screen remote.
• In the schedules section of the main window, you can setup TV recording.
• In the recordings section, you will see all your shows. Just double click to watch.

The HDHomeRun TV tuner has many other features we didn't go over. Check it out online to learn more. This current setup has been working very well for me for some time. You will have to spend some money up front but there are no monthly fees after that!

If you have a new AppleTV, this setup might work for you.
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• ​Please note: We are not sponsored by any of the companies/products that we used. These products were picked and bought by us.
• FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!
• FYI: Amazon affiliate links are being used on this page.

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