How to Watch Live Online TV With a Mac
By The Guru | December 3, 2007
Over the past few years I have been getting more and more fed up with Microsoft Windows and my PC. About a month ago I decided it was about time to replace my PC completely and I ended buying a Mac. So far I love it! There is of course a downside and that is that the old software that I used to watch television on my computer only works on PC, I needed to go out hunting for other ways to watch live TV on my new Macbook Pro.
By doing a simple search in Google for “How to Watch TV Online With a Mac” I found tens if not hundreds of potential methods, however after experimenting and testing them out, I found that a few really stood out and the others were either still in early development or just mediocre.
How to Watch Live Internet TV on Your Mac
The first really solid way I found to watch Live TV online with a Mac was actually something I used when I had a PC…JohnQ Internet TV For Men. JohnQ Internet TV for Men doesn’t require any software, you can watch TV directly through the service in your Internet browser. This service has a ton of premium channels and movies targeted at men so of course you can find a lot of sports programming, great movies and last but not least adult content.
JohnQ probably offers the most legally licensed content out of all the methods out there for watching TV online with a Mac. Although there is a one time fee for signing up for JohnQ, you can access some of the content for free if you choose to create a “G-PG” account. If you are looking to watch the movies or adult offerings you will have to sign up for the All Access Account which is around $40.00. The great part about JohnQ is that there are no monthly fees, so I found the All Access pricing very reasonable.
The second way I found that allows you to TV through the Internet on a Mac is a new service called Joost. Joost is a start-up Internet television company that appears to have a lot of potential. They are attempting to start the first true company to compete with Cable and Satellite companies by delivering television through an Internet connection. Joost is still in early beta but you can download the Joost client for free if you have an Intel based Mac.
Overall I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the picture through Joost, however I do have high expectations and I’m sure it will improve once they get all the kinks worked out. We all know that the future of television is iTV or Internet TV so it looks like Joost is laying the foundation for that to really take off in the near future.
How to Watch Cable or Satellite on Your Mac
If you are looking to turn your Mac in to a DVR and watch your pre-existing Cable or Satellite television on your Mac you probably want to check out EyeTV. EyeTV basically allows you to watch Cable or Satellite on your computer and allows you to record these programs to your hard drive so you can play them back any time you want. The EyeTV hardware looks like a USB Thumb Drive with a USB connector on one end and a coaxial cable attachment on the other. You plug your cable or satellite into one end, the other end into your computer and your good to go. EyeTV seems like a pretty practical and straight forward solution.
Topics: Satellite TV on Your PC |