[pemulwuy]

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Anyone with experience in PAL tuners?
Thanks in advance.

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I've used EyeTV 250 (analog) and 400 (digital) firewire recorders for a few years with PowerBook, PowerMac G5 and MacBook, the former mostly for analog to digital conversion from tape but they work well together on separate firewire channels for multichannel recording.
PAL digital image is excellent and broadcast is usually higher than DVD quality for regular and better again for HD which is still rare here in Oz. Analog is hardly worth watching unless the source requires it.
Works equally well in consumer environment on MacBook and in research (media analysis) environment with multi-tuner via firewire PCI in G5 recording onto Xserve RAID. Playback is very good on screens from 13.3" up to 30" Cinema Display (using a reasonably fast card eg 6800 in a 2x2 or 2x2.7 PowerMac for the latter) imaging and motion are visibly better than a new 720p Samsung R8 series 32" LCD TV on same broadcast source material, which is the only one I've had a chance to compare in the same environment. I think Europe/UK is the same broadcast system as here if that's where you are. I'm looking forward to trying HD projector when I can get may hands on one.
If you like to keep programs plan on lots of HD space, its very easy to fill a terabyte, but HDs are not expensive. External is better so you don't fill you Mac. Exporting to various formats is easy but h.264 gives your CPUs a workout ... the turbo device looks very interesting so I must try it.
I've shared a single program database with multiple Macs on a network which is a bit buggy but less painful than some of the other networking options. I haven't used v2 software or USB devices but expect they would be good. I haven't tried the 410 cable or satellite models.
I get the feeling US users aren't as fluent or happy but I think their digital rollout is different and a bit behind. If you are going digital the new multi-tuner USB stick looks good, that would be my first choice if I hadn't started with firewire devices, you might be limited to two tuners on USB but that is enough for recreational use (although the networks do have a knack for putting everything you want to see on at the same time)
cheers ...