Eye TV?

rockets19rockets19
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Does anybody out there have an Eye TV? I have read a few positive reviews on it, and I was curious if those who visit here, would recomend it.



Also, does anyone know if when recording, can you pause the recording? For example, say I am watching 24, and there is a commercial, can I pause the recording, and then start it up again when the commercials are over, therefore having one file without commercials?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    mrbilldatamrbilldata Posts: 489member
    I ordered an EyeTv yesterday.



    I like my TiVo. But I love the idea of having my system have access to all of the files.



    I too would like to hear what others think of their EyeTv.



    Thanks for the thread.
  • Reply 2 of 23
    coolmaccoolmac Posts: 259member
    Yup, I'm watching live TV on my EyeTV right now while I'm writing this.



    I haven't recorded anything yet but yes, you can skip over the commercials.



    I really like EyeTV, Elgato keeps updating the software to add new features, i.e. the newest version will wake your Mac from sleep to start recording.
  • Reply 3 of 23
    rockets19rockets19 Posts: 75member
    I am not sure I follow what you mean. I was asking if you could pause the recording. Your response made it seem as if you mean that you can fast forward through the commercials of something being recorded. Would you mind clarifying?
  • Reply 4 of 23
    dygysydygysy Posts: 182member
    From the EyeTV support page:



    "Pause Live Television



    EyeTV gives you the freedom to attend to interruptions without missing your favorite shows. You can pause whatever you're watching, whether it's a live television broadcast or a recorded show, and then resume watching whenever you're ready."
  • Reply 5 of 23
    rockets19rockets19 Posts: 75member
    I can see where you guys are misunderstanding me, but thats not what I mean. Currently, on my PC, I have an ATI all-in-wonder card. When I record a show, a small display appears that along with the time recorded, and the name of the show, has a stop button, and a pause button. The stop button is pressed when the show is over, and I want to stop recording. I use the pause button when a commercial comes on, and when the commercials are over, I press pause again, and the recording continues.



    I am not asking about pausing live tv, or pausing a recorded video, that much is obvious. I want to know if I can pause the actual recording while I am recording so I can save a step of having to edit out commerials. Sorry for all the confusion.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    no i dont believe they support that feature... also unlike your ATI AIW, there is a 2 second lag so if you had the same show on the TV as the eye tv, the eye tv would be a few seconds behind..



    also keep in mind that the eyeTV software is a 1.0 and that many updates and features will be added in the future
  • Reply 7 of 23
    snazlordsnazlord Posts: 62member
    can you replay (i.e. watch what you've recorded) on your TV; or only in some small window on your computer?
  • Reply 8 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    [quote]Originally posted by snazlord:

    <strong>can you replay (i.e. watch what you've recorded) on your TV; or only in some small window on your computer?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I believe that the eye TV device itself does not support this feature, but you could burn it to a VCD (right from the Eye TV app, I have yet to use this feature, so I am not sure if it works) or use monitor spanning/mirroring to watch the video on the TV from the computer...
  • Reply 9 of 23
    snazlordsnazlord Posts: 62member
    please forgive the tone of my post, but do eyeTV users really come home and watch TV programs at their desks, on their computers? It seems to me that it would really only be practical if you could play it back on the TV. Having to burn VCDs for each show you want to watch seems like a bit of a hassle. I suppose if you travel alone a lot, and don't mind watching a show or two off a laptop, then it might be usefull.



    Don't get me wrong; I like the idea. I would love to be able to have TiVo-like control over my TV from my mac, but i don't think eyeTV is quite there yet.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    works great for a dorm room
  • Reply 11 of 23
    keshkesh Posts: 621member
    It's not a feature of the eyeTV to watch it on your television. You'd have to get a VGA adapter for your Mac, and hook it up to a device which converts that to S-Video or RCA connections for your TV. That would display your entire Mac screen on a TV.



    The eyeTV itself is just for recording/playing TV shows on your Mac. Yes, people do watch movies and TV on their displays. Sometimes it's just more convenient than having a seperate TV taking up space.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    I would watch TV on my Mac just like I watch DVDs while I work. As said above, it removes a separate TV from the scenario. My home office is cramped already.



    I'm still on the fence about EyeTV though. It seems that it's still lacking something. I wonder how hard it would be to become more Tivo-like, by recommending shows or actually recording recommended shows. I'd imagine that it'd be easy to program this, since types of shows, actors, etc. are captured--however, that information is fed to EyeTV rather than the device downloading a full program schedule nightly a la Tivo et al. Oh well. If it adds one more cool feature I'll probably buy it.
  • Reply 13 of 23
    dogcowdogcow Posts: 713member
    You could pause to skip ads but wouldn't want to. Everytime you hit record again a new file is created. You end up with a file for every 10 minute bit of a show... kind of annoying. But you can skip over ads on a show that has already been recorded (there's a button that just jumps 30 seconds forward).



    Be aware that the files take up a huge ammount of your drive space. Unlike a tivo, you use your Mac's drive for more then just recording video. Just something to consider.



    Also, while i havn't used this feature it sounds useful, you can just plug an antena into the RF port and pick up broadcast TV. Becasue the unit is powered over USB you can watch TV on your iBook or powerbook anywhere.



    Overall i love the eyeTV. I have it programed to record the shows I like (and usally not around around to see). Then watch them when I want (usally late at night) and then delete them. You can even be recording a show while watching another pre-recorded.



    The only annoying thing is that becasue it uses MPEG1 its not very easy to edit. I was thinking about using it to capture some of my older homemovies and edit in iMovie, but the process is just too long to get the files into a workable state.
  • Reply 14 of 23
    snazlordsnazlord Posts: 62member
    don't mean to beat a dead horse, but...



    recording a show while you're away so that you can watch late at night when you get home is great - exactly what i'd use it for.



    However, when you watch the show late at night, are you lying on your couch watching the show on your TV? Or are you watching a small window on your computer?



    Hooking up my TiBook to my TV is no problem; I watch DVDs like that all the time. The full screen mode in DVD player works well, and when projected on my TV the picture is basically perfect.



    The question is, does the eyeTV software have a full screen mode, and if so does it simply magnify the standard small window so that the picture sucks? It would only be usefull to me if when played in full screen mode and hooked up into my TV, the picture was basically just as good as watching live TV on my TV (or at least like watching a semi-decent quality VHS tape on my TV)
  • Reply 15 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    it would be about the quality of VHS...



    you could also opt for better compression and exchange better picture for less hard drive space...
  • Reply 16 of 23
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    I often hear that VCD and VHS are comparable. That has not been my experience. VHS is far superior to the pixleated, compressed, "dont move too fast" artifacts produced via MPEG 1. I have a commercial VHS and VCD version of the same movie, and there is no way the VCD version compares. After all, VHS has more than 320 x 240 resolution.



    Now, while I like EyeTV--and might buy it, that comparison is not valid IMHO.



    [ 12-04-2002: Message edited by: gordy ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 23
    gambitgambit Posts: 475member
    I'll buy EyeTV (after much consideration and deliberation) ONLY after they release a firewire version. I don't like the limited resolution of EyeTV and I think that has to do with the fact that USB doesn't allow for much data to be transferred. Just my two cents.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    multimediamultimedia Posts: 1,035member
    I'll buy it when they support Closed Captioning. I hate watching shows that don't have closed captions. I have gotten in the habbit reading what is said all the time. I like it that way. This is not a hard feature to support. ATI's XClaim TV did it for years in OS 7, 8 and 9.
  • Reply 19 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    both of you please send EyeTV feedback.



    I'm sure they would love to hear from you about your issues with their current unit.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    How, exactly, would CC or Firewire + higher resolution be implemented in the current device? Since the core of the device is a hardware MPEG 1 (read: 320 x 240) encoder that is USB based, what, really, can we expect from El Gato? They probably purchased this device from an OEM who has no interest in adding CC or Firewire to the current board.



    I think the only features we can expect from El Gato are software based--e.g., what happens to the video before and after it is recorded (like wake-up, scheduling, GUI, etc.). They probably cannot change anything that happens during recording in short order--unless they release a new device.
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