As an owner of a tablet and a nurse at a very tech savvy hospital, I'm not sure the real world agrees with you. I've all but stopped using mine as anything but a laptop and I never see them at work.
There probably needs to be an upgraded end-user application that ties into the organization's information management system to benefit from the technology. I can see where it can be extremely powerful, but it needs to be executed very well because of regulation and liability issues. Often, there is a lot of inertia that needs to be overcome to integrate a new technology into a large organization.
As an owner of a tablet and a nurse at a very tech savvy hospital, I'm not sure the real world agrees with you. I've all but stopped using mine as anything but a laptop and I never see them at work. As much as I would love to see Apple do a tablet, I don't think they have lost a single sale by not having one.
Depends on if the hospital or office uses tablet oriented software. My doctor's office has gone from paper charts to electronic ones on his tablet. His notes for follow ups etc get entered in his tablet and ends up at the front desk. He's just a GP so no xrays or so forth. That office use to have older iMacs (the G4 lamps) but now Viewsonic tablets. My wife's OB/GYN was testing tablets and they have iMacs as well.
As far as tech savvy hospital goes...does your hospital use the Vocera badges? If not the folks I spoke with at St. Agnes seemed to really like them. Was a couple years ago but if your IT folks are so inclined its worth looking at...it was cool. I'm thinking of trying to get some to try out...but thus far thinking that if we get our users hooked on wireless tablets we can use that instead. But its easier to get them to wear a badge than assume the always remember to grab a tablet. Different field but similar needs.
The current Mac PVR software pretty much boils down to EyeTV, and there is some third party hardware supported by the same EyeTV software, such as Miglia's tuners.
I think Miglia still bundles their own software with a couple of products, e.g. AlchemyTV DVR PCI card.
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The generel user interface ease-of-use of the EyeTV software is pretty good, but it's not very robust in my opinion, it crashes, stalls flakes out from time to time.
EyeTV versions before 2.3.3 have been very robust on my eMac. I reverted to 2.3.2 because the second or third scheduled recording wouldn't stop and the app required needed a Force Quit.
Lack of saved EPG searches remains my biggest gripe with the software. How Elgato could leave out such an obvious feature for so long is puzzling. I want "Smart Schedule" saved searches of matching criteria in the sidebar, not just Favorite Channels and Playlists (yawn). I don't care if the scheduling isn't automatic although there's no reason that couldn't be an option, too.
A "keep playback window on top" option would be useful for on-screen playback. Unfortunately the Afloat Cocoa plugin doesn't work even though EyeTV is linked with the Cocoa framework (though the UI sure isn't Cocoa-like).
Oh, and two weeks of EPG listings (like TitanTV's web site) instead of one would be nice.
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Using the exposé "Application Windows" mode reliably makes the playback screen go black, which I bring back using the "All Windows" mode.
Hmm, I couldn't recreate that problem.
I'll be replacing my dead EyeHome with an "iTV" if it'll integrate well enough with my EyeTV 200. Trouble is QuickTime chokes on MPEG-2 transport stream playback; EyeTV, EyeHome, and MPEG Streamclip being the only Mac software I'm aware of with that capability. EyeTV 2 can automatically export recordings "for iPod" to iTunes but I'd rather avoid that slow H.264/AVC transcoding process for "iTV" playback (like I could with EyeHome). An option for significantly faster exporting of larger-sized MPEG streams directly to iTunes would be great; even better with more program details that EyeTV displays saved in corresponding iTunes entries.
EyeTV versions before 2.3.3 have been very robust on my eMac. I reverted to 2.3.2 because the second or third scheduled recording wouldn't stop and the app required needed a Force Quit.
That happened for me when I tried to record from the A/V input of my hybrid. If I just did a digital TV recording I didn't see the problem at all, or it was recording an analog channel through the antenna jack of my satellite box, I didn't see that problem so much. Since I quit expecting the A/V input to be useful, the last time EyeTV caused problems was when it filled up the hard drive.
I had hoped that I can have two computers share the same recordings folder, but I've found that is another way to crash EyeTV on either computer. That was a pity because being able to seemlessly access any recording from any computer on the network would have been a golden feature. I bought two of the hybrids hoping this would work. I almost returned one or both because of the crashes related to this and the A/V input problem.
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Lack of saved EPG searches remains my biggest gripe with the software. How Elgato could leave out such an obvious feature for so long is puzzling. I want "Smart Schedule" saved searches of matching criteria in the sidebar, not just Favorite Channels and Playlists (yawn). I don't care if the scheduling isn't automatic although there's no reason that couldn't be an option, too.
The guide can be searched from within the app (upper right corner), but there's no conditional recording or smart playlists. I too wish they had smart recording & playlist features. It took an anonymous response to a blog entry of mine for me to get clued into the fact that it can be scheduled to do recurring recordings (daily, weekdays, weekly, etc.)
[quote]
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Hmm, I couldn't recreate that problem.
It's probably a bug specific to version 2.3.3 or Intel + 2.3.3. I just reverted it to 2.3.2 and it doesn't have this problem.
Since I quit expecting the A/V input to be useful, the last time EyeTV caused problems was when it filled up the hard drive.
I've never tried the A/V input on my EyeTV 200.
Quote:
I had hoped that I can have two computers share the same recordings folder, but I've found that is another way to crash EyeTV on either computer. That was a pity because being able to seemlessly access any recording from any computer on the network would have been a golden feature.
I've accessed the AFP-mounted EyeTV Archive recording folder on my eMac with EyeTV on my iMac G5, though possibly only while EyeTV isn't running on the eMac.
I move edited recordings to organized EyeTV Archive folders on larger FireWire volumes for playback and/or archival. I create aliases of selected .eyetv recording folders in the EyeTV Archive that's normally used when running EyeTV on the iMac, which also makes the recordings available to EyeHome. Using aliases is much easier than switching between multiple EyeTV Archive folders and they even work with .eyetv folders on different systems. That let's me keep recordings organized and have centralized access just to those I'm interested in watching. Something like that might be a solution for your "seamless access" problem.
Quote:
The guide can be searched from within the app (upper right corner), but there's no conditional recording or smart playlists. I too wish they had smart recording & playlist features.
(Re)entering search text in that non-saving field is tediously time-consuming.
Quote:
It took an anonymous response to a blog entry of mine for me to get clued into the fact that it can be scheduled to do recurring recordings (daily, weekdays, weekly, etc.)
Trouble with that is you don't get full episode information (e.g. Description text) like with single-program scheduling. And certain programs like to adjust their schedules.
Quote:
It's probably a bug specific to version 2.3.3 or Intel + 2.3.3. I just reverted it to 2.3.2 and it doesn't have this problem.
I'm satisfied with 2.3.2 since there's nothing new in 2.3.3 I care about.
Trouble with that is you don't get full episode information (e.g. Description text) like with single-program scheduling. And certain programs like to adjust their schedules.
I do get the full descriptions for each new recording when it is recorded on a repeating schedule. I too would greatly appreciate automatic shedule adjustment or smart scheduling.
Comments
As an owner of a tablet and a nurse at a very tech savvy hospital, I'm not sure the real world agrees with you. I've all but stopped using mine as anything but a laptop and I never see them at work.
There probably needs to be an upgraded end-user application that ties into the organization's information management system to benefit from the technology. I can see where it can be extremely powerful, but it needs to be executed very well because of regulation and liability issues. Often, there is a lot of inertia that needs to be overcome to integrate a new technology into a large organization.
As an owner of a tablet and a nurse at a very tech savvy hospital, I'm not sure the real world agrees with you. I've all but stopped using mine as anything but a laptop and I never see them at work. As much as I would love to see Apple do a tablet, I don't think they have lost a single sale by not having one.
Depends on if the hospital or office uses tablet oriented software. My doctor's office has gone from paper charts to electronic ones on his tablet. His notes for follow ups etc get entered in his tablet and ends up at the front desk. He's just a GP so no xrays or so forth. That office use to have older iMacs (the G4 lamps) but now Viewsonic tablets. My wife's OB/GYN was testing tablets and they have iMacs as well.
As far as tech savvy hospital goes...does your hospital use the Vocera badges? If not the folks I spoke with at St. Agnes seemed to really like them. Was a couple years ago but if your IT folks are so inclined its worth looking at...it was cool. I'm thinking of trying to get some to try out...but thus far thinking that if we get our users hooked on wireless tablets we can use that instead. But its easier to get them to wear a badge than assume the always remember to grab a tablet. Different field but similar needs.
Vinea
ObDis: Don't have nuthin to do with Vocera.
The current Mac PVR software pretty much boils down to EyeTV, and there is some third party hardware supported by the same EyeTV software, such as Miglia's tuners.
I think Miglia still bundles their own software with a couple of products, e.g. AlchemyTV DVR PCI card.
The generel user interface ease-of-use of the EyeTV software is pretty good, but it's not very robust in my opinion, it crashes, stalls flakes out from time to time.
EyeTV versions before 2.3.3 have been very robust on my eMac. I reverted to 2.3.2 because the second or third scheduled recording wouldn't stop and the app required needed a Force Quit.
Lack of saved EPG searches remains my biggest gripe with the software. How Elgato could leave out such an obvious feature for so long is puzzling. I want "Smart Schedule" saved searches of matching criteria in the sidebar, not just Favorite Channels and Playlists (yawn). I don't care if the scheduling isn't automatic although there's no reason that couldn't be an option, too.
A "keep playback window on top" option would be useful for on-screen playback. Unfortunately the Afloat Cocoa plugin doesn't work even though EyeTV is linked with the Cocoa framework (though the UI sure isn't Cocoa-like).
Oh, and two weeks of EPG listings (like TitanTV's web site) instead of one would be nice.
Using the exposé "Application Windows" mode reliably makes the playback screen go black, which I bring back using the "All Windows" mode.
Hmm, I couldn't recreate that problem.
I'll be replacing my dead EyeHome with an "iTV" if it'll integrate well enough with my EyeTV 200. Trouble is QuickTime chokes on MPEG-2 transport stream playback; EyeTV, EyeHome, and MPEG Streamclip being the only Mac software I'm aware of with that capability. EyeTV 2 can automatically export recordings "for iPod" to iTunes but I'd rather avoid that slow H.264/AVC transcoding process for "iTV" playback (like I could with EyeHome). An option for significantly faster exporting of larger-sized MPEG streams directly to iTunes would be great; even better with more program details that EyeTV displays saved in corresponding iTunes entries.
EyeTV versions before 2.3.3 have been very robust on my eMac. I reverted to 2.3.2 because the second or third scheduled recording wouldn't stop and the app required needed a Force Quit.
That happened for me when I tried to record from the A/V input of my hybrid. If I just did a digital TV recording I didn't see the problem at all, or it was recording an analog channel through the antenna jack of my satellite box, I didn't see that problem so much. Since I quit expecting the A/V input to be useful, the last time EyeTV caused problems was when it filled up the hard drive.
I had hoped that I can have two computers share the same recordings folder, but I've found that is another way to crash EyeTV on either computer. That was a pity because being able to seemlessly access any recording from any computer on the network would have been a golden feature. I bought two of the hybrids hoping this would work. I almost returned one or both because of the crashes related to this and the A/V input problem.
Lack of saved EPG searches remains my biggest gripe with the software. How Elgato could leave out such an obvious feature for so long is puzzling. I want "Smart Schedule" saved searches of matching criteria in the sidebar, not just Favorite Channels and Playlists (yawn). I don't care if the scheduling isn't automatic although there's no reason that couldn't be an option, too.
The guide can be searched from within the app (upper right corner), but there's no conditional recording or smart playlists. I too wish they had smart recording & playlist features. It took an anonymous response to a blog entry of mine for me to get clued into the fact that it can be scheduled to do recurring recordings (daily, weekdays, weekly, etc.)
[quote]
Hmm, I couldn't recreate that problem.
It's probably a bug specific to version 2.3.3 or Intel + 2.3.3. I just reverted it to 2.3.2 and it doesn't have this problem.
Since I quit expecting the A/V input to be useful, the last time EyeTV caused problems was when it filled up the hard drive.
I've never tried the A/V input on my EyeTV 200.
I had hoped that I can have two computers share the same recordings folder, but I've found that is another way to crash EyeTV on either computer. That was a pity because being able to seemlessly access any recording from any computer on the network would have been a golden feature.
I've accessed the AFP-mounted EyeTV Archive recording folder on my eMac with EyeTV on my iMac G5, though possibly only while EyeTV isn't running on the eMac.
I move edited recordings to organized EyeTV Archive folders on larger FireWire volumes for playback and/or archival. I create aliases of selected .eyetv recording folders in the EyeTV Archive that's normally used when running EyeTV on the iMac, which also makes the recordings available to EyeHome. Using aliases is much easier than switching between multiple EyeTV Archive folders and they even work with .eyetv folders on different systems. That let's me keep recordings organized and have centralized access just to those I'm interested in watching. Something like that might be a solution for your "seamless access" problem.
The guide can be searched from within the app (upper right corner), but there's no conditional recording or smart playlists. I too wish they had smart recording & playlist features.
(Re)entering search text in that non-saving field is tediously time-consuming.
It took an anonymous response to a blog entry of mine for me to get clued into the fact that it can be scheduled to do recurring recordings (daily, weekdays, weekly, etc.)
Trouble with that is you don't get full episode information (e.g. Description text) like with single-program scheduling. And certain programs like to adjust their schedules.
It's probably a bug specific to version 2.3.3 or Intel + 2.3.3. I just reverted it to 2.3.2 and it doesn't have this problem.
I'm satisfied with 2.3.2 since there's nothing new in 2.3.3 I care about.
Trouble with that is you don't get full episode information (e.g. Description text) like with single-program scheduling. And certain programs like to adjust their schedules.
I do get the full descriptions for each new recording when it is recorded on a repeating schedule. I too would greatly appreciate automatic shedule adjustment or smart scheduling.