The eyeTV hardware and software are great for some people and not so great for others.
Over the past year and half, I have had an eyeTV Hybrid and then a HDHomeRun.
Some of the products work with both analog signals and digital and some just digital.
It works out perfectly for me since I am only interested in over the air digital and clear QAM. I don't care about the multitude of useless channels that cable and satellite systems have. For me, the requirements are simple. Keep it digital (HD if possible), keep it unscrambled. I am mainly interested in local HD shows like House, Prison Break, 24, Moonlight, Heroes, CSI, Shark, Jeopardy, etc. I record these using HDHomeRun in 1080i or 720p based on the network and they are all crystal clear. My daughter watches PBS kids shows and I record and export them to my AppleTV.
Well, I for one am VERY interested in the little tidbit at the end about IPTV signals. If it really does support IPTV signals, and I could just add an Elgato box in place of one of my Amino boxes, I'd be thrilled. Otherwise, I'm stuck waiting for my provider to get around to offering the Aminet530...
That's a pain and probably a deal breaker for many people. Is there any reason they couldn't design a product that could encode straight into the codec used by those boxes?
I'm a former user of EyeTV 2.5. I quit using it for two reasons:
1. Enabling "optical digital out" to get 5.1 audio causes EyeTV to randomly crash my Mac. I get the black/grey screen of death and have to reboot. Many other users apparently have the same problem, so we're stuck using 2-channel audio.
2. When I connect my Mac Mini (Core Duo) up to my HDTV and watch TV with EyeTV, the motion has a lot of judder/jitter compared to using the HDTV's built-in tuner. I think it has something to do with EyeTV having to de-interlace the video in software instead of hardware. The motion gets better at lower resolutions, or in windowed mode, but full screen mode looks crappy. I think any software-based TV is going to have that limitation. It's better to de-interlace using a dedicated hardware de-interlacer. We really need computers with hardware decoders and de-interlacers built into the video hardware.
These new features in EyeTV 3 look awesome, but until it can run on a sub $1000 Mac and match the playback performance of a normal TV, I'm not interested.
I've had my Miglia TV HD Mini for a couple of years now and am currently running Eye TV 2.5.2 on my powermac g5 1.6 Ghz 1.25 GB ram 10.4.11 and am quite happy with its performance.
I used to run this on my powerbook g4 1.33 ghz, 1.25gb ram but experienced the stuttering issues mentioned above also. The g5 certainly makes a big difference as there's rarely any stuttering or other issues. People who've seen it perform on the g5 are amazed. I use an Acer 22" widescreen flat panel (not hd but ok resolution) and am one of the few in Chicago fortunate to pick up cbs hd (gorgeous prime time!).
It's great having the option to watch OTA DTV on the go but even better to run several apps on the g5 at once and have tv too.
I didn't want to commit to a dedicated hdtv tv set yet and really don't see a need to. Consider how flexible this setup is. I can switch panels whenever I want. And I have a powermac that was collecting dust for a while but now it gives me dtv and lets me work on a nice monitor at the same time.
OH! I forgot to add that since those pics above, I now use my regular old rabbit ears for OTA in a horizontal positon. Strangely it works best. I pull them forward or push them back to pick up any stubborn channels, like CBS.
I'm a former user of EyeTV 2.5. I quit using it for two reasons:
1. Enabling "optical digital out" to get 5.1 audio causes EyeTV to randomly crash my Mac. I get the black/grey screen of death and have to reboot. Many other users apparently have the same problem, so we're stuck using 2-channel audio.
2. When I connect my Mac Mini (Core Duo) up to my HDTV and watch TV with EyeTV, the motion has a lot of judder/jitter compared to using the HDTV's built-in tuner. I think it has something to do with EyeTV having to de-interlace the video in software instead of hardware. The motion gets better at lower resolutions, or in windowed mode, but full screen mode looks crappy. I think any software-based TV is going to have that limitation. It's better to de-interlace using a dedicated hardware de-interlacer. We really need computers with hardware decoders and de-interlacers built into the video hardware.
What deinterlacer settings did you try?
Hardware deinterlacer chips do exist, but video card chips do it about as well as software. The way OS X operates, I don't know if it's available. It wasn't available in the past.
Quote:
These new features in EyeTV 3 look awesome, but until it can run on a sub $1000 Mac and match the playback performance of a normal TV, I'm not interested.
A Mac mini Core Duo should do it though. I know HD worked fine on a CD MacBook Pro when I had it. It works fine on an original PowerMac G5, and that's over four years old now.
If this software uses Cover Flow, does that mean Elgato is paying a royalty to Apple, or is there some other compensation? Apple owns the Cover Flow technology, since it bought the company that developed it.
Can someone tell me if V3 will detect commercials? That is really the only feature I care about. The EyeTV product is SOLID.
I agree. The only reason I still have a PC in the house is because BeyondTV does such a bang up job. It detects commercials. It can be remotely programmed via WAP. It showsqueezes down to DivX and iPod formats. It slices, it dices, it... oh wait, wrong product.
It does, however, make one good excuse for keeping a Windows box around (although now that MythTV does commercial detection, I could switch to Mythbunto and use mencode to convert videos for the iPod or my Archos).
It sucks that Tivo Series 3 doesn't have TivoToGo, that is the only reason I haven't picked up a DVR, the TWC DVR is just complete crap.
From Tivo's FAQ:
Are TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing available on TiVo HD?
Yes. TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing are available on any TiVo HD DVR with a network connection and software version 9.1 or later.
I have been fighting the temptation to give up on Elgato and buy another Tivo. Hopefully they will have Eye TV 3 up and running in their booth at MacWorld so I can see it firsthand.
I've had my Miglia TV HD Mini for a couple of years now and am currently running Eye TV 2.5.2...
Do you think that we Miglia users will be left out in the cold with EyeTV 3? I mean, Elgato and Miglia are on bad terms now and Miglia's license for new Elgato software was yanked last year. Or have they made up?
Hardware deinterlacer chips do exist, but video card chips do it about as well as software. The way OS X operates, I don't know if it's available. It wasn't available in the past.
A Mac mini Core Duo should do it though. I know HD worked fine on a CD MacBook Pro when I had it. It works fine on an original PowerMac G5, and that's over four years old now.
I tried all the deinterlace settings. Full de-interlace drops frames, no deinterlacing looks like crap. Motion Adaptive seems to give the best tradeoff, but I'm pretty sure that a hardware de-interlacer would be equivalent to "full de-interlacing."
I actually ran EyeTV for quite a while at 1366x768 resolution and it was satisfactory, but the motion still looked worse than my native HDTV tuner. I upgraded to a 1080p TV set. After setting the Mac Mini to 1920x1080, the motion got even worse at full-screen. I just don't think there is enough CPU horsepower to decompress MPEG2 and de-interlace it at 1080i. It "works" and I admit that 80% of people wouldn't notice, but when I do an A-to-B comparison with the TV's own tuner, the TV wins hands down.
I'm not touching the whole "HD DVR on a PC" thing until they figure out how to do all the video processing in hardware (probably the video card).
No, really. Do a few google searches. You can do a lot with the ATV. I am waiting for the next gen so I can scoop some up on the cheap.
But seriously -what is the official reason for that USB port from Apple? They have never said- does that make any sense I ask you? Release a product with a physical feature and never say what it's for??
Comments
Over the past year and half, I have had an eyeTV Hybrid and then a HDHomeRun.
Some of the products work with both analog signals and digital and some just digital.
It works out perfectly for me since I am only interested in over the air digital and clear QAM. I don't care about the multitude of useless channels that cable and satellite systems have. For me, the requirements are simple. Keep it digital (HD if possible), keep it unscrambled. I am mainly interested in local HD shows like House, Prison Break, 24, Moonlight, Heroes, CSI, Shark, Jeopardy, etc. I record these using HDHomeRun in 1080i or 720p based on the network and they are all crystal clear. My daughter watches PBS kids shows and I record and export them to my AppleTV.
I welcome eyeTV 3.0 and look forward to using it.
who decided that almost 2000k of .png files were necessary to illustrate this article? does your bandwidth grow on trees?
If 2000k hurts your connection I'd forget HD movies on iTunes
You need to covert afterwards.
That's a pain and probably a deal breaker for many people. Is there any reason they couldn't design a product that could encode straight into the codec used by those boxes?
1. Enabling "optical digital out" to get 5.1 audio causes EyeTV to randomly crash my Mac. I get the black/grey screen of death and have to reboot. Many other users apparently have the same problem, so we're stuck using 2-channel audio.
2. When I connect my Mac Mini (Core Duo) up to my HDTV and watch TV with EyeTV, the motion has a lot of judder/jitter compared to using the HDTV's built-in tuner. I think it has something to do with EyeTV having to de-interlace the video in software instead of hardware. The motion gets better at lower resolutions, or in windowed mode, but full screen mode looks crappy. I think any software-based TV is going to have that limitation. It's better to de-interlace using a dedicated hardware de-interlacer. We really need computers with hardware decoders and de-interlacers built into the video hardware.
These new features in EyeTV 3 look awesome, but until it can run on a sub $1000 Mac and match the playback performance of a normal TV, I'm not interested.
I used to run this on my powerbook g4 1.33 ghz, 1.25gb ram but experienced the stuttering issues mentioned above also. The g5 certainly makes a big difference as there's rarely any stuttering or other issues. People who've seen it perform on the g5 are amazed. I use an Acer 22" widescreen flat panel (not hd but ok resolution) and am one of the few in Chicago fortunate to pick up cbs hd (gorgeous prime time!).
It's great having the option to watch OTA DTV on the go but even better to run several apps on the g5 at once and have tv too.
I didn't want to commit to a dedicated hdtv tv set yet and really don't see a need to. Consider how flexible this setup is. I can switch panels whenever I want. And I have a powermac that was collecting dust for a while but now it gives me dtv and lets me work on a nice monitor at the same time.
I can't wait to see how Eye Tv 3 performs.
still shots of eyetv on my acer:
http://tinyurl.com/2j7xep
http://tinyurl.com/32zqnr
here's the acer i snatched for $199 at tiger direct:
http://tinyurl.com/ypcgta
OH! I forgot to add that since those pics above, I now use my regular old rabbit ears for OTA in a horizontal positon. Strangely it works best. I pull them forward or push them back to pick up any stubborn channels, like CBS.
I'm a former user of EyeTV 2.5. I quit using it for two reasons:
1. Enabling "optical digital out" to get 5.1 audio causes EyeTV to randomly crash my Mac. I get the black/grey screen of death and have to reboot. Many other users apparently have the same problem, so we're stuck using 2-channel audio.
2. When I connect my Mac Mini (Core Duo) up to my HDTV and watch TV with EyeTV, the motion has a lot of judder/jitter compared to using the HDTV's built-in tuner. I think it has something to do with EyeTV having to de-interlace the video in software instead of hardware. The motion gets better at lower resolutions, or in windowed mode, but full screen mode looks crappy. I think any software-based TV is going to have that limitation. It's better to de-interlace using a dedicated hardware de-interlacer. We really need computers with hardware decoders and de-interlacers built into the video hardware.
What deinterlacer settings did you try?
Hardware deinterlacer chips do exist, but video card chips do it about as well as software. The way OS X operates, I don't know if it's available. It wasn't available in the past.
These new features in EyeTV 3 look awesome, but until it can run on a sub $1000 Mac and match the playback performance of a normal TV, I'm not interested.
A Mac mini Core Duo should do it though. I know HD worked fine on a CD MacBook Pro when I had it. It works fine on an original PowerMac G5, and that's over four years old now.
i want apple to let elgato make use of the usb port on the back of an appletv...
Oh yes ! And integrate EyeTV as a module in the AppleTV 'backrow' interface
i want apple to let elgato make use of the usb port on the back of an appletv...
...or at least let us know what the hell it is for already!
EyeTV 3.0 looks that awesome!.
/
...or at least let us know what the hell it is for already!
It's for hacking silly.
No, really. Do a few google searches. You can do a lot with the ATV. I am waiting for the next gen so I can scoop some up on the cheap.
Can someone tell me if V3 will detect commercials? That is really the only feature I care about. The EyeTV product is SOLID.
I agree. The only reason I still have a PC in the house is because BeyondTV does such a bang up job. It detects commercials. It can be remotely programmed via WAP. It showsqueezes down to DivX and iPod formats. It slices, it dices, it... oh wait, wrong product.
It does, however, make one good excuse for keeping a Windows box around (although now that MythTV does commercial detection, I could switch to Mythbunto and use mencode to convert videos for the iPod or my Archos).
It sucks that Tivo Series 3 doesn't have TivoToGo, that is the only reason I haven't picked up a DVR, the TWC DVR is just complete crap.
It sucks that Tivo Series 3 doesn't have TivoToGo, that is the only reason I haven't picked up a DVR, the TWC DVR is just complete crap.
From Tivo's FAQ:
Are TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing available on TiVo HD?
Yes. TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing are available on any TiVo HD DVR with a network connection and software version 9.1 or later.
I have been fighting the temptation to give up on Elgato and buy another Tivo. Hopefully they will have Eye TV 3 up and running in their booth at MacWorld so I can see it firsthand.
I've had my Miglia TV HD Mini for a couple of years now and am currently running Eye TV 2.5.2...
Do you think that we Miglia users will be left out in the cold with EyeTV 3? I mean, Elgato and Miglia are on bad terms now and Miglia's license for new Elgato software was yanked last year. Or have they made up?
Or am I just confused...?
What deinterlacer settings did you try?
Hardware deinterlacer chips do exist, but video card chips do it about as well as software. The way OS X operates, I don't know if it's available. It wasn't available in the past.
A Mac mini Core Duo should do it though. I know HD worked fine on a CD MacBook Pro when I had it. It works fine on an original PowerMac G5, and that's over four years old now.
I tried all the deinterlace settings. Full de-interlace drops frames, no deinterlacing looks like crap. Motion Adaptive seems to give the best tradeoff, but I'm pretty sure that a hardware de-interlacer would be equivalent to "full de-interlacing."
I actually ran EyeTV for quite a while at 1366x768 resolution and it was satisfactory, but the motion still looked worse than my native HDTV tuner. I upgraded to a 1080p TV set. After setting the Mac Mini to 1920x1080, the motion got even worse at full-screen. I just don't think there is enough CPU horsepower to decompress MPEG2 and de-interlace it at 1080i. It "works" and I admit that 80% of people wouldn't notice, but when I do an A-to-B comparison with the TV's own tuner, the TV wins hands down.
I'm not touching the whole "HD DVR on a PC" thing until they figure out how to do all the video processing in hardware (probably the video card).
It's for hacking silly.
No, really. Do a few google searches. You can do a lot with the ATV. I am waiting for the next gen so I can scoop some up on the cheap.
But seriously -what is the official reason for that USB port from Apple? They have never said- does that make any sense I ask you? Release a product with a physical feature and never say what it's for??
who decided that almost 2000k of .png files were necessary to illustrate this article? does your bandwidth grow on trees?
yes. all my bandwidth right now is unlimited for us$30 a month.
only thing is max speeds are like 512kbps to 1mbit max.