Eye TV 400...

sonofsylvanussonofsylvanus
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Just visited Elgato for the first time to look up what EyeTV is all about. Not very impressed with the stated playback quality of normal EyeTV, but EyeTV 400 looked interesting...

Quote:

EyeTV 400 includes a terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T) tuner that receives perfect "free-to-air" digital quality television on the Mac via a small portable antenna (included).



Has '400 been released yet? (I can't see any details on the website.)

Anyone want to share their experiences of EyeTV?

And, is it plausible (for someone who might watch a few hours of TV a day) to replace his TV and VCR with Eye TV? Now that's digital hubbery!



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    nebagakidnebagakid Posts: 2,692member
    Can one use it with just a US antenna broadcast? I want the FireWire quality...
  • Reply 2 of 8
    sonofsylvanussonofsylvanus Posts: 579member
    I'm on the ball, it seems. EyeTV 400 has just been released (available December) and it is the dogs apparently. ?349 - that's about £245 for us in the UK. (Just hope it works PROPERLY in the UK.) Man, I dig the portable aspect...Watch TV on the train! Neat. But batteries. They are the bane of modern computing.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Excuse my ignorance, as i am about to ask a stupid question.



    The new versions of EyeTV will not work in North America, will they? I don't know much about the way TV is brodcast, but i don't think n. American is using the digital standards that Europe is currently using.



    If this is the case, will something like this be available to us North Americans anytime soon?



    I like the idea of EyeTV, but i definately want a firewire version that uses captures in mpeg-2 or something else that offers higher quality than the mpeg-1 streams captured by the original EyeTV.





    Someone out there must be able to enlighten me.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    No, they won't work in N. America.



    But, Formac has the Studio TVR which has a traditional US analog tuner, MPEG-2 encoder, over FireWire, for $300. It's at the Apple Store. (I've been looking for a cheaper price *anywhere* and can't find it - Formac *just* dropped the price by $100, and everyone is selling at $299.99 exactly (MSRP), or *above* that by $50-70 (based on the old MSRP).



    Still doesn't capture digital satellite MPEG-2 directly (blast it), but I doubt that'll ever happen here due to the satellite decoder boxes requiring a cryptocard to authorize, and *only* outputting analog... :P
  • Reply 5 of 8
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    USA, as usual, decided on their own format and does not broadcast in DVB.



    You may still be able to get a couple broadcasts here and there in that format... but hardly any.



    DVB is essentially MPEG2.



    I'm interested in the EyeTV 300 which supports DVB-S (satellite).



    Should come in handy with my projects



    I'll give a small review of the e300 as soon as possible...
  • Reply 6 of 8
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    " Still doesn't capture digital satellite MPEG-2 directly (blast it), but I doubt that'll ever happen here due to the satellite decoder boxes requiring a cryptocard to authorize, and *only* outputting analog... :P "



    Fücking US Hollywood... Wouldn't it be great it if we could directly capture DVB or MPEG2 over FireWire. I mean why bother with all this crap when it will always have to be converted to analog at some point and therefore possible to pirate? Are there any satellite boxes that would export MPEG2 over perhaps a FireWire interface, that would work with Directv? Gaah Hollywood is so stupid, they're doomed if they don't get a handle on this new thing called the "Internet"! People want to be able to do whatever they want with video they freakin paid for in the first place.



    That Formac box is just what I want, for about $200 more then I can afford...
  • Reply 7 of 8
    wjmoorewjmoore Posts: 210member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    I'll give a small review of the e300 as soon as possible...



    Any progress on the review? I'm quite interested in the 400, would like to get some comments before I buy.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    wobblezwobblez Posts: 1member
    I received my 400 the day before xmas eve I do like it, even with having no interactive teletext or any radio stations The little external antenna is useless.



    The integration with tvtv.co.uk is cumbersome and took a while to figure out. My main problem was having the automatic check for schedule switched on, this was removing my selected programs just before actual recording. The manual update is hidden away in preferences, which is a pain.



    The software has crashed a few times, and has caused more than one kernel panic, especially in editing mode.



    The picture quality is great and files save as muxed mpeg2.

    1hr 30min record = 3.05GB. No problems viewing in Quicktime.



    Overall happy, worth the £282 from softjam? Hmmm not so sure..
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