Jan
17
2008
EyeTV 3 - Review
Posted by luna6
Elgato’s EyeTV software has been the best application on the Mac platform for watching TV by a mile. Their 2.x series cemented their position for me and drew me in as a big fan of their software (You can read our prior EyeTV 2 here). Now Elgato has released EyeTV 3, with major new features (compared to EyeTV 2) and a lot of refinements. In this review we’ll cover the new features and then figure out if it’s the right program for you.
EyeTV 3 includes all the features found in prior releases that makes watching live TV, recording TV programs and time shifting TV programs such a fun and enjoyable experience. Improvements found in EyeTV 3 include an improved On Screen Menu and many new features to simplify managing all those great shows that you recorded with EyeTV. Sharing, editing and exporting those programs on your LAN, iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, select smartphones, Sony PSP and to DVD has become that much easier with EyeTV 3.
Improved TV Window
As with most TV applications, the picture quality is as good as the source fed into program. EyeTV 3 works great with their own TV tuners and a select list of other tuners. In this review I used the handy Hauppauge HVR-950 usb tuner in conjunction with EyeTV 3. High definition signals is as expected ace, while standard definition looks acceptable. Improvements to the Window can be found with its very much improved Overlay Window.
To launch the Overlay Window requires either :
a) Press Command-Esc on the keyboard, or
b) Press and hold the Menu key on the Apple Remote,
c) Select Open Menu from EyeTV’s View menu.
or hitting the corresponding button on the remote control for a specific TV card. I really love EyeTV’s integration with the Apple Remote. The improved overlay now allows access to all important control settings while your sitting on the couch and watching TV. The menu features :
Details - More information about the currently playing video
Recordings - A list of all recordings in your EyeTV Library, organized by playlists
Channels - A list of the channels you have available. The title of the current program on each channel will be listed, if available.
Guide - The Program Guide will be shown - it can be used to select shows to record.
More - Leads to the next page of the On Screen Menu.
If you select More, then you will see a second page of options:
Live TV - Allows you to pick from the following options: Resume Playing, Mute, Picture-in-Picture, Favorite Channels, Input, Last Channel, Go to Live, Record, Aspect Ratio, Closed Captions, Audio Channels.
Schedules - Lists all scheduled recordings. Select one to Delete, Disable, Export to iPod, Export to Apple TV, and Add to Playlist.
Settings - Allows you to pick from the following options: Display Options, Audio Output, Controls, and Sort Order.
The improved layout for the OSD looked fantastic as well. The integration of the Timeline Overlay into the OSD was a nice touch (more integration please).
New Program Window
EyeTV’s separate program window has seen significant changes since its 2.0 release. The program has adopted much of the iTunes interface, making it easier for newcomers to understand the EyeTV interface. A new hierarchical sidebar view works wonderfully to organize all that recorded content. New options in the hierarchical sidebar includes an iTunes like “Playlist”. The default playlists are “Exporting,” “Reporting Now,” and “Past Week”. You can easily add more to your heart’s content. I didn’t use the playlist function as much since I didn’t have a large library of recordings but I did notice its usefulness grows exponentially with the amount of programs you have recorded.
“Smart Guide” is another new feature in the hierarchical sidebar, that gives EyeTV the intelligent feeing of a Tivo. A quick glance at the tab reveals if any favorite movies, actors, TV series are available. Creating Smart Guides works similar to making a “Playlist,” but Smart Guides relies on preset variables. As an example you can create a new Smart Guide called “CSI” and check off such options as HDTV (record only HDTV broadcasts), no repeats, and even automatically export those shows to the iPhone/iPod format.
Cover Flow is also a new a feature found in the EyeTV Program Window. Clicking the right icon above “View” switches from a more traditional navigational style view to the iTunes like Cover Flow like view. The cover flow view looks neat and as your library grows, cover view makes browsing through those recordings that much easier and also a lot of fun. (I liked it!)
Program Guide’s Search feature now works in realtime to show you results as you type. As an example if you type “L” all the shows that start with L (Late Show, Law & Order) are shown and then narrows down with the next letter typed. This worked as fast as Spotlight does in Leopard.
Sharing programs
EyeTV3 has added two different sharing features to make all those TV shows you recorded available throughout your LAN.
“EyeTV Sharing” is a feature that allows your archive of recorded programs to be available to other EyeTV3 users. When activated from EyeTV’s preferences menu, shared libraries will then be displayed on the sidebar of other users’ Program Window (think iTunes shared libraries). Then users can play those recorded shows as if they were watching those shows on their own computer.
“WiFi Access” extends sharing TV programs to any Mac or PC running Safari 3 or iPhones, iPod Touches, and select smart phones. The recordings are displayed via a web browser interface and are streamed over the wireless LAN - not stored locally. This is particularly effective for iPhones and iPod Touches with their limited storage space. Also when programs are converted to “WiFi Access” this requires transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264, which can be quite CPU intensive. For users interested, this is where Elgato’s nifty Turbo.264 comes into play. Lastly, EyeTV3 now allows password protection for WiFi Access.
WiFi Access indeed can be accessed from any computer on your local LAN. I was able to use Firefox 2 on my Ubuntu desktop and access the WiFi Access enabled media via EyeTV 3. The presets offer settings for Cellular - 176×144GP. iPhone - 480×360 H.264, iPod - 640×480 H.264, iPhone + Cellular, and iPod + Cellular. The trick to enabling this feature , if you run Leopard, is to add the EyeTV application and the EyeTV service (/Library/Application Support/EyeConnect/EyeConnect.app) to Leopard’s firewall. Once that was done, I could view the recorded media on my LAN w/ Ubuntu.
Editing Recordings
Editing those recorded shows are now as easy as ever with appealing graphics to boot. I use this feature frequently to export favorite live performances from late night TV talk shows. You can save the clips in either its original format (no re-encoding) or downscale the video for formats compatible with iPods and iPhones. To launch the built-in editor, you first click the drop down menu in the Program Window and select “Edit”. Then the editor launches and lays out appealing overlay graphics and a simple to understand menu. Basically, mark, mark, export, and your done. Easy.
Post Processing those shows to other applications is incredibly simple with EyeTV 3 as well. Options in EyeTV 3’s Export Menu lists a plethora of presets from iMovie HD to iDVD to DVD Studio Pro. If you want to simply burn a program to DVD, clicking the Toast button in the Program Window launches Toast (if installed) and loads the selected program in that program.
Is EyeTV 3 worth buying or upgrading?
For people who have never owned EyeTV software before, but want to watch television on their Intel Mac’s than the answer is a resounding “Yes”. The way everything is laid out and the better integration with other software makes EyeTV one of the most user friendly TV applications on any platform. $79.99 is also very reasonably priced for the software.
Now for previous owners of EyeTV software, who are contemplating the $39.99 upgrade to version 3, the answer depends on which version you are currently running. If you are using version 2.0 or earlier than EyeTV 3 supports enough new features and graphics to make it a resounding “Yes”. From sharing, to exports, to the improved Window Program and Live TV Mode, I would definitely pay for the upgrade.
For users of EyeTV 2.5, it is a tougher call. Comparatively speaking most of the splashier features found in EyeTV 3, debuted in EyeTV 2.5, so there’s not that many new features between the two applications. You do get better graphics and slightly improved features with EyeTV 3. If I owned EyeTV 2.5 I would probably wait for the next major version of EyeTV before paying for the upgrade.
Pros:
EyeTV 3 works and looks great.
Improvements made to Program Window works as easily for the novice and EyeTV aficionados.
Sharing features is a step in the right direction.
Exporting those TV shows is easier than ever with EyeTV 3.
Stability wise - the program never once crashed after 48 hours of continuous use.
Cons:
I did encounter one bug where the TV signal would drop out after leaving the computer idle (change channel and back would then work).
I would love to see the separate Live TV Mode and Program Window integrated into one window application.
(9 Votes, User Rating: 8.11)
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Articles of Interest:
How-To Stream TV shows to your iPhone & iPod Touch
Turn Your Mac Into a HD-PVR with EyeTV Hybrid
Comments
13 Comments so far
@ luna6
Great, thanks for the feedback. I did too narrow a search at Elgato so I didn’t find that (e.g. searched for info specific to DTT sticks). Now all I need to find out is if the DTT stick is actually shipping with EyeTV 3 or not… I sent in a question to Elgato about that.
It seems EyeTV supports multiple tuners but in an experimental stage. This is from Elgato’s FAQ :
I want to use multiple EyeTV units (or dual tuners) on the same Mac
You can use multiple EyeTV units on one Mac simultaneously. They can be all of the same model, or different EyeTV products.
This is a preliminary, unsupported feature that has some bugs.
The only real limitation is that while you can watch and manually record live TV from multiple Live TV windows, automated recording is not perfected. EyeTV will pick the first available unit to record to; there is no way to select which EyeTVs will record.
In the future this feature will be perfected, and then it will be announced. Until then, you can use it experimentally with the latest EyeTV software.
Products that have dual tuners built into to one device (EyeTV Diversity, TVDuo) work as expected - watch two separate live channels, recording one or both if you like. There are no problems with using both tuners that are resident in one of these devices.
The price difference between an upgrade to v3 from v2.5 and buying a whole new DTT stick with v3 included is only £10, so does anyone know if I buy a second DTT stick, whether or not I could use it at the same time as the one I already have, but to record a different channel (on different bandwidth) or would the software freak out?
TIA.
Cris depends on the tuner. Analog cable (i.e. usually channels 1-125) no problem, including HBO.
For digital cable, HD channels (including HBO) that are encrypted cannot be viewed per se, just the unencrypted channels, which varies among cable companies. This is because of the cable companies, rather than a shortcoming of the hardware or software. As a bonus if you have basic cable you can receive whatever HD channels are broadcast in the “clear” / unencrypted.
Theoretically, you could output the HD channels (including HBO) from the digital cable box if it has a coaxial output, but the program guide in EyeTV wouldn’t work with the box and channel control would reside with the cable box. This would be equivalent to plugging in an external video device like camcorder, vcr, or dvd. (I haven’t tried this myself, since I use just free over the air HD broadcasts).
Simon : thanks for the clarification.
It can not record and watch HD or non HD movies from cable HBO, correct?
I think Zahadum means that EyeTV only supports mpeg2 broadcasts. This means that it is essentially useless for HDTV in Europe since we are using h264 for those transmissions. Additionally, some channels are moving to h264 for SD as well (requires less bandwidth for the same quality) which makes the situation even worse.
And that makes me sad because I really like EyeTV.
Zahadum you bring up some good points. I would like to comment on
>* only supports mpeg2 encoding not mpeg4 (h264)
the tuner for the HDTV portion acts as a simple (dumb) receiver for the mpeg2 stream that’s broadcasted by the networks. So with any tuner you can view & save the program stream in mpeg2 format. EyeTV can then re-encode the programming to h.264 formats through software (or you can get their turbo.264 for hardware acceleration), like any other tuner/software combo would do. In fact, the easy manner in which their software exports to other formats is one of the stronger points of their software.
>* no remote streaming ability … so it cant compete with either tivo on teh one hand or a with a slingbox on the other
The review covers the streaming aspects of EyeTV 3. You can stream recorded programming via EyeTV 3 to other computers and ipods, iphones, and some smartphones.
Granted at the moment its a bit confusing in one area. The user guide mentions for WiFi Access to work, devices must be on the same network and subnet. A page later it mentions if you want to stream outside of your LAN you have to forward a specific port on your router. So im not sure which is correct (I dont have a device to check). But within your LAN it’s definitely possible. May be possible outside of it as well.
Sure it’s not as complex as MythTV but not many are and the set-up for that is no easy task for none techies (I use MythTV at home and EyeTV on my Macbook). Snapstream’s BeyondTV on the Window side has a comparable program to EyeTV, that’s more feature rich when adding additional tuners and remote administration, but than you’re stuck in Windows.
Cheers…
[note: referring to BOTH of elgato hw + sw]
* only supports mpeg2 encoding not mpeg4 (h264)
* doesnt have *FULL* support for CC, subititles or aux audio tracks
* no online schedule/guides for most of the world (asia, canada, mexico, south america etc)
* doesnt detect commercials
* unknown ability to config remotely (via web ineterface)
* no remote streaming ability … so it cant compete with either tivo on teh one hand or a with a slingbox on the other
The only reason elgato gets a pass from some many ‘zine reviews is because the standard for dvr on mac is - sadly - so low :-(
elgato seems to be a by-word for mediocrity (with miglia not far behind).
> Can you record two tv shows at once?
If you have dual tuners or if the HD channels resides on the same multiplex channel yes….otherwise no.
> Can you install this on AppleTV?
No.
> If you can’t install on AppleTV, can you access this from your other Mac from AppleTV?
No. But other computers on your LAN can access the recordings with either “EyeTV Sharing” or “WiFi Access” (downscales video). No need for Apple TV.
> I have two TVs. Can I record in one place and play over two different TVs? Can it handle that?
If you have dual video outputs. EyeTV supports multiple TV windows (haven’t tried this).
> What is the minimum specs of a Mac to do something like this if I can’t install it in AppleTV?
You need dual video outputs to two seperate tv’s. Dual tuners. Up to date Intel Mac for HD video.
> Does this work with Comcast cable? I live in the Seattle area.
If your tuner is QAM capable (Elgato Hybrid or Home Run or countless others), it will receive whatever unencrypted channels Comcast broadcasts.
> Can you put cable cards in EyeTV? If not will I have to get two cable boxes and two feeds into EyeTV, assuming you can record two programs at once …?
No/Yes.
With the type of setup your looking for, you may also want to look into MythTV.
Can you record two tv shows at once?
Can you install this on AppleTV?
If you can’t install on AppleTV, can you access this from your other Mac from AppleTV?
I have two TVs. Can I record in one place and play over two different TVs? Can it handle that?
What is the minimum specs of a Mac to do something like this if I can’t install it in AppleTV?
Does this work with Comcast cable? I live in the Seattle area.
I currently have DirecTV and TiVo. DirecTV’s DVR is NOT TiVo so I don’t want to go that route and there is no HD TiVo that works with DirecTV.
Note: I have two TiVo boxes. Both can record two programs at once which means I can record four programs at once if there is ever that many programs worth watching at once. Sometimes there are and then there is a drought with nothing worth watching at other times.
So … Cable is the next option. Can you put cable cards in EyeTV? If not will I have to get two cable boxes and two feeds into EyeTV, assuming you can record two programs at once …?
I’ve looked at their website before and didn’t get the answers I needed.
Nick, thanks mentioning that. I did verify that Wi-Fi Access works in Firefox 2 and consequently could view the recorded media on my Linux box. Even better.
I have been using EyeTV and the EyeTV Hybrid since version 2.0. This is my favorite application on my iMac! I can’t wait to try this out - thanks!
Wi-Fi access works with any browser that has the latest CSS. Safari 3.0, Camino and Firefox are some examples.