[RAILhead]

I need some help, please! I want to get an EyeTV, but I'm not sure which model I *really* need. Here's what I want to do...

1) I want to be able to record basic cable programs (not digital or HD).
2) I'd like to be able to export the recordings to DVD, with decent quality, so I can watch them somewhere else.

They have like 8 models or something, and I quickly got confused with all the potential features vs. my basic needs. Any info would be mush appreciated!

TIA,
Maury

[the_glassman]

Originally posted by RAILhead:
I need some help, please! I want to get an EyeTV, but I'm not sure which model I *really* need. Here's what I want to do...

1) I want to be able to record basic cable programs (not digital or HD).
2) I'd like to be able to export the recordings to DVD, with decent quality, so I can watch them somewhere else.

They have like 8 models or something, and I quickly got confused with all the potential features vs. my basic needs. Any info would be mush appreciated!

TIA,
Maury

What kind of computer setup?

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by RAILhead:
I need some help, please! I want to get an EyeTV, but I'm not sure which model I *really* need. Here's what I want to do...

1) I want to be able to record basic cable programs (not digital or HD).
2) I'd like to be able to export the recordings to DVD, with decent quality, so I can watch them somewhere else.

They have like 8 models or something, and I quickly got confused with all the potential features vs. my basic needs. Any info would be mush appreciated!

TIA,
Maury

DP 1.25GHz G4 with plenty of RAM and plenty of drive space. Hardware's good to go.

Maury

[the_glassman]

Originally posted by RAILhead:
DP 1.25GHz G4 with plenty of RAM and plenty of drive space. Hardware's good to go.

Maury

Have an open PCI slot?
Get this instead. Cheaper, can be used for PS2, XBox, etc.. Plus you won't have a huge brick wasting another port.

[macaddict0001]

eye tv 200 will fit your needs easily

[fromthecloud]

Yes, I just got my EyeTV 200 box about a week ago and it is awesome. Well worth the investment.

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by fromthecloud:
Yes, I just got my EyeTV 200 box about a week ago and it is awesome. Well worth the investment.

Have you burned a recorded show onto a DVD or anything? how's the quality? Any frame lag or anything like that?

TIA,
Maury

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by the_glassman:
Have an open PCI slot?
Get this instead. Cheaper, can be used for PS2, XBox, etc.. Plus you won't have a huge brick wasting another port.

Have you used this? I have done a little googling, and it appears that the AlchemyTV solution blows EyeTV away, or so some say.

Here
Here
And here

I also have a DP 1.25 G4, and for $150 (vs. EyeTV $300+), I'd be willing to give a go.

I am also curious about this: I pretty much use my PowerBook as my DVD player, plugging it in to my TV. I'm wondering if I'd be able to use AlchemyTV to record on my PMac, yet playback the video wirelessly (ala airport) on my PBook/TV. Basically, will the video be too "thick" to play smoothly, wirelessly on my PBook?

[scottiB]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
Have you used this? I have done a little googling, and it appears that the AlchemyTV solution blows EyeTV away, or so some say.

Here
Here
And here

I also have a DP 1.25 G4, and for $150 (vs. EyeTV $300+), I'd be willing to give a go.

I am also curious about this: I pretty much use my PowerBook as my DVD player, plugging it in to my TV. I'm wondering if I'd be able to use AlchemyTV to record on my PMac, yet playback the video wirelessly (ala airport) on my PBook/TV. Basically, will the video be too "thick" to play smoothly, wirelessly on my PBook?

I purchased the Alchemy card a couple weeks ago and installed it in my DP800. At the time, I had digital cable, so the signal was connected to the card via S-Video and RCA for audio from the digi-cable box. I had to change channels with the cable remote and couldn't take advantage of all the perks (TitanTV scheduling and iCal support). Anyway, just today I downgraded to analog cable and will peruse all the features over the weekend.

To address your streaming question, the card captures either in the Motion JPEG codec (for better quality) or MPEG-4. I just recorded the second episode of the series Lost with the MJPEG-A codec, and the 60 minutes came to about 5.35GB with a throughput of 1.4MB (megabytes-not bits) per second (@29.97 fps, NTSC resolution and medium quality setting). Multiplying that by 8 to get megabits, and I get about 11.2Mb/sec: a little tight for old-school AirPort.

Capturing with MPEG4 will save you some space (unfortunately, I don't have a file in MP4 to give you exact throughput). The file, regardless of codec, is saved as a QT .mov, so, I'd mount the Pmac drive on the PBook, launch the saved QT (in MP4 format) on the PBook. Use the Present Movie feature in QT Pro and give it a shot. It should work well.

After saying all that, I love the card, and wished I'd bought it sooner.

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by the_glassman:
Have an open PCI slot?
Get this instead. Cheaper, can be used for PS2, XBox, etc.. Plus you won't have a huge brick wasting another port.

I've placed my order -- thanks for making me aware of this piece of hardware, and thank to the rest of you for providing input. I was able to get one from Amazon.com for just $139.88.

Thanks!

Maury

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by scottiB:
To address your streaming question, the card captures either in the Motion JPEG codec (for better quality) or MPEG-4. I just recorded the second episode of the series Lost with the MJPEG-A codec, and the 60 minutes came to about 5.35GB with a throughput of 1.4MB (megabytes-not bits) per second (@29.97 fps, NTSC resolution and medium quality setting). Multiplying that by 8 to get megabits, and I get about 11.2Mb/sec: a little tight for old-school AirPort.

Capturing with MPEG4 will save you some space (unfortunately, I don't have a file in MP4 to give you exact throughput). The file, regardless of codec, is saved as a QT .mov, so, I'd mount the Pmac drive on the PBook, launch the saved QT (in MP4 format) on the PBook. Use the Present Movie feature in QT Pro and give it a shot. It should work well.

After saying all that, I love the card, and wished I'd bought it sooner.

Hmmm.

I'm actually running a mixed wireless network (b & g), and my PMac-DP is wired directly to the router. My PBook is Airport Extreme, but still on the mixed network.

I guess it's worth a shot. I just don't want to get into the situation where I am having to burn to DVD recorded shows to watch on my TV, or having to watch recordings at my desk.

Thanks for your time and input.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by RAILhead:
I've placed my order -- thanks for making me aware of this piece of hardware, and thank to the rest of you for providing input. I was able to get one from Amazon.com for just $139.88.

Thanks!

And thank you, Maury, for posting the Amazon link and saving me a few bucks. I just ordered one myself.

[Superchicken]

It deppends on the compression of the file, you would have to watch it after the show is done. But does this thing have compression options? I don't have it but I imagine you might not be able to stream it over air port (though at 54mbps I should hope you are able to) you could at least copy it to your HD and then play it which would be fine.

Dang... imagine this with an Xserve and Xserve RAID...

Perhaps Apple should buy this company and make iPVR

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by Superchicken:
It deppends on the compression of the file, you would have to watch it after the show is done. But does this thing have compression options? I don't have it but I imagine you might not be able to stream it over air port (though at 54mbps I should hope you are able to) you could at least copy it to your HD and then play it which would be fine.

Dang... imagine this with an Xserve and Xserve RAID...

Perhaps Apple should buy this company and make iPVR

I'll have the card in my main system, so i'll be saving files to my main HD. From there, if I want, I'll burn to a DVD -- no AirPort streaming in my case.

Maury

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
And thank you, Maury, for posting the Amazon link and saving me a few bucks. I just ordered one myself.

NP. We'll have to resurrect this thread once we get ours and compare opinions.



Maury

[OwlBoy]

Just wanted to note that I have an EyeTV 200, and it kicks ass.

Though, remember, if you have a bad signal now on your TV, it will look worse on the Mac since a monitor is sharper, etc.

-Owl

[goose]

Originally posted by RAILhead:
NP. We'll have to resurrect this thread once we get ours and compare opinions.



Maury

I saw on your site that you got your TV card. How are you liking it? I know one thing the eyeTV was supposed to be able to do was wake your computer from sleep if it needed to record a show (although I heard it was kinda flaky -- supposed to have an update or something to fix it). Does the Alchemy TV DVR do that as well? Have you made any DVDs yet?

[the_glassman]

Did you get the fuzzy picture fixed?

[RAILhead]

Originally posted by the_glassman:
Did you get the fuzzy picture fixed?

I posted some info on my site yesterday, but it seems that the recorded shows look perfect.

To clarify, when I record a show without the TV Window open, the show looks great. With the window open, it's fuzzy.

I have no idea what's up with that.

Maury