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Dgysy · Jul 15, 2002, 08:01 PM

El Gatos has released Eye TV which allows you to watch/record TV on the Mac.

This seems like a nice idea, but they have absolutely no contact telephone # on their website, only e-mail.

Is anyone interested in this? It seems quite pricey at $199 (this week $179 during the show).

I was trying to find out when it is actually shipping, does anyone know how reliable this company is?

ddiokno · Jul 15, 2002, 09:05 PM

I'm seriously considering it... I've been thinking about a PVR for a while... my only reservation is what the quality will be like, as I've used VCD's before and they leave a little to be desired... although there are many other positives about this device.
I too would like more info, but think $179 is a great price (assuming people have decent sized hard drives)
just my $.02

dave

cmoney · Jul 15, 2002, 09:26 PM

I'm picking one up this week at MWNY if they have any on site. I've been waiting for someone to finally make a PVR for the Mac. I've tried a few solutions on the PC and none of them worked right. I've also got a TiVo but I really didn't like how they upped the monthly price from $9.95 to $12.95 and then a month later started introducing advertising on the starting page for the box. I'm looking to cancel that subscription as soon as I can. I don't want to pay for the lifetime sub because that's tied to the box: what happens if my TiVo dies?! Sorry, either send it in for a $200+ repair or lose your $249 lifetime subscription. Yeah right.

Mostly though, I'm looking for a way to archive my recordings. DVD and Firewire would obviously be the best available, but they'd probably be expensive also. So VCD and USB are "good enough" solutions that I'm willing to settle for. It's only TV after all, and my TV picture isn't always the best anyway. The free TV scheduling is a definite plus as well.

As for El Gato the company, I believe they are the developers behind Toast. Pretty credible to me.

ddiokno · Jul 16, 2002, 01:44 AM

Hey Cmoney,
I'd be curious of your observations after MWNY... please let us know what you think of the quality of the video and the VCD recordings...
thanks!
dave

PHoynak · Jul 16, 2002, 01:56 AM

I have an ATI TV Wonder USB for my PC. Never even opened the damn thing yet. Does anyone know if ATI may release drivers for the MAC? I am considering selling this and buying the Eye Tv.

joe · Jul 16, 2002, 02:15 AM

I'd pay a little more for a Firewire version of the eyeTV. USB limits your resolution to about 320*240 - at least that was the case with my Xclaim TV USB. I currently own a Formac Studio ($399) which is Firewire based and supports 640*480. But the Formac doesn't do scheduled recordings like the eyeTV (and TiVO).

Of course, Firewire capture also means you need a big hard drive too. But wtih the Formac you can always choose to capture at a lower resolution (like 320*240) if you're low on space. But I'd still like the option to get a Firewire eyeTV......joe

PHoynak · Jul 16, 2002, 04:56 AM

While we are on the topic how much video can you fit on a vcd? If its less than one hour than this would be a hinderance to me. Some shows that I would record I would like to burn to vcd and watch later, saving hard drive space. If DVD burners where cheaper that would be an option, if iDVD would work with them that is.

If only Apple would put something like this in each iMac I think it would be a hit.

ddiokno · Jul 16, 2002, 09:56 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by PHoynak:
While we are on the topic how much video can you fit on a vcd? If its less than one hour than this would be a hinderance to me. Some shows that I would record I would like to burn to vcd and watch later, saving hard drive space. If DVD burners where cheaper that would be an option, if iDVD would work with them that is.

If only Apple would put something like this in each iMac I think it would be a hit.<hr /></blockquote>one hour on a 650MB cd...
dave

C.J. Moof · Jul 16, 2002, 11:07 AM

I fired off a few questions to them yesterday AM when I read the announcement- how simple is the VCD creation step, can it intergrate with QTSS, can I transcode to MPEG-4 automatically, maybe something else in there. They haven't gotten back to me yet, but I expect they might have a lot of inquiries queued up right now.

I'm interested, but I want to hear from a few early adopters what they think of the product. At $180, I'm still looking at capture boards for my Windows box at $50, and have trouble believing this is more than 3x better....

cejones · Jul 16, 2002, 12:26 PM

I am also interested in this product...

My question is , How does one output the video signal from recorded shows to my TV? I have an iMac with the VGA connector on the back, so would one of those Video mirror devices like iTView output a decent signal for my TV?

How many people here watch TV shows full time on their computer screen?

Another problem I see with it, is that you must keep your computer on , during the times you want to record shows... I know I don't keep my iMac on 24/7. I think I read somewhere that Formac was coming out with a similar product that uses it's own external HD... so I wonder if it will require the computer to be on for it to work... It would be nice if it didn't... and it would be nice if you could hook it directly to TV input.. of course, this is getting back towards the Tivo option..

cmoney · Jul 16, 2002, 02:11 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by cejones:
I am also interested in this product...

My question is , How does one output the video signal from recorded shows to my TV? I have an iMac with the VGA connector on the back, so would one of those Video mirror devices like iTView output a decent signal for my TV?

How many people here watch TV shows full time on their computer screen?<hr /></blockquote>iTView should work fine. You'll be displaying your whole iMac screen on the TV, but you should be able to put the EyeTV on full screen.

I have a TiVo in my bedroom and one of the biggest problems with it is that TV programs are stuck on that TiVo unit. If I want to watch in my living room, I can't. If I have people over and want to show them a funny scene, I have to invite them to my bedroom. I can solve those by putting the TiVo in my living room, but then I can't watch in my bedroom...

I'd really like to be able to distribute the video throughout my house. My plans are to just hook up my TiBook to my TV whenever I want to watch a show downstairs and connect either via Airport or wired ethernet. I'm hoping that Airport has enough bandwidth for streaming VCD quality video. I've tried "streaming" DVD rips before and Airport isn't up to it, even 100BaseT has a hiccup every 20 minutes or so (depending on the movie).

<blockquote>quote:<hr />
Another problem I see with it, is that you must keep your computer on , during the times you want to record shows... I know I don't keep my iMac on 24/7. I think I read somewhere that Formac was coming out with a similar product that uses it's own external HD... so I wonder if it will require the computer to be on for it to work... It would be nice if it didn't... and it would be nice if you could hook it directly to TV input.. of course, this is getting back towards the Tivo option..<hr /></blockquote>I have a Cube that I've relegated to "server" work now that I've got a new TiBook 800. It'll be a video server via EyeTV and an MP3 server via iTunes and hopefully Rendezvous in Jaguar. So that computer along with a few external FW hard drives can stay on inside a closet.

The Formac unit will be $999 and there are lots of reports of poor customer service from Formac. They also have a unit with no hard drive for $399. People originally complained of video problems with it, but now I've started seeing more reports that it's actually okay. Either way, neither offer PVR functionality like the EyeTV unit (via TV schedule via web browser, click on a show, it records it automatically).

TiVo just increased their monthly subscription costs. If EyeTV works out well, I don't see myself continuing my TiVo subscription. I'll just use it as a backup that can record higher quality video. Besides, now that the regular TV season is over, I really don't see any value in continuing the subscription during the summer.

ReplayTV just released "cheaper" units but then require a $250 service activation, so it costs just the same as before.

cmoney · Jul 16, 2002, 02:21 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
I fired off a few questions to them yesterday AM when I read the announcement- how simple is the VCD creation step, can it intergrate with QTSS, can I transcode to MPEG-4 automatically, maybe something else in there. They haven't gotten back to me yet, but I expect they might have a lot of inquiries queued up right now.<hr /></blockquote>I read a review of it from Jim Heid. It seems VCD creation is as easy as opening Toast, choosing "VCD" and dropping the file onto the window. Toast has pretty decent VCD creation so it's not that bad.

QTSS: depends on the movie format EyeTV saves in. If it's straight MPG, probably not automatically. QTSS streams hinted MOV and MPEG-4 only.

<blockquote>quote:<hr />I'm interested, but I want to hear from a few early adopters what they think of the product. At $180, I'm still looking at capture boards for my Windows box at $50, and have trouble believing this is more than 3x better....<hr /></blockquote>Let us know how that works out. I went through 3 $50 Windows TV capture cards. Two worked fine for TV viewing, one didn't have audio working correctly. None could capture correctly (2 claimed codec errors, 1 captured for 10 seconds and then crashed consistently) and none worked with PVR software available for Windows. This was under Win98 about a year ago so it's hopefully better now, but I got frustrated after reformatting the computer and installing from scratch many times.

Dgysy · Jul 16, 2002, 05:07 PM

Has anyone been to MacWorld Expo at the Jacob Javitz Center in NY and actually seen Eye TV in person?

C.J. Moof · Jul 16, 2002, 05:50 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by cmoney:
Let us know how that works out. I went through 3 $50 Windows TV capture cards. Two worked fine for TV viewing, one didn't have audio working correctly. None could capture correctly (2 claimed codec errors, 1 captured for 10 seconds and then crashed consistently) and none worked with PVR software available for Windows. This was under Win98 about a year ago so it's hopefully better now, but I got frustrated after reformatting the computer and installing from scratch many times.<hr /></blockquote>I'm not at all surprised that your Video experiences under Win98 were less than impressive. I still have to fight with a couple of Win98 boxen at the office, and they're a poor excuse of an OS. However, Win2KPro has proven itself to be an order of magnitude less headache, so I have some hope that a tuner card in that box might be worth the effort.

I'd prefer to have my beautiful, silent Cube doing my TV recording, but hey- money talks. If one gives acceptable results for $50, I gotta explore that option. If ElGato was just promising QTSS intergration or some other killer feature, that could increase the value in my eyes. Drag and drop VCD creation is very desireable, tho. That's one of the reasons I'd like to have a PVR- archiving to VHS is a drag, and so 90's. I wish I had a collection of '24' VCDs.....

We should have a collection of reviews within a week- probably enough info to make an educated decision.

Corys · Jul 16, 2002, 07:42 PM

I am curious how this thing will work with my DirectTV Receiver...I know I hook it up to the unit via the RCA cables.

I queue up some things I was to record at a later time, can the tuner in the Eye TV unit change the channel on my receiver? or do I need to be sure I change the channel on my receiver before recording time?
that has me a bit confused..

cmoney · Jul 16, 2002, 07:47 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
I'd prefer to have my beautiful, silent Cube doing my TV recording, but hey- money talks. If one gives acceptable results for $50, I gotta explore that option. If ElGato was just promising QTSS intergration or some other killer feature, that could increase the value in my eyes. Drag and drop VCD creation is very desireable, tho. That's one of the reasons I'd like to have a PVR- archiving to VHS is a drag, and so 90's. I wish I had a collection of '24' VCDs.....

We should have a collection of reviews within a week- probably enough info to make an educated decision.<hr /></blockquote>I'd give XP a shot but I went to upgrade the firmware on the Sony VAIO I had and it died during the firmware update, killing the whole system.

TiVo archival is so annoying, especially since it's "real-time" only so I'd have to sit through 24 hours of '24' to archive it. And you can't do anything else while the TiVo is archiving, like managing schedules, scheduling recordings, etc. (Besides, my cable company, Cablevision, just started offering '24' as Video On Demand!)

On another note, has anyone heard about Windows XP Media Center? (I think that's the name) Should be coming out Fall or Winter and it's the production version of "Freestyle" that they demoed last year. It won't be a separate product, but PC manufacturers will release systems with it that hook up directly to an entertainment center and, using an included remote control, allow you to watch DVDs, record TV, play MP3s, and I'm sure stream Corona content as well (for a nominal fee and your soul of course). I still don't see how they (PC enthusiasts) find a loud fan in the living room as being acceptable.

Anyway, if they have any product on site, I'll pick up an EyeTV on Thursday and hopefully report back that night...

Big Mac · Jul 18, 2002, 07:14 PM

An Apple designed, produced solution would be ideal (although costly); it's something I've wanted to see for quite some time. But since we're not getting that, anyone who can provide a consumer priced PVR will win the Mac market. It's unfortunate that this Eye TV suite is a USB product, Firewire would be much better. I think that would deter purchase for me, since I don't trust USB for anything more than mice, keyboards and printers.

People interested in drivers for PC TV capture cards should check out <a href="http://www.oeyvind.org/board/zboard.php?id=MacOSX&no=67" target="_blank">this page</a>.

cmoney · Jul 18, 2002, 09:51 PM

Okay, so I went to MWNY today. Unfortunately, El Gato was out of product and there was a waiting list for the ones coming tomorrow. I'm not gonna be there tomorrow though, so I'm gonna order online. It's actually cheaper than buying at MWNY because taxes are so high in NYC!

I did get to see the video quality. It was playing on an iMac G4. At full screen, the Hi-Quality setting gave quality equivalent to the lowest setting on a TiVo for those with TiVos. The lower quality setting was still okay, though noticeably degraded. The text on the TV program at low quality had obvious artifacts and was a little blurry and harder to read, though this was a result of the higher compression and not because of the limitations of USB. The higher quality video was about VHS quality.

The TV program guide was definitely easy to use. It allowed you to select a program and then repeat it daily or weekly, so you can click "Friends" and then choose weekly and from then on, it would record that show every week at that time. It's not quite the "Season Pass" function on TiVo, but it's still pretty good. I didn't get to see what kind of program information it saved along with the program. I also didn't get to ask what happens in the case of a program change. (With a TiVo, if there's a program change at least a few days before the program, I believe it should be able to update the recording schedule. Since EyeTV's program guide is online, theoretically it should be able to update the recording schedule instantly, though I doubt this is the case yet.)

They did note it couldn't control external cable boxes or DirecTV boxes directly. So if you wanted to record a show that required a cable box, you have to set the cable box to the right channel before recording.

Burning VCDs is easier than I originally posted. In the File menu, there's a "Burn VCD" option when you have a program selected. Presumably that simply automates the process of opening Toast and choosing the VCD option.

One issue I didn't look at is how long it takes between changing channels.

I think that's about it. If you want top quality TV recording, obviously this is not an option. Otherwise, if all you want is to have an archive of a TV series, this is a great way to do it pretty easily.

There was one place selling the Formac Studio/TV for $349. I thought about buying that for about one second, tempted by the high quality DV recording. But then there's no program guide available so recording is no better than a VCR. Also, DV takes up alot of space, about 13 GB per hour, so my "measly" 80 GB external FW will store only 6 hours. (Not sure if the Formac is capable of recording at lower resolution, if so then it's not as bad. Still, no program guide is a big deal for me.)

If you have any questions, feel free to post them, I'll try to answer them though I didn't get to play with it directly.

C.J. Moof · Jul 18, 2002, 10:12 PM

Easy VCD creation: good.
Recording Quality: sounds dissapointing, tho I'm not surprised. USB just doesn't hold up to big thoroughput, like a video stream.

My conclusion- I'll look again when my VCR breaks. Doesn't sound great enough for me to dump it yet. Or, I'lll still put $50 into a PC recording toy first. I can dislike 2 of those and still be at half the price.

Thanks for the input.

cmoney · Jul 18, 2002, 10:21 PM

I should receive mine next week now. I'll post video samples somewhere so you can see for yourself. I did notice there weren't any dropped frames. It was pretty good in that sense.

motherscratcher · Jul 19, 2002, 09:27 AM

I went to MWNY Thursday specifically to check out this product, and I had the pleasure of meeting El Gato's VP of Engineering. Here are a few points of interest:

(1) As cmoney noted about the video quality, it looked similar TiVo's lowest quality setting. What cmoney did *not* note, however, was that El Gato didn't have a cable feed at the show; the demos were all playing video from a VHS. When using a direct cable hookup I would expect the quality should be a bit better than what cmoney noted.

(2) It will not work with digital cable systems. If, however, your cable provider, like mine, sends both analog and digital on the lines, I suppose you could split the cable from your wall and run one cable to EyeTV and one to the cable box.

(3) Some people at the show asked if a FireWire version would be available, allowing for better video quality. Such an inquiry is off the mark. The MPEG-1 data sent to the computer at a resolution of 320x240 is on the order of 360 KB/s (I can't recall the exact number the VP of Engineering noted). USB is perfectly fine for transfering this amount of data; FireWire would be overkill, providing no benefit to video quality and increasing price.

(4) El Gato did not make the chipset. It was developed by an Israel-based firm and manufactured in Taiwan, although the name was company was not offered.

(5) TitanTV's scheduling allows one to search by show title, actor, and genre, as well as listing shows that are HDTV, have closed captions (which isn't supported by EyeTV), and are movies. As cmoney noted, there is no "season pass" equivalent with TitanTV. To record all of the episodes of The Simpsons, for example, I would have to do a search for Simpsons and individually click on each show I want to record. I would have to repeat this every two weeks, as TitanTV only shows listings two weeks in advance.

If anyone has hooked this up at home yet, please let us know how she runs.

[ 07-19-2002, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: motherscratcher ]

GORDYmac · Jul 19, 2002, 09:41 AM

It's important to note that TitanTV is a website, that interacts with EyeTV's software via a plug-in. Sounds kinda clunky. To EyeTV's credit, there is a high quality setting, that is much better than the VCD quality. Unfortunately, you cannot create VCD's at this higher bit rate, only at the crappy one. Both settings are 320x240.

I have an XLR8 interview and a VCR. Right now, that's a better choice for me for recording programs that I usually don't want to archive. For keepsakes, I need better quality.

It looks okay, I guess, but not for me. I'd like a PCI card, 640x480, and MPEG 4. Am I being unrealistic?

EDIT: Oh yeah, EyeTV is not yet supported, according to TitanTV.com's channel guide:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />
Coming Soon MDP-100
Coming Soon EyeTV
Coming Soon AVerTV / AVerTV Stereo / AVerTV Studio<hr /></blockquote>

[ 07-19-2002, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: GORDYmac ]

motherscratcher · Jul 19, 2002, 03:41 PM

Although obvious, eyeTV references the date and time set on your Mac to determine when to begin and end recording. In the preferences you can specify recording to begin 1-5 minutes (in 1-minute intervals) before the show begins and to end recording 1-5 minutes after the show ends.

robby818 · Jul 19, 2002, 07:16 PM

eyetv does allow you to save HQ video in the form of a quicktime movie (.mov file), right? So after you save it as a .mov file,then can you burn the higher quality video onto CD-r and watch it later as a quicktime file? Do any programs allow you to convert from .mov to VCD? I'm just wondering what is the best way to transfer the HQ video on my hard drive to either a CD or DVD.

cmoney · Jul 19, 2002, 07:47 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by robby818:
eyetv does allow you to save HQ video in the form of a quicktime movie (.mov file), right? So after you save it as a .mov file,then can you burn the higher quality video onto CD-r and watch it later as a quicktime file? Do any programs allow you to convert from .mov to VCD? I'm just wondering what is the best way to transfer the HQ video on my hard drive to either a CD or DVD.<hr /></blockquote>Yes, you'll be able to save it to CD-R and keep it as a quicktime file. BUT, you're limited by the fact that 1 hr is 1.2GB. So if you have a 1 hour show, you'll have to manually split the file.

Converting that .mov to VCD should theoretically compress it down to the lower quality setting to get you the exact same results.

One option since you mention DVD is to do an MPEG-2 export and save that to DVD via iDVD 2 or DVD Studio Pro. You'll still be limited to the quality of the HQ setting, but it's better than VCD.

[email protected] · Jul 19, 2002, 08:44 PM

can't wait till mine shows up!

should be much less labor intensive than fcp was for capturing the simpsons...and i just started saving as mpeg4 instead of mpeg2, since it was 'good enough'...perfect. i may still encode higher quality and dub to vhs.

robby818 · Jul 19, 2002, 10:50 PM

Thanks for the reply cmoney. I hope that I can see one of these in person soon.

Group51 · Jul 21, 2002, 12:52 PM

Q. Does EyeTV support PAL format and work internationally?

A. Not yet. EyeTV currently only supports NTSC format for use in North America.

Nevermind then.

spiky_dog · Jul 22, 2002, 01:19 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by GORDYmac:
It looks okay, I guess, but not for me. I'd like a PCI card, 640x480, and MPEG 4. Am I being unrealistic?<hr /></blockquote>[/QUOTE]
I don't think so. I want the exact same product.

Joost · Jul 24, 2002, 03:26 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Group51:
Q. Does EyeTV support PAL format and work internationally?

A. Not yet. EyeTV currently only supports NTSC format for use in North America.

Nevermind then.<hr /></blockquote>"Currently" is key.

Emailed 'em, and they say they're working on a PAL version. They also suggested that an NTSC/PAL hybrid, which I'd need, would be feasible.

Weezer · Jul 25, 2002, 10:26 AM

I ordered mine last Sunday. Apparantly they sold out at macworld, and the new ones arnt shipping until monday.

SpeedRacer · Jul 25, 2002, 10:41 AM

Got it. Hate it. Going to return it. Ridiculously slow and nonresponsive on this iBook/600, 100% crash rate on scheduling programs more than 3 hours in advance, frequent loss of video signal, TitanTV takes extremely long to load even on a DSL line, and very, very minimal tech support from the El Gato website.

Forget Heid's review and/or all the speculation. Check out xlr8yourmac for real reviews from people who have actually purchased and used this product.

It shows promise, but was clearly rushed out the door - valuing glitz and form over stability and function.

Then there's the obvious question: given that ElGato is merely a software developer for a product that has existed in the East for 3 years now, what's the possibility of merely buying this break-out box itself for $50 and running the EyeTV app itself. My guess is there's a massive markup due to the uniqueness of this product on the Mac platform.

In sum, buyer beware.

Speed

C.J. Moof · Jul 25, 2002, 11:46 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Joost:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Group51:
Q. Does EyeTV support PAL format and work internationally?

A. Not yet. EyeTV currently only supports NTSC format for use in North America.

Nevermind then.<hr /></blockquote>"Currently" is key.

Emailed 'em, and they say they're working on a PAL version. They also suggested that an NTSC/PAL hybrid, which I'd need, would be feasible.<hr /></blockquote>They responded to your email? Lucky you. They didn't find me worthy of replying to <img border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" title="" src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" />

Weezer · Jul 25, 2002, 11:54 AM

I sent an email to their support and recieved a reply 5 minutes later...Be sure to send your emails to [email protected] not [email protected]. Info has never replied back, while support does.

coolmac · Jul 25, 2002, 12:55 PM

Two questions, first how is EyeTV strictly for watching TV on the Mac?
Is the video on a G4 with Nvidia Geforce 4MX good?

Also, can anyone compare EyeTV to the Formac Studio which is $200 more expensive?

Weezer · Jul 25, 2002, 04:06 PM

Can anyone who already has the box test out the new software update and compare the performace? It seems as if they addressed a lot of the concerns.

Todd Corzett · Jul 26, 2002, 02:00 PM

I've sent an email to ElGato regarding hooking up to a Satellite system, but haven't received any reply (it's only been a few hours though). Overall from what I hear there are some bugs and stuff - but can anyone comment on the software upgrade? Have they solved any of the problems with crashing and slow channel changes?

Is there any other software out there that could take advantage of the eyeTV hardware (or other hardware like Firewire DV converters) to record as specified times?

-Todd...

Dgysy · Jul 26, 2002, 07:22 PM

From the photo of the EyeTV box on El Gato's website, it shows 3 RCA sockets on the back.
Does this mean to use EyeTV with a Quicksilver Powemac 2002, you must buy a AV cable to get stereo audio?

Also since the audio card of the Poermac does not have any inputs must one purchase something like iMic, to convert an RCA AV cable to a USB connection?

Todd Corzett · Jul 26, 2002, 07:44 PM

I'm guessing that all the inputs come through USB. The RCA jacks you see are for inputing information from something like a home theater receiver or satellite box with RCA output (i.e. your Playstation2 or XBox). I don't own one, but it seems logical it is like this.

-Todd...

Anyone try it with the new drivers yet??

Weezer · Jul 28, 2002, 05:12 PM

I can't find a single report of how the latest software update has impacted performace, whats going on?! Mine should arrive in a few days, but I'd love an update.

Anybody??

motherscratcher · Jul 29, 2002, 09:59 AM

Weezer,

Several reader reports are available at <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com" target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com,</a> including one regarding the 1.01 software update. Among other things, the update reduces the lag when changing channels.

[ 07-29-2002, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: motherscratcher ]

Weezer · Jul 29, 2002, 10:28 AM

yea just saw that. 3-4 seconds is still a long time for channel changing, but he also had a pretty ghetto setup. I ordered mine over a week ago, should be here soon....

motherscratcher · Jul 29, 2002, 11:31 AM

I ordered mine on Sunday, July 21, just before the discounted price offer expired. I received an e-mail saying it shipped on Friday, July 26. If I'm lucky I'll get it today.

Weezer · Jul 29, 2002, 11:53 AM

ordered mine the same day, got the same email

however, I put the info into ups.com, and it predicted the package would arrive on tuesday

although, I entered in generic info, as they didnt send the ups tracking number, just their own.

motherscratcher · Jul 29, 2002, 12:10 PM

Now I just need to get 100 feet of coax, a splitter and a booster.

Weezer · Jul 29, 2002, 12:39 PM

UPS just dropped mine off!

motherscratcher · Jul 29, 2002, 01:00 PM

Great to hear, Weezer. Perhaps today will be my lucky day as well. Where are you located?

Did it ship with version 1.01 of the software?

[ 07-29-2002, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: motherscratcher ]

Weezer · Jul 29, 2002, 01:20 PM

upstate new york

and yes, it ships with 1.0.1

so far, preliminary tests show better than I had expected quality through a VHS tape rip input. I've yet to test live TV.

benh57 · Jul 29, 2002, 11:47 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by motherscratcher:
Now I just need to get 100 feet of coax, a splitter and a booster.<hr /></blockquote>Heh, same here. Mine also arrived today. I think they had a BIG shipment on thursday. So now I have the unit, but no cable to hook it into till I install that coax line.

rjc3 · Aug 22, 2002, 05:21 PM

Originally posted by SpeedRacer:

Forget Heid's review and/or all the speculation. Check out xlr8yourmac for real reviews from people who have actually purchased and used this product.

Sorry, I can't find any reviews of this product at xlr8yourmac. Could you please provide a link? I am really excited about this product but need more info/feedback before I shell out $200. Anyone else have some experience with this product? Would you buy it again?