[Kar98]

Where's the button to keep a small EyeTV 1.8.5 window on top of all other windows while playing?




You know, like this:



But as soon as I click anywhere, the TV window disappears into the background. This annoys me greatly.

[F*ckDell]

I'm sorry to say, but I do not have an answer for your question. However, I have one for you if you don't mind.

What system are you running with your EyeTV? How is the quality and is it sluggish??

Thanks for the info...

[Kar98]

Sorry, I just got it today and started to play around with it find that out myself :-)

[CharlesS]

Here's what you can try. Be sure to back up the EyeTV app before doing this.

Open the app's .nib file with Interface Builder and find the window in question. If the window's class is NSWindow, Get Info on it, go to Custom Class, and change it to NSPanel (if the class is a custom subclass of NSWindow, yer outta luck). Now, go to Attributes in the Get Info window and check the "Utility window (panel only)" check box. Save, quit, launch EyeTV, and cross your fingers.

[Kar98]

You lost me after "app's".

[CharlesS]

1. Make a backup copy of the EyeTV app, in case we end up completely hosing it.

2. Control-click on the EyeTV app, and choose "Show Package Contents"

3. Look around inside there for files whose names end with ".nib"

4. Check out the .nib files until you find the one with the window in it

5. Click the window

6. Get Info

7. Go to "Custom Class" in the Get Info window

8. If the class is NSWindow, change it to NSPanel. If it is not NSWindow or NSPanel, abort!

9. Go to "Attributes" in the Get Info window

10. Check "Utility window (panel only)"

11. Save, quit, and give it a try

Remember to back up first - there's no guarantee we won't seriously mess up the app by doing this.

[Mediaman_12]

Originally Posted by Kar98

You lost me after "app's".

If you control (or right) click the EyeTV icon there is an option to "Show Package Contents' Select this. You then get a window showing the 'files & folders' that make up the application, the .nib files are located in Contents/Resorces/English.Iproj.
However I cant find the .nib that includes the settings for the custom controller 'window' that EyeTV uses.

Kar98: If you put your Mac to 'sleep' while the TV is playing, do you loose video when you wake the Mac back up?

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by Mediaman_12

If you control (or right) click the EyeTV icon there is an option to "Show Package Contents' Select this. You then get a window showing the 'files & folders' that make up the application, the .nib files are located in Contents/Resorces/English.Iproj.
However I cant find the .nib that includes the settings for the custom controller 'window' that EyeTV uses.

There are loads of .nibs in that package. No idea which one I'm supposed to alter. At any rate, that should be an easily accessible option. You know, like on WinTV?

Kar98: If you put your Mac to 'sleep' while the TV is playing, do you loose video when you wake the Mac back up?

Sound's still there, but the TV window is black and says "No Signal". But you can re-surrect it by pushing ch+/ch-

On a second try, it didn't disappear but behaved as expected.

Btw, this is a G4 1.42 mini, with a gig of RAM.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Kar98

There are loads of .nibs in that package. No idea which one I'm supposed to alter. At any rate, that should be an easily accessible option. You know, like on WinTV?

You need to find the one that has the window you want to make omnipresent in it. That will probably mean opening them one by one until you find that window. Unfortunately, I don't have EyeTV, so I can't go find out which one it is for you. It should be in one of the nibs, though, unless the developers are creating the window programatically (not done too often these days).

[Mithras]

Try out Afloat -- lets you make any window stay-on-top, and also adjust transparency. Wonderful stuff.

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by Mithras

Try out Afloat -- lets you make any window stay-on-top, and also adjust transparency. Wonderful stuff.

Found it, was going to post about here, alas, it works for AdiumX (handy to have), but of course not for EyeTV.

[Tsilou B.]

If you don't mind installing Unsanity's free Application Enhancer, you can download the also free OnTop. It's supposed to make the green button in the EyeTV window act like an "always on top" button. (I have never tried it.)

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by Tsilou B.

If you don't mind installing Unsanity's free Application Enhancer, you can download the also free OnTop. It's supposed to make the green button in the EyeTV window act like an "always on top" button. (I have never tried it.)

Tried that, too. No go. Thanks.

But I figured out why there's no always-on-top button like in WinTV (which btw is a free application). Having a small, frameless WinTV window floating on top of the other maximized windows causes no system slow-down at all (various machines, like a Celeron 1.4, 768 MB RAM, Windows XP, USB 1.1 tuner or PCI didn't make a difference.
Running an EyeTV window on a clear spot on the desktop, with all the other windows decreased in size as to make room for the TV window, EyeTV will only play flawlessly when it is the active window. Switching to any program (Firefox, Entourage, Unison, Adium running) will cause the EyeTV window to stutter mercilessly, to the point of being useless (mini G4 1.42, 1GB RAM, EyeTV EZ USB2)

So hooray for Mac, the superior platform.

[Chuckit]

It's the platform's fault that EyeTV has issues, is it?

[Weezer]

I always have wondered why if I have a video playing flawlessly, and then click on say the desktop away from the video, that it can stutter a bit. I thought osx was supposed to multitask really well, especially with 2 cores.

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

It's the platform's fault that EyeTV has issues, is it?

Good question, isn't it?
Is it a lack of multi-tasking capabilities, or is Apple not supportive of third-party developers, or is it the way OSX handles video (btw, 30 bucks to enable full-screen video, and another 30 bucks to play .wmv is ridiculous), or is it the platform philosophy that has fanboys quietly, willingly shell out money even if a product is far from perfect, while loudly proclaiming the superiority of said platform...?
I don't know, you're the one with about 10,000 posts, you tell me.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Kar98

(btw, 30 bucks to enable full-screen video,

QTAmateur is free.

and another 30 bucks to play .wmv is ridiculous)

Huh? Flip4Mac is free, and I don't know of anything anywhere that makes you pay $30 just to play .wmv.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally Posted by Kar98

Good question, isn't it?
Is it a lack of multi-tasking capabilities, or is Apple not supportive of third-party developers, or is it the way OSX handles video (btw, 30 bucks to enable full-screen video, and another 30 bucks to play .wmv is ridiculous), or is it the platform philosophy that has fanboys quietly, willingly shell out money even if a product is far from perfect, while loudly proclaiming the superiority of said platform...?
I don't know, you're the one with about 10,000 posts, you tell me.

No, it has to do with the fact that the EyeTV developers seem to be stuck in a Carbon mindset when programming (check it yourself, there's a bunch of WaitNextEvents in any sample of EyeTV, a relic of OS 9's cooperative multitasking).

OS X handles video spectacularly, and can play them full speed while being run through a transform filter if your video card is up to the task (I watched the entire Matrix with a slight warp on the window back in the 10.1 days just to prove a point.)

If you're having stuttering troubles, you may want to check if your nice values are all messed up by some "performance enhancing" software you installed.

BTW, you didn't do ANY research on the product you were buying beforehand did you? the EyeTV EZ on a single core G4 will run like trash. Seriously, the G4 does not have the raw power needed to do live encoding of content, especially on a slow hard drive.

[Kar98]

Originally Posted by King Bob On The Cob

If you're having stuttering troubles, you may want to check if your nice values are all messed up by some "performance enhancing" software you installed.

BTW, you didn't do ANY research on the product you were buying beforehand did you? the EyeTV EZ on a single core G4 will run like trash. Seriously, the G4 does not have the raw power needed to do live encoding of content, especially on a slow hard drive.

All I wanted was a simple TV tuner; no live encoding, tivo-like behavior or video editing required. Just a little window to entertain myself while typing away.

[chris.p]

There is a way, not very elegant, but it works.

You need to download the free CYTV

http://www.lucid-cake.net/cytv/index_en.html

And VLC

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

CYTV is an app that streams eyetv over a network to any machine, using VLC as the viewer- including the CYTV host server.

I got it to work by firing up Eyetv, then the CYTV server, then the CYTV client- VLC just started up, and played whatever was on Eyetv. The trick is that VLC has as option to keep the window floating on top. You can still change channels, watch recorded stuff etc- I only managed to do this last night, so not too sure what it really can and can't do, but I watched a film I started recording, and before it finished I watched it from the start- all the way through with no stuttering- pretty good I thought.

On a iMac G5 2.1 with 1.5 GB ram, it used around 5-10% of the proccessor for Eyetv, and the same for VLC which seemed acceptable- and I can watch TV while I work!

[Fusion]

When you tried the suggested solutions, did you make sure to relaunch the app? Those solutions don't work until the app reloads.

[macmini73]

Windowshade x will work to keep you eyetv float on top!
I costs 10 dollar but think it's worth it, altough it's plain stupid that eyetv doesn't support this. The notes also supports the float on top don't know why this would be an unsolvable problem for eyetv.