[Since EBCDIC]

At Macworld Expo SF I picked up the Elgato eyeTV hybrid. It works wonderfully with my Al G4 PowerBook. There are some irritating bugs and ommissions, however, which surprise me in such a mature software product. (I have many years experience in software quality assurance and user interface testing.)

1. The TV window doesn't remember its location and size. I keep it half-size at the upper right of my screen, and it keeps crawling three or so pixels over. When I restart the app it forgets that both. Grrr.

2. The Program Guide forces one to scroll through all the channels. I can't believe that there hasn't been an outcry to be able to create a new "playlist" so I can drag over the few channels I peruse. My wife's list would also be a few, but pretty much exclusive list :-)

3. The playlists allow us to group recordings, which I find not very useful. Besides the previous requests for playlists of channels, I'd also want playlists of searches. How about letting me see all occurrences of "X Files" and "24" that occur in the next week (or whatever the range is in the guide).

4. Hey, while we're adding useful functionality, how about you let me specify that I want to record every occurrence of "Are You Being Served?" on an on-going basis? (Please let me specify "smart" booleans, like ( name is "24" ) or ((name contains "being served") AND (channel is "9 PBS")).

5. When I change the recording location directory all the previous recordings and schedules are abandoned. Not cool. Sure, I was able to manually copy everything over and restart the app, but I should be prompted.

6. I have a recurring visual defect which appears in the Program Guide. It seems to change location every few minutes:



And last, but not least, it's incredible that Elgato doesn't run some sort of forum for their users. C'mon, please!

So, in short, I love the product, but it could be so much more! Elgato, if you want another beta tester, ... :-)

[hldan]

Hi, I also bought an EyeTV Hybrid at Macworld a few weeks back. I actually bought 2 of them and they work flawlessly. Let me address at least a couple of your concerns.
I tried several locations and sizes and the TV window remains the way I positioned it even when I fully quit the app and restart it. Usually I leave the EyeTV software on and just press the red close button but either way resized windows and position changes remain the same pixel to pixel.
I would suggest to use Spotlight and remove the preferences for the EyeTV software and do the entire setup again.
2nd thing, you can create a playlist of channels very easily for the entire family, each having their own set of channels to surf. I use this function daily. Just open the EyeTV Programs menu, at the bottom left click the plus button, a box appears called "Favorite Channels". Rename it anything you want say like your wife's channels. Then under the categories list highlight "Channels" then drag and drop your favorite channels to the file you created. On the EyeTV controller you will see something new called "All Channels". Click the name and the favorite channels box you created will show up in a drop down list. Now you can surf just those channels.

That visual effect you mentioned is not a defect. It's a guide that shows you what time of day it is and what programs are available to watch and record. So for instance, anything to the left of that line means those shows have passed and you cannot watch or record them. Anything to the left means current and future shows. The design should be more obvious but that's just how it was made.

You can create sort of a playlist of searches. Just create your playlist as usual and search for a future show. Schedule it to record as usual, then click on the name of the show and then click on "Edit Schedule" and remove the checkbox named "Enabled". This will disable the recording. Underneath that click "Add to Playlist" and that show will remain in your playlist to record anytime you want. Just be sure to change the recording date and time.

The other things you mentioned about recording the show at anytime and any day it's comes on is a feature I would like and I'm sure Elgato will implement that.
One last thing, to get the absolute best picture I would suggest changing to "Progressive Scan" in Display Options.

[Since EBCDIC]

Originally Posted by hldan 

...I tried several locations and sizes and the TV window remains the way I positioned it even when I fully quit the app and restart it... I would suggest to remove the preferences for the EyeTV software...

Thanks for the reply. I'll do just that.

Originally Posted by hldan 

2nd thing, you can create a playlist of channels very easily...

Wow, what a hard-to-uncover user interface! It's irritating that I can't drag channels from the Program Guide, only from the Channel list. How do you sort this playlist? The channels seem to be sorted in the order I dropped 'em in.

Originally Posted by hldan 

That visual effect you mentioned is not a defect. It's a guide that shows you what time of day it is

Ah! I can't believe I didn't get it. Probably 'cause there's no prefs to (1) activate the effect or (2) activate automatic "go to now" to follow the effect.

Originally Posted by hldan 

You can create sort of a playlist of searches.

Hmmn. That seems a bit contrived. A start, tho.

Originally Posted by hldan 

The other things you mentioned about recording the show at anytime and any day it's comes on is a feature I would like

This is *such* cool software. I haven't had so much fun with TV in years! We're thinking of getting another MacBook for the wife, if we can just split the incoming cable between two eyeTV hybrids.

Originally Posted by hldan 

One last thing, to get the absolute best picture I would suggest changing to "Progressive Scan" in Display Options.

I did it. Let's see if my Al G4 PB has the horsepower...

Thanks again for the most excellent reply.

[hldan]

Glad I could help, yes, EyeTV is wonderful. I have gotten rid of all my televisions in the household and have just Macs using EyeTV. I use my Macs for business, entertainment, TV, and my large Cinema Display for a virtual aquarium.
Okay answer to your question in terms of the way to sort through the mixed up channels. Using the EyeTV programs menu, under "Categories", highlight your playlist that you set up for your favorite channels, on the bottom right of the menu user interface you will see 2 clickable icons. Each icon changes how you view the channel set up. One of them shows graphics, the other is plain. Click on the one to the right that shows no graphics, now you can drag your channels in your playlist in the correct order.
Have fun.

[Since EBCDIC]

Thanks. I figured that last thing out late last night. A user interface that has those sorts of modes is infuriating.

I'm pretty impressed with EyeTV in general. There are a lot of rough edges, but there's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of work.

There are also lots of small UI tweaks that could be done: add the current channel and the recording state to the dock badge, provide better notification that recording is about to start.

And there are lots of fit-and-finish issues. The window size shrinks to tiny when a recording starts (from my half-size default view) and resizes to full size when done. Don't change the size to begin with, and if you can't get away from that, at least return it to the previous state.

I'd redo the manual too.

Thanks for the conversation. It makes the software even better :-)

[hldan]

Originally Posted by Since EBCDIC 

Thanks. I figured that last thing out late last night. A user interface that has those sorts of modes is infuriating.

I'm pretty impressed with EyeTV in general. There are a lot of rough edges, but there's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of work.

There are also lots of small UI tweaks that could be done: add the current channel and the recording state to the dock badge, provide better notification that recording is about to start.

And there are lots of fit-and-finish issues. The window size shrinks to tiny when a recording starts (from my half-size default view) and resizes to full size when done. Don't change the size to begin with, and if you can't get away from that, at least return it to the previous state.

I'd redo the manual too.

Thanks for the conversation. It makes the software even better :-)

Cool, glad things worked out. I do agree with you that Elgato needs to tweek the software a bit and I like the idea of having a tag showing the TV channel and notification of when recording is about to begin would be great. EyeTV has been out for a while but it's just becoming a big seller. I don't think they sold nearly as many at last year's Macworld as this year. I'm almost certain that by summer time there will be enough feedback from customers and the software will get some significant upgrades but otherwise it's really a great UI for what we paid for it.

[vmarks]

Originally Posted by Since EBCDIC 

Thanks. I figured that last thing out late last night. A user interface that has those sorts of modes is infuriating.

I'm pretty impressed with EyeTV in general. There are a lot of rough edges, but there's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of work.

There are also lots of small UI tweaks that could be done: add the current channel and the recording state to the dock badge, provide better notification that recording is about to start.

And there are lots of fit-and-finish issues. The window size shrinks to tiny when a recording starts (from my half-size default view) and resizes to full size when done. Don't change the size to begin with, and if you can't get away from that, at least return it to the previous state.

I'd redo the manual too.

Thanks for the conversation. It makes the software even better :-)

Look in your device preferences and see if you have combo box options for Viewing Size and Recording Size - some devices reveal these settings and it would explain why it shrinks for your recordings.

Are you using the Hybrid for analog TV, or HDTV over the air?

While you were at Macworld, did you get a chance to drop by the Miglia booth? They also make TV tuner products.

[krove]

I'm currently using it to record analog cable TV, but I'd like to go HD. The analog recordings just don't match the quality of iTunes shows even at the same resolution (analog recordings are washed out and have soft edges, while Apple gets to encode from the source). We have just a single digital HDTV box upstairs that is unfortunately no where near the computer with component out. I need to get a component (orange) cable to try it out.

I might get a small antenna to see if I get good reception. I'm very close to the transmission towers (1-2 mi) so I think I should be able to get by with a simple indoor antenna.

I do wish that the external dongle had COLORS to denote the left/right audio and component cables. Brown just doesn't seem to cut it.

I wish the software had the ability to automatically cut out the ads. I'm really enjoying the remote TitanTV scheduling though.