PVR on the Mac, now viable
Written: Jun 02 '06 (Updated Jul 11 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact, works well on modern hardware, good user interface. No monthly fees, ads or spyware
Cons: Heats up. Not bus powered. Enough with the Blue LEDs already!
The Bottom Line: EyeTV has now matured to the point where you can use your Mac as a PVR, even if it is not dedicated to this purpose.
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| majid's Full Review: Elgato Systems EyeTV 250 (DHDEYETV250) |
In 2003, I cancelled my TiVo subscription and sold it off on eBay because they started putting advertising in the user interface, implementing user-hostile DRM and otherwise taking the side of Hollywood pigopolists over that of their customers by implementing things like the broadcast flag or recording restrictions on their DirecTV versions. I was also very concerned with the data collection they were running on my viewing habits, as illustrated by the Janet Jackson Superbowl "wardrobe dysfunction" fiasco (TiVo was able to report exactly how many people pressed the Pause button).
They claim it is anonymous, but there are statistical techniques to get around aggregation, and given their habit of routinely crippling features from their devices with consent from users, I was not prepared to give them the benefit of doubt as to whether they actually honor their privacy agreement or not. A man (or a company) can only serve one master, and if that master is the MPAA or TV companies, then clearly they are not looking out for me, and I have no interest in channeling my hard-earned dollars their way.
I replaced the TiVo with a Panasonic DMR-E80H, which is also able to burn DVDs, but has a horrible user interface. I was willing to put up with the discomfort because the Panasonic is not a networked device and thus I could be sure it did not call Big Brother with my viewing details. My Panasonic recently died, and I took the opportunity to look for a better PVR that still does not call home.
FrontRow notwithstanding, Apple does not provide an equivalent to TiVo or Microsoft's Media Center Edition. You need third-party products to provide this functionality, and the de facto standard is Elgato's EyeTV software, with video interfaces from Elgato, Miglia, Plextor, Terratec and others.
The idea is to allow you to watch TV on your terms, much like you would with TiVo, but with the benefits of a general-purpose computer behind it, such as a nicer user interface, more flexibility and expandability, the ability to edit video in iMovie, back up video to a Firewire drive without voiding your warranty, and so on.
The EyeTV 250 is a tiny little unit, the size of a pack of cigarettes. The unit is actually OEM-ed from Terratec. USB does not supply as much power as Firewire, so unlike the EyeTV 200, the 250 is not bus-powered and requires a "wall-wart" power supply. This is unfortunate, as it makes it less convenient for someone wanting to convert video on the go from a laptop.
It has a F-type antenna connector in the rear (next to the wall-wart jack) for analog over-the-air or cable signals, and a S-video connector with a breakout cable in front to hook up an analog camcorder, VCR or game console. A remote control is also included, but I have not used it much yet.
The most striking thing about the unit is the incredibly bright blue LED in front. The blue LED fad is definitely tired by now, but this one is so bright it actually illuminates my bedroom from across the living room where my Mac is, to the point I couldn't sleep because of it. I actually had to put two stickers on top of it just to bring it down to a less objectionable level.
Two years ago, I wrote a fairly severe review of the Elgato EyeTV 200, concluding that it was too expensive and that you would be better served by a dedicated PVR like a TiVo. I actually swapped my unit with a Formac StudioDVR analog video to DV converter that was better suited for importing old videos into iMovie and iDVD.
I bought my EyeTV 250 using the $200 Aperture credit last week, and I am quite happy with it. Since the EyeTV 250 is actually less capable hardware than the EyeTV 200 (it does not support hardware MPEG-4 compression, for instance, and is rumored to have lesser video quality), this is kind of odd.
The reason, of course, is that Moore's law intervened. My review 2 years ago was running on an iMac G4/800, whereas I use the EyeTV 250 with a dual 2GHz PowerMac G5 with 5.5GB of RAM. A general-purpose multi-tasking operating system like Mac OS X is not going to be as efficient at managing video as a dedicated embedded one like the version of Linux used by TiVo, and will thus require more CPU horsepower to get things done. Recent machines will run at full power decoding 1080i signals, but can handle SDTV with ease.
Another big difference from two years ago is that the EyeTV software has matured considerably. Version 2, which ships with the unit, is much more pleasant to use than version 1, with a far better integrated program guide. Scheduling recurring programs with bizarre schedules like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Mondays through Thursdays is a breeze.
Last but not least, EyeTV 2 will automatically wake up the computer from sleep mode to make a recording, so you won't miss a recording because your Mac was sleeping, an essential feature sorely lacking in version 1. I haven't checked whether EyeTV it can deal with saved wake-up times from other apps (like Griffin RadioSHARK) without interfering with them.
The system still has warts - when you get a conflict, it will cancel all instances of a recurring show that gets bumped off, not just the one instance in conflict. The quality of the user interface is still better than TiVo (the gold standard in PVR usability) because you can use a mouse, and are not limited to scrolling with remote control cursor keys. Picking shows to record from the program listing grid is a single-click affair, and it can also be done from the TitanTV website (for the US). It does not have the collaborative filtering and recommendations engine of TiVo, however.
You can in theory hook up your Mac to your TV using a S-Video adapter, or if you have a modern flat panel TV, with a DVI connection. That said, it's not as streamlined a process as using a dedicated appliance type PVR, so I expect the majority of EyeTV users will be watching their recorded shows on their computer monitors. On the other hand, EyeTV has iPod video integration, thus resolving the question of how to get content for an iPod video and also enabling new ways of accessing favorite shows on the go for those with nomadic inclinations. The remote control is supplied, in any case.
Like the EyeTV 200, the 250 heats up during use and even in standby mode. It does not get scorching hot, however. The EPA is trying to mandate lower standby wattage to save energy, this device is clearly not complying with the new recommended 1 watt draw. I did not measure it, but it's probably more like 8 watts or so.
My original hookup was with a short coax cable that did not have sufficient strain relief, and the signal was noisy and blocky. Replacing the cable fixed the problem. I suspect the tuner is a unit this compact does not have a very high level of sensitivity, so you will need to be careful with your video cabling.
The EyeTV 250 has a built-in MPEG-2 VBR compression chip. Since it compresses in near real-time (the lag is about a second or so, I compared it to my TV running in parallel with a video splitter), you can't expect to get the same levels of compression as DVD, but the quality at the DVD setting and higher is pretty good. You can adjust the base and burst bit rates in a custom setting if you wish to. If you are not going to transfer to DVD, reducing audio bandwidth to 32 kHz and assigning more bits to the video will get you more capacity out of your hard drive. At my current settings, it estimates 2.6GB per hour of video, although that is a slight (5-10%) underestimate.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
majid
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Member: Fazal Majid
Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I'm the CTO of an Internet startup
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