MAC TV
I first doubted that a TV tuner/recorder for my computer would be a good idea. I don’t like TV very much and don’t watch it on a regular basis. So what good would it be to watch TV on my computer? I had seen systems like this in the past and I wasn’t impressed at the time.
The EyeTV 500 by Elgato Systems is an external digital TV tuner box you connect to an Apple Macintosh computer through the FireWire 400 port. As I write this at a local Starbucks, I am watching a Nova program that I recorded in high definition. My G4 PowerBook with 512MB ram and a 1.25 GHz G4 processor is adequate to record, playback, encode, and convert the video recorded by the EyeTV 500. As a Macintosh user and systems administrator, I was interested in this product, although I must admit I wondered what the market was for it. After all, most people have a DVR or VCR and prefer to watch TV on big screens or at least comfortably squashed into their couches, not perched in front of their computers. Fortunately, you can do both with this unit.
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Elgato’s EyeTV 500 doesn’t come with a wall wart-type AC electrical power adapter, even though there’s a connection for one on the back of the unit. Instead, you can power the device off of the FireWire cable that connects to your Mac. |
This product does what it is designed to do very well, and is nearly perfect. The only problem I could detect was an occasional loss of synchronization between the audio and the picture, apparently a result of frequent disc access during playback, which causes too much competition for the poor little disc in my laptop. I did not notice this when I tested the device on more powerful computers. Setup is easy and is done in several easy-to-manage steps. The box hooks up to either an HD antenna or digital cable, but you are limited to the unencrypted, free channels only. EyeTV 500 does not work with analog signals, analog cable boxes, or satellite dishes.
Unpacking the device—a light, silver, plastic box about the size of a large paperback —I was at first surprised it does not come with a power adapter, although there is a DC plug on the unit. I found out that the device itself can be powered entirely through the computer’s FireWire port, which is a great convenience. The antenna I hooked up to the device was bigger and more unwieldy than the EyeTV 500 itself. The most difficult part of the installation process was waiting while the software did an exhaustive scan of all the broadcast channels in use. When it was done I was astounded by the number of channels the little box could pick up in the standard- and high-definition digital television formats. The viewing window changes sizes to reflect the different aspect ratios and resolutions when switching between the different formats. I found my 15-inch PowerBook screen ideal for the aspect ratio of HDTV, which at native resolution almost entirely fills the screen with a sharp digital picture that reveals what a poor cousin traditional NTSC TV is. The software allows you to watch live or recorded programs at small size, half size, normal size, and maximum size.
Part of the
software registration process includes setting up an account on a web-based
system, such as www.TitanTV.com, that takes
your ZIP code and generates a local broadcast schedule for you. This allows you
to change channels live or set your TV to record a program up to a week in
advance. The pay version of this service undoubtedly has more advanced features,
but I found the free service perfectly adequate, and mostly accurate, recording
all the programs I specified except one that was subject to a last-minute
programming change. The system was so easy to use that I was able to set a
recording without referring to a manual.
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| If you’re like Ken, the idea of watching TV on your computer may not seem like much fun, but storing files to your laptop’s hard drive and watching them at Starbucks while sipping your morning latte is a whole different experience. |
Recording programs takes disc space, however, and the more data rich the program format, the more storage space it requires. One hour of HDTV, for example, takes 6 gigabytes of storage space or more. Several times I filled up my disc, and I managed to crash OS X because it was literally squeezed out when the EyeTV software used up all available space on the hard drive for critical page files. Unless you have very limited recording plans, you will have to consider an external hard drive. I tested this unit with a 500 GB FireWire drive by LaCie and I noticed that my overall system performance improved when I took the EyeTV data store off my startup drive.
Converting video to other formats and importing it into iDVD to make copies takes even more disc space. Still, I was able to make a custom DVD with several episodes of a 30-minute sitcom on one disc all from my PowerBook—without additional storage. Processing this much video takes plenty of time and your computer will be tied up for hours.
On a PowerBook like mine it should only be attempted overnight. On a dual-processor-equipped G5, it can take as little as twice the playing time of the video to convert the native format of EyeTV into one that’s acceptable to a DVD formatting application. No other video recorder can compare with the level of customization and control you can achieve by pairing the EyeTV 500 with Apple’s DVD software.
Unlike most of its
predecessors, EyeTV 500 is a practical product with the addition of being able
to handle superior DTV and HDTV content. It fulfills the promise of a
computer-based digital-television tuner with easy-to-use recording features. At
first I was wondering about the market for this product. It is somewhat
expensive at around $299, but after trying it I found it to be ideal for people
who spend a lot of time in front of their Macintosh computer.
It’s also
possible, if one were so inclined, to connect the system to a large-screen TV. I
hooked my PowerBook up to a 50-inch plasma TV via the DVI signal and found that
it worked well. Add a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse and the whole
package would make an impressive internet-friendly entertainment system.
RATING: EXCELLENT
Description: EyeTV external DTV tuner for Macintosh
High Points: Incredibly simple setup; excellent tuner finds numerous local stations; easy to make widescreen DVDs from HDTV recordings
Low Points: Occasional audio sync problems; requires significant processing power and hard drive memory to operate efficiently
Contact: Elgato www.elgato.com
Price: $299