EyeTV ???

[ksonone]

I have an EyeTV USB hooked up to my DP450 G4(1.25 g ram and Superdrive DVR-107). I find it slow as hell burning a DVD(in Toast 6.07). Well over an hour. The quality is also so so. Since it converts from MPEG1(eyetv) to MPEG2(dvd) I lose quality and maybe some time. Would I see a gain in getting an EyeTV 200 and keep it all MPEG 2. Would this speed up the burn time in Toast. I asume the quality would also be better. My main use is to record cartoons for my kid.

[sjk]

Now that I've gained DVD burning capability (DVR-107 SuperDrive, 1.25GHz eMac) I'm considering upgrading my EyeTV USB to the 200 during El Gato's "Apple Expo Paris Special" (ends Sep 4th) for the video quality improvements. I've burned a MPEG1->MPEG2 transcoded recording with Toast 9.07 to DVD a few weeks ago but forget how long the that took, but it was rather slow. The video quality seemed the same basically unchanged; it's already low quality so minor differences wouldn't matter to me anyway. However, I noticed the audio had a distinctive, distracting "hiss" when "s-words" were spoken. I haven't had a chance to investigate that problem but want to look into it before making up my mind about getting the 200.

Sorry I don't have more tangible information (I'm new to the DVD burning world). Just wanted to let you know there's someone else around here in a similar situation.

[pixeljammedia]

Simply said, the difference between USB and firewire connectivity is huge. USB can support the vcd mpeg1 standard of 320x240 with a low bitrate. Firewire will allow the full 720x480 DVD standard and the quality of mpeg2 encoding is far superior to mpeg1. If it isn't price prohibitive you'll find the difference is akin to moving your internet connection from dial-up modem to broadband.

[sjk]

I like your inspiring analogy.

I still have analog cable and am not sure how much that matters to quality vs. digital. Also factoring in the increased disk space usage. Oh, and wondering if there are any issues using a FireWire drive and EyeTV 200 simultaneously.

[mhar4]

Simply said, the difference between USB and firewire connectivity is huge. USB can support the vcd mpeg1 standard of 320x240 with a low bitrate. Firewire will allow the full 720x480 DVD standard and the quality of mpeg2 encoding is far superior to mpeg1.

USB can support MPEG-2 at reasonable bit rates. The ADS Instant DVD for Mac is a USB device which works very well quality-wise, running to more than 6MB/s. DV capture requires Firewire, of course.

[Frobozz]

I still have analog cable and am not sure how much that matters to quality vs. digital. Also factoring in the increased disk space usage. Oh, and wondering if there are any issues using a FireWire drive and EyeTV 200 simultaneously.

If you like your EyeTV but want better picture quality and easy burning of video DVDs with Toast, the EyeTV 200 is your answer. El Gato just updated it software to make it even better. There's no problem working with an external Firewire drive. The analog cable is not any problem if it is decent quality. Yes, there is increased disk space needed for MPEG2 than for MPEG1 but that is the tradeoff for much improved picture quality and better DVD compatibility. It's only money. Go for it and enjoy!

[cnelson87]

Even USB 1 can handle high bitrate mpeg2. I have the ADS USB Instant DVD and it records up to 6Mbps mpeg2. only $120 at OWC if you're on the mailing list.

[cnelson87]

thanks mhar, ya beat me to the punch!

[sjk]

Thanks for the feedback. This forum/site is a great resource, and a relief from the "noise" on rumor forums.

$269 for EyeTV 200 seems like a reasonable deal. And El Gato has been updating the software more frequently lately so hopefully that's indication they're serious about continued development. I wish there were a way to select multiple recordings for burning. Anyone have any tricks to get around that limitation?

ADS USB Instant DVD sounds like a solution for what someone on MacInTouch was recently asking.

[sjk]

I'm wondering if there's reason to consider a ReplayTV RTV5504 (~$80 after rebate). With lifetime activation the total's about $100 more than an EyeTV 200. The 80-hour RTV5508 is another $50 but I'm fine with upgrading the HD myself later. I'm not that high-volume a TV watcher/recorder.

One advantage with ReplayTV is not having to rely on the computer yet still being able to copy files for storage, editing, burning. And its on-screen programming is potentially more "wife-convenient" than EyeTV. Also seems like more possibility to deal with a digital cable box, tho' I'll probably stick with analog 'til digital becomes mandatory or there's some worthwhile reason to switch.

A significant drawback (for me) is being tied to an activation service and not knowing what'll happen with the company; that's one reason I originally bought an EyeTV USB.

I've already ruled out getting a DVR subscription through Time-Warner because of horrible reviews of the Explorer 8000 they offer. And TiVo, because it wasn't obvious how to transfer data to the computer, especially as a Mac user... tho' maybe I had a blind spot when researching that last night.

Pretty sure the EyeTV 200 is what I'll end up but before making up my mind I'm curious if anyone here might offer any insight that I haven't already considered. Thanks.

[AntnyMD]

I'm finding getting material out of my DVR from Comcast to be a bit more difficult than I imagined, so definitely do more research. Once I got Apple's developer tools working in the way they must in order to pull the digital content out of the box easily, I found that all the On Demand content was encrypted, and almost all of the cable channels (HBO and the lot) are also encrypted. The only stuff that wasn't copy protected were my local channels and their high definition equivalents (HD stuff looks magificent in the PowerBook!!) ... So I got the content out and what did I find? No audio. GRRRR

[csteck00]

too have been recording cartoons for my 2 year old. I was using the USB eyetv and was pretty satisfied with the outcome. Then I got a wild hair and bought the eyetv 200 I have not regretted it yet, quality is very good. The last software update also outputs to IDVD and DVDSP.

One problem with the instant dvd. NO COAX INPUT!

Go with the EYETV 200, you will be happy

[badtz]

Is the EyeTV 200 that much better over the USB?

I have the USB and I'm curious to get the 200....


could you put up a screenshot? Or maybe a detailed explanation?

[gmobley]

I have the EyeTV usb and to speed up things up you can just skip the whole conversion process all together. Just burn the .mpg files to an iso CD or DVD and pop that into your DVD player. Newer DVD players should give you a list of the files, just select and play. This works for me on a Phillips and Mintek DVD players. No muss no fuss. -g

[sjk]

Is the EyeTV 200 that much better over the USB?

Yes; read pixeljammedia's post earlier in this thread.

could you put up a screenshot? Or maybe a detailed explanation?

Visit Elgato Systems' EyeTV 200 product page.

[sjk]

Newer DVD players should give you a list of the files, just select and play.

Hmm, EyeTV creates files with cryptically useless numeric filenames.

You can use ciTV to create aliases for recordings with human-readable names and work with those instead. It's been much more convenient for me to manage different EyeTV Archive folders of recordings with ciTV than the regular EyeTV app.

[badtz]

Is the EyeTV 200 that much better over the USB?

Yes; read pixeljammedia's post earlier in this thread.

could you put up a screenshot? Or maybe a detailed explanation?

Visit Elgato System's EyeTV 200 product page.

I HAVE read the previous post(s). I was asking for a more descriptive answer. Things that AREN'T on the El Gato website.......

[sjk]

What "more descriptive" information are you specifically interested in that's not already covered in the FAQ or other some of place on the net? And for examples of user experiences see recent postings re: EyeTV 200 in the El Gato PVR Discussion forum of the TitanTV Community Groups. If you're interested in comments/reviews more focused on the software there's always MacUpdate and VersionTracker.

Or contact Elgato Systems directly, which is what I did once I was unable to find or get answers to a few specific questions anywhere else.

[badtz]

didn't know titantv had forums.


anyway ... my questions weren't something el gato could reliably answer ... unless they can tell me how the software is working out on a day to day basis w/their customers .....