Re: EyeTV and DVDs

[Chris Burton]

Hi Marty

Can you please tell me the difference between the hybrid model and  
the 250? I want something that can pick up both analogue and digital  
signals and I understand that the hybrid does that. I have been told  
that the 250 can pick up digital if connected to a digital set top box.


kind regards and thanks for any info

Chris


On 29/01/2007, at 3:33 PM, Martin Hill wrote:


On 28/01/2007, at 3:04 PM, Severin Crisp wrote:

	1. Is there a way of verifying that EyeTV will perform as well as  
the settop box in this known poor reception area?


I've found the EyeTV hardware to generally be as good as the  
digital set-top boxes we had previously.  Originally our analog  
reception was very poor and when we first got a digital set-top  
box, the signal kept breaking up and glitching until we got a new  
antennae and I re-cabled with RG-6 "digital-ready" coax cable from  
the antennae to the box.  (the old cable was rusted and connected  
on only one strand.)


Our Firewire EyeTV 410 gets an absolutely perfect signal (100%  
Signal Quality and 98.8% Signal Strength) while our new USB EyeTV  
Hybrid which we added to allow us to record 2 channels  
simultaneously does sometime suffer the odd artifact.  This could  
be due to the fact that the EyeTV Hybrid is getting 100% Signal  
Quality but only 58.8% Signal Strength.  I think i'll have another  
look at my splitter-amplifier.


	2. What format does EyeTV save to disk in with respect to  
importing into iMovie, ie is there a need to convert to .dv first?


EyeTV digital TV receivers all capture recordings natively in  
MPEG-2 format (that is the format broadcast from the TV stations).   
EyeTV has an Export to iMovie option which takes a bit less than a  
minute to convert every minute of MPEG-2 format video to DV format  
for iMovie on our 1.8GHz iMac G5.


	3. Having edited in iMovie, my own experience is that Toast is  
the simplest way to convert and copy to DVD.  iDVD is great if you  
want to add menus and other glitz.  In both cases the compute time  
to convert to DVD  to burn to disc is considerable.  I recently  
produced an iMovie/iDVD of a concert I had filmed, edited and  
adorned and iDVD took about three hours to prepare about 80mins  
for burning (single processor G5 1.8 so newer machines will  
certainly improve on this).


If you have Roxio Toast, EyeTV can with a single button-click  
create DVDs directly from these MPEG-2 recordings as they are the  
same format used by DVDs.  This is by far the quickest and easiest  
way to create DVDs as the conversion from MPEG-2 transport stream  
used in digital TV broadcast to MPEG-2 Program stream used on DVDs  
only takes a few seconds compared to the hours and hours it can  
take to convert into other formats (as you mention with iMovie  
Toast and iDVD).


With the EyeTV Hybrid, you can also take advantage of this speed  
for converting analog video such as old VHS or Video-8 tapes to  
DVD.  It is blindingly fast compared to converting to DV format to  
edit in iMovie and then exporting back to MPEG-2 in iDVD to  
actually burn the DVD (not to mention the quality degradation due  
to all the generational losses incurred as a result of these format  
conversions).


However, I personally export all the recordings I want to keep from  
EyeTV as iPod Video format as I can then fit 4 normal length movies  
(typically around 1GB each in size once the ads are edited out) on  
one single-layer DVD-R and of course they are also good-to-go on my  
video iPod.  If you have a newer dual-layer DVD burner, you could  
fit 8 or so movies per DVD which is a great way to store them.


The new "highest quality " iPod Video format is 640x480 using H.264  
and it does take a long time to compress, but I just leave them  
queued up compressing overnight.  I am more than happy with the  
quality and can't generally tell the difference compared to the  
original MPEG-2 file in EyeTV at full-screen size (though the audio  
is stereo instead of surround sound).



Any suggestions welcomed.
The good news is that this may mean another convert to the Mac  
family of a case hardened PC user.  His brother likewise, recently  
added an iMac to his family of PCs.


Likewise - my non-technical PC-using brother-in-law now has a Mac  
Mini, EyeTV Hybrid and a 19" LCD monitor as the TV in their small  
lounge room and they are very content.  Similarly, my Dad who is in  
his 70s now has an EyeTV Hybrid connected up to his 15" MacBook Pro  
connected to his existing TV with an AV cable and uses that for his  
regular TV viewing.  He is now quite competently pausing and re- 
winding live TV, scheduling and recording TV shows and generally  
appreciating the far better quality of digital TV reception over  
his old analog TV reception.


-Mart

--
Martin Hill
email: mart "at" ozmac.com
homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com
Mb: 0417-967-969  hm: (08)9314-5242



-- The WA Macintosh User Group 

Re: EyeTV and DVDs

[Robert Howells]

On 29/01/2007, at 3:33 PM, Martin Hill wrote:


On 28/01/2007, at 3:04 PM, Severin Crisp wrote:

	1. Is there a way of verifying that EyeTV will perform as well as  
the settop box in this known poor reception area?


I've found the EyeTV hardware to generally be as good as the  
digital set-top boxes we had previously.  Originally our analog  
reception was very poor and when we first got a digital set-top  
box, the signal kept breaking up and glitching until we got a new  
antennae and I re-cabled with RG-6 "digital-ready" coax cable from  
the antennae to the box.  (the old cable was rusted and connected  
on only one strand.)



Further to that ,  after my experience with an antennae lead there  
are things to be learnt

about terminating the cable ends .

Cable normally has an inner core covered by nylon then a copper mesh  
with finally

a very thin metal wrap before the outer plastic jacket .

The lead needs two connections     the core ... and the metal  
wrap or copper mesh .


Since the metal wrap and the copper mesh are continuously in contact  
with each other
 it would seem that using the metal wrap would be good and  
sufficient. ..


NOT SO in my case .  I was finally pushed to re terminate all ends of  
my cables
and this time chose to fold back the mesh across the metal wrap and  
use the mesh as the contact point.


Previously channel 31 was hopeless , and not useable !
Now it's a quite good picture plus all the other channels are much  
better.


SO , if you have POOR reception visit all the ends of your aerial  
cable and re terminate them .

You have nothing to lose .

Bob

Re: EyeTV and DVDs

[Martin Hill]

On 28/01/2007, at 3:04 PM, Severin Crisp wrote:

	1. Is there a way of verifying that EyeTV will perform as well as  
the settop box in this known poor reception area?


I've found the EyeTV hardware to generally be as good as the digital  
set-top boxes we had previously.  Originally our analog reception was  
very poor and when we first got a digital set-top box, the signal  
kept breaking up and glitching until we got a new antennae and I re- 
cabled with RG-6 "digital-ready" coax cable from the antennae to the  
box.  (the old cable was rusted and connected on only one strand.)


Our Firewire EyeTV 410 gets an absolutely perfect signal (100% Signal  
Quality and 98.8% Signal Strength) while our new USB EyeTV Hybrid  
which we added to allow us to record 2 channels simultaneously does  
sometime suffer the odd artifact.  This could be due to the fact that  
the EyeTV Hybrid is getting 100% Signal Quality but only 58.8% Signal  
Strength.  I think i'll have another look at my splitter-amplifier.


	2. What format does EyeTV save to disk in with respect to  
importing into iMovie, ie is there a need to convert to .dv first?


EyeTV digital TV receivers all capture recordings natively in MPEG-2  
format (that is the format broadcast from the TV stations).  EyeTV  
has an Export to iMovie option which takes a bit less than a minute  
to convert every minute of MPEG-2 format video to DV format for  
iMovie on our 1.8GHz iMac G5.


	3. Having edited in iMovie, my own experience is that Toast is the  
simplest way to convert and copy to DVD.  iDVD is great if you want  
to add menus and other glitz.  In both cases the compute time to  
convert to DVD  to burn to disc is considerable.  I recently  
produced an iMovie/iDVD of a concert I had filmed, edited and  
adorned and iDVD took about three hours to prepare about 80mins for  
burning (single processor G5 1.8 so newer machines will certainly  
improve on this).


If you have Roxio Toast, EyeTV can with a single button-click create  
DVDs directly from these MPEG-2 recordings as they are the same  
format used by DVDs.  This is by far the quickest and easiest way to  
create DVDs as the conversion from MPEG-2 transport stream used in  
digital TV broadcast to MPEG-2 Program stream used on DVDs only takes  
a few seconds compared to the hours and hours it can take to convert  
into other formats (as you mention with iMovie Toast and iDVD).


With the EyeTV Hybrid, you can also take advantage of this speed for  
converting analog video such as old VHS or Video-8 tapes to DVD.  It  
is blindingly fast compared to converting to DV format to edit in  
iMovie and then exporting back to MPEG-2 in iDVD to actually burn the  
DVD (not to mention the quality degradation due to all the  
generational losses incurred as a result of these format conversions).


However, I personally export all the recordings I want to keep from  
EyeTV as iPod Video format as I can then fit 4 normal length movies  
(typically around 1GB each in size once the ads are edited out) on  
one single-layer DVD-R and of course they are also good-to-go on my  
video iPod.  If you have a newer dual-layer DVD burner, you could fit  
8 or so movies per DVD which is a great way to store them.


The new "highest quality " iPod Video format is 640x480 using H.264  
and it does take a long time to compress, but I just leave them  
queued up compressing overnight.  I am more than happy with the  
quality and can't generally tell the difference compared to the  
original MPEG-2 file in EyeTV at full-screen size (though the audio  
is stereo instead of surround sound).



Any suggestions welcomed.
The good news is that this may mean another convert to the Mac  
family of a case hardened PC user.  His brother likewise, recently  
added an iMac to his family of PCs.


Likewise - my non-technical PC-using brother-in-law now has a Mac  
Mini, EyeTV Hybrid and a 19" LCD monitor as the TV in their small  
lounge room and they are very content.  Similarly, my Dad who is in  
his 70s now has an EyeTV Hybrid connected up to his 15" MacBook Pro  
connected to his existing TV with an AV cable and uses that for his  
regular TV viewing.  He is now quite competently pausing and re- 
winding live TV, scheduling and recording TV shows and generally  
appreciating the far better quality of digital TV reception over his  
old analog TV reception.


-Mart

--
Martin Hill
email: mart "at" ozmac.com
homepages: http://mart.ozmac.com
Mb: 0417-967-969  hm: (08)9314-5242

Re: EyeTV and DVDs

[Susan Hastings]

Yes, it has a basic editor, which allows you to cut out adverts, or  
any extra bits you've recorded at the beginning or the end. You get  
to label your recording, plus put it into categories (basic database  
software).


You can set up recording manually, or use the include free 3 month  
subscription to IceTV. One click setting for recording. After the 3  
months you can make up your own mind about the cost of the service.  
EyeTV users get a discount.





On 28/01/2007, at 4:28 PM, Severin Crisp wrote:

Thanks Susan.   Does the EyeTV software allow any editing,  
specifically cutting into chunks?

Severin

On 28/01/2007, at 4:23 PM, Susan Hastings wrote:

Hi Severin, the EyeTV must be a digital version. I'm not sure that  
there is any way of verifying that it will work, but if a set top  
box works for the digital content, then and EyeTV will as well.  
I've been using one for a couple of years.


It comes with its own software for exporting to Toast. You get a  
choice of format, but it uses a compression called multiplexing  
for most of the digital content that I have seen from TV, much  
quicker than the encoding process from iMovie, say 10 minutes for  
a 1 hour program. This is if you want to burn it to DVD.


There are two stages - exporting from EyeTV software to Toast,  
then burning to DVD, and it depends how long the show is - but an  
hour of TV might take about 10 minutes to export to Toast, then 10  
minutes to multiplex and burn the DVD.


You can watch the movie using the EyeTV software, or export it to  
Toast and burn directly to DVD, or will be able to watch it via  
the AppleTV box on the television. In other words, it will all  
work as you describe, except that the included software works  
directly with Toast, as advertised on the Elgato website.


cheers, Susan.


On 28/01/2007, at 3:04 PM, Severin Crisp wrote:

My younger son is looking to program record childrens programs  
off air with EyeTV, edit and save on DVD for future consumption  
by the young fry of the family.  To date he has no hardware and  
software but is looking to do this via an iMac and EyeTV and is  
also talking of the still to come AppleTV box.  He lives in  
Burswood with very bad reception, despite best aerial, in fact  
analog is just not viewable, but digital comes in fine via a  
settop box.
I make no comment or criticism on the  deeper issues of this but  
have the following technical queries.
	1. Is there a way of verifying that EyeTV will perform as well  
as the settop box in this known poor reception area?
	2. What format does EyeTV save to disk in with respect to  
importing into iMovie, ie is there a need to convert to .dv first?
	3. Having edited in iMovie, my own experience is that Toast is  
the simplest way to convert and copy to DVD.  iDVD is great if  
you want to add menus and other glitz.  In both cases the compute  
time to convert to DVD  to burn to disc is considerable.  I  
recently produced an iMovie/iDVD of a concert I had filmed,  
edited and adorned and iDVD took about three hours to prepare  
about 80mins for burning (single processor G5 1.8 so newer  
machines will certainly improve on this).

Any suggestions welcomed.
The good news is that this may mean another convert to the Mac  
family of a case hardened PC user.  His brother likewise,  
recently added an iMac to his family of PCs.

Severin Crisp


Assoc Professor R Severin Crisp, FIP, CPhys,  
FAIP
   15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western  
Australia.
  Phone  (08) 9842 1950   (Int'l +61 8 9842  
1950)

 email  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web pages http://www.JennyCrisp.com.au
   &  http://members.westnet.com.au/ 
Crisp





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   Assoc Professor R Severin Crisp, FIP, CPhys, FAIP
   15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western Australia.
Phone  (08) 9842 1950   (Int'l +61 8 9842 1950)
email  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Web pages http://www.JennyCrisp.com.au
 & http://members.westnet.com.au/Crisp

EyeTV and DVDs

[Severin Crisp]

My younger son is looking to program record childrens programs off  
air with EyeTV, edit and save on DVD for future consumption by the  
young fry of the family.  To date he has no hardware and software but  
is looking to do this via an iMac and EyeTV and is also talking of  
the still to come AppleTV box.  He lives in Burswood with very bad  
reception, despite best aerial, in fact analog is just not viewable,  
but digital comes in fine via a settop box.
I make no comment or criticism on the  deeper issues of this but have  
the following technical queries.
	1. Is there a way of verifying that EyeTV will perform as well as  
the settop box in this known poor reception area?
	2. What format does EyeTV save to disk in with respect to importing  
into iMovie, ie is there a need to convert to .dv first?
	3. Having edited in iMovie, my own experience is that Toast is the  
simplest way to convert and copy to DVD.  iDVD is great if you want  
to add menus and other glitz.  In both cases the compute time to  
convert to DVD  to burn to disc is considerable.  I recently produced  
an iMovie/iDVD of a concert I had filmed, edited and adorned and iDVD  
took about three hours to prepare about 80mins for burning (single  
processor G5 1.8 so newer machines will certainly improve on this).

Any suggestions welcomed.
The good news is that this may mean another convert to the Mac family  
of a case hardened PC user.  His brother likewise, recently added an  
iMac to his family of PCs.

Severin Crisp


Assoc Professor R Severin Crisp, FIP, CPhys, FAIP
   15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western Australia.
  Phone  (08) 9842 1950   (Int'l +61 8 9842 1950)
 email  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web pages http://www.JennyCrisp.com.au
   &  http://members.westnet.com.au/Crisp