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EyeTV EZ

eva01

eva01

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 22, 2005
4,720
1
Gah! Plymouth
I just bought one of these last night and just wanted to give a minor review of it for the one night that I have used it.

As we all know I have headaches (whoopity) so I was told I have to get my TV out of my room due to the low Hertz rating, so I decided to get some PVR for my computer LCD screen.

Called up the apple store yesterday to ask what they had in stock as I needed it sorta quickly. They had the TV Micro TV Mini and the EyeTV EZ.

I looked at all three, took out the TV Mini due to it being $250, took out the Micro due to me not hearing much about it in my searches.

So i went with the EZ. Setup took about 7 minutes (however for those of you getting it, when you first set it up in the drop down it is the teratech 400/450 or whatever, there is no EyeTV EZ to choose). Autotune took about 2 minutes. Was easily able to deselect the stations that i do not want to surf though. TitanTV is pretty easy to setup, took a minute to register with them and then put in username with the EyeTV 2 software.

Programming is easy to record, you can select where you wish to record and also if you have a fast Mac you can go with progressive scan and also decide what format you want it recorded in also size as well.

Quality is just as good as was on my TV so no blurry or fuzzy pictures. You can also stretch out the picture to fit your entire monitor if you wish (i do this, no noticable degrade in quality)

The one drawback so far for me is that the remote only reaches about 5 feet so i can't use it from the back of my bed I have to use it reaching forward.

All in all it is a great piece of hardware and is extremely small piece of hardware. I love it so far.

Also for those wondering (don't know why they would) but it works with a USB hub which i also bought because my PCI USB card is a POS. Got a Belkin 4 port USB hub, looks nice too.

All in all I spent only 188 yesterday. 150 for the EyeTV EZ 30 for the Hub and then tax.

I am extremely happy with my machine and can put to bed my Television set.


FYI i am running this on a Dual 1.8 G5 powermac with 3GB of RAM and ATI 9650 256MB RAM Computer.

The progressive scan says that it needs a fast mac so i do not know if it would work on anything below what i am running it on.

I have also not usesd the input AV on the hardware as i have my game systems hooked into the other ports on my monitor.

I am very happy with my purchase and would recommend this product.



I will ask one question however. Is there a Universal Remote that is out there that would run this EyeTV EZ?
 
For watching TV it works great if you have a good source. I had a reasonable analog antenna but local stations are weak. It was more then watchable on my iMac G5. Recording needs a lot more power though. You'll need a dual CPU/core Mac at least.

I had the same problem with the remote. With a direct line of sight the range wasn't more then 4-6 feet. :confused:
 
I've decided to buy a tuner like this for college instead of a smaller TV, to save space, and because I love gadgets. I've got an iMac in the mail on the way right now, 2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 256VRAM. Are these specs good enough to record?
Would you recommend this tuner for my setup? The price sounds right, and I'll be using the dorm's coaxial cable for a TV signal, will that work?
 
seenew said:
Are these specs good enough to record?
Would you recommend this tuner for my setup? The price sounds right, and I'll be using the dorm's coaxial cable for a TV signal, will that work?
Click to expand...

seenew: Specs are good.
You may want to consider the eyetv250 since it is hardware encoding. eva01, can you comment on the cpu usage and the ability to multitask on your setup while recording/watching tv? Coaxial cable is what it uses so you are fine.

eva01: Also, was the usb hub powered or bus powered?
 
I have the eyetv hub powered

and while watching TV my CPU is being taxed about 30%

I have Azureus running as well and everything is fine.

the % idle on my computer is averaging about 70%

EyeTV is using about 50MB RAM


So yes i can do other things while watching TV

I have yet to record anything. So i do not know how he computer will do when recording
 
Hi eva01.
I just have one question for you: Do you have a XBOX 360? If so, can you try it with the EyeTV EZ? I have an EZ and I'm planning on getting a 360, but I'm not sure it'll work with the EZ on my iMac G5.
Thanks! :)
 
IEatApples said:
Hi eva01.
I just have one question for you: Do you have a XBOX 360? If so, can you try it with the EyeTV EZ? I have an EZ and I'm planning on getting a 360, but I'm not sure it'll work with the EZ on my iMac G5.
Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

Nope i do not have one.
 
IEatApples said:
Hi eva01.
I just have one question for you: Do you have a XBOX 360? If so, can you try it with the EyeTV EZ? I have an EZ and I'm planning on getting a 360, but I'm not sure it'll work with the EZ on my iMac G5.
Thanks! :)
Click to expand...
I tried my Gamecube on my iMac via the EyeTV EZ using S-Video. The delay is noticeable enough even in "game mode" that it's not worth trying to use your Mac as a TV for gaming. Stick with your separate TV.
 
I will be testing the record feature tonight at 1:30AM when Eureka Seven comes on. So i will check activity monitor
 
Update

TitanTV schedule was screwed up so i started recording late
RAM shot up to over 100MB used

Program crashed and would not quit had to restart computer. Attempting to try it again -_-


Ok restarted CPU is at 104% being used on average and RAM is at 66.66MB

I have it recording at highest quality.
 
Eidorian said:
I tried my Gamecube on my iMac via the EyeTV EZ using S-Video. The delay is noticeable enough even in "game mode" that it's not worth trying to use your Mac as a TV for gaming. Stick with your separate TV.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the answer. :)
I have both the Gamecube and the "old" Xbox. They both work, but some of the Xbox games turns black 'n white. And some games just play the sound. I'll probably buy a HDTV in August or something (if I can afford it), in addition to the 360.
However being a college student I'll have to work this summer if I want to be able to afford it.
 
I've read various reports of this setup with a Mac Mini Dual Core.
Should work pretty well i presume. Maybe ill wait till the Mini Gets the Core2Duo in it, should be a 20% speed increase along with a the upper RAM limit @ 8 GB. (shouldnt it be 16 GB with a 64 bit chip???)
 
I just discovered what was wrong with playing (some) Xbox games. I had forgotten to change the Xbox settings to say that NO this "TV" does not support PAL 60 mode.
Now all the games are working fine, even Halo2.

Sorry for being so stupid. :eek: :p
 
Just an update

I LOVE THIS GADGET.

It's fracking great.

Able to record every episode of eureka seven, GITS, and Paranoia Agent takes up about 1.5GB for 30min then you can export and cut out commercials.

Also today I was able to be watching mythbusters on the computer and play WoW at the same time without any noticeable lag
 
Well I have my own or two flaws in the program that bother me.

unfortunately the program loves to not quit when i quit the program and have to logout and back in for it to work.

Also I really really really wish that there was a way for me to record a program at every instance it was on like my friends DVR.

All i know is that Ben 10 is on like 3 times a day and i wish it would just record at everytime it comes on. Because it comes on at different times on the weekend and fridays :/

Same thing with some anime on Adult Swim. Like Big O
 
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