Filed under: Hardware, Video, Features, iTunes, Reviews
TUAW Review: HDTV with the EyeTV Hybrid
While we eagerly await the living room convergence that the now-shipping Apple TV will bring, it's not too soon to start building up that library of HDTV media. I recently got an eyeTV Hybrid unit from Elgato (that's Spanish for "the cat," you know) and have been merrily hauling down those airborne bits of yummy video goodness. There are a few caveats to note with the eyeHybrid, but if you want to watch digital broadcast HDTV (ATSC) on your recent-vintage Mac, this is a great way to do it. Even for analog video input, it's relatively affordable at $150. There's also a suspiciously similar unit from Pinnacle, featuring the 'lite' version of the eyeTV software, announced last week for $130.Before you consider the Hybrid, there's a basic question to be answered: how's your over-the-air TV signal? If you normally watch cable or satellite, you might not even know which standard and high-def broadcast channels are covering your house. In my locale (Brooklyn, NY) I've got pretty good OTA signal for the networks and independent channels, with the unfortunate exception of PBS. To check your location, hop over to http://antennaweb.org and give them your address for a detailed map and antenna recommendations. We'll wait...
If you can't get HD via the airwaves, cable subscribers with Firewire-equipped set-top boxes do have another DIY option for recording unencrypted HD programming (the broadcast networks, basically) -- the Apple Firewire SDK. Check out this post for a brief how-to, and this macosxhints thread for more; it's not a supported solution but it may be worth a try. There's even an all-in-one tool under development (iRecord). None of these approaches, however, will let you watch live HDTV on your Mac like the Hybrid does.
More on the EyeTV setup after the jump.
The eyeTV Hybrid unit comes in a bundle of the eyeTV 2.3 application and the hardware device, a USB2 dongle that accepts both an antenna input and an S-Video/composite adapter cable. The physical unit is actually not that impressive... but wow, it packs a good deal of power into that small package. Keep in mind that while you can use the Hybrid with any G4-or-better Mac, watching HD requires a G5 or Intel machine, not counting the Core Solo Mac Mini.
On first launch, the EyeTV software walks you through a source select and channel search to allow the embedded tuner in the Hybrid to lock in the available frequencies and set preferences for the included TitanTV scheduling module. If you're using a cable box or other external tuner with the S-Video adapter, you'll only get the single source (and, as with the analog TV tuner, SD video only). The unit doesn't really hit the afterburners until you hook up an HDTV-capable antenna and switch over to ATSC mode.
As for that antenna: One might think that "HDTV capable" equals "expensive," but the truth is that most UHF-rated antennas will do an excellent job of picking up HDTV. In fact, the top-reviewed Radio Shack UHF antenna -- a double-bowtie unit that looks like it might fit in nicely in the Matrix Oracle's 1950s kitchen -- costs only $15 if you can find it. I picked up a $20 rabbit-ears-and-loop combo that had the necessary 75-ohm ("cable TV style") connector and let the EyeTV frequency scan do its thing.
A few minutes later I had over 20 channels of digital TV to sample. Most channels were "plus-ones" from the local network affiliates, secondary digital broadcasts showing news loops, shopping or weather; not all that impressive, but nice to have. The real gems are the network primary "DT" channels, which carry the bulk of the HDTV programming. Switch from an SD channel to an HD channel, and watch the small 640x480 video window blow up like an electric balloon to take up most of an iMac's 17" screen. Seeing the recent episodes of Lost or basketball games in this format gave me an appreciation for the power of HD that I never got at the local electronics megastore -- possibly because I was sitting only inches from the screen, which gave me the field-of-view equivalent of a huge plasma display at a standard view distance.
Of course, if I had to sit in front of my computer all day watching TV, I wouldn't get any work done, despite the fact that the work usually involves sitting in front of said computer. That's where the EyeTV recording and scheduling tools come in. It's a two-click trick to schedule a show to record off the TitanTV browser in the app (and, for the road warrior, the software can check in remotely with the TitanTV.com site for additional recording triggers on a repeating basis). Once scheduled, the app launches automatically at showtime and captures the ATSC native MPEG-2 data directly off the air and onto disk; no recompression or transcoding needed for digital TV. For analog broadcast or S-Video it'll recompress to one of three quality settings as desired. You can set a basic workflow to automatically export to iTunes, shrink down to iPod-size video, or export to Toast for DVD burning.
Of course, once you have your shows in iTunes, you can play that stuff straight through your AppleTV and enjoy. Even if you don't have an AppleTV yet, the DVI to S-Video converter from Apple works remarkably well for hooking up the laptop directly to the regular ol' TV. I've set my display resolution to 1024x768 and played HD programming on my 32" Phillips SD set; it's pretty drastically letterboxed on the 4:3 display but still looks noticeably better than the same channel played through my cable box at SD resolution. Naturally, if you have an HDTV with a DVI input, you can go straight from your computer to the TV with no loss of quality.
A warning about those video recordings: HDTV at 1080i has a nominal bitrate of 12-15 Mbit/sec. An hour-long show hits your disk at a whopping 8 GB, so be sure to spring for the bigger drives. Transcoding to the lower-res formats can take several hours, depending on your processing power.
To give you an idea of the relative scale of HD images, above is a full-screen capture from a 15" MacBook Pro playing back an episode of The Office, with the Finder window for reference. Each frame is the size of the laptop's display... a lot of Pam in every bite. I'll put up some full-size screenshots in the galleries later today.
What's missing from the EyeTV Hybrid? Well, HD cable or satellite customers are stuck with SD video and no IR blaster to change channels, a less-than-ideal solution; you might be better off with the FirewireSDK or iRecord approaches. I have had some trouble getting the TitanTV settings to properly sync up with my local schedule, and I've fallen back to the ATSC embedded program info that gets transmitted along with the signals; your mileage may vary. If you don't get reasonably good broadcast reception, you're basically buying a fairly nice USB video-in widget with pretty software. If, however, you're well served by HD signals in your town, the eyeHybrid is a charming little beast.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rus said 8:40AM on 3-20-2007
Can I use this to record from my VCR without restriction? In other words could I use my VCR as a video out source and this as a recording video in - at the same time getting around copy protections that are on the VCR tape that I face when going directly in a combo DVD-R/VCR combo.
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Danny Cohen said 9:38AM on 3-20-2007
I don't believe Lost is in 1080i. I use the (now out of production) eyeTV 500 to get HD content. The eyeTV software is great, along with the remote. It takes a long time to re-encode into iPod-able content, but just set it up to run overnight or while you go off to work.
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Albert Martin said 9:54AM on 3-20-2007
EyeTV Hybrid is a great little system. I have been using one since they first came out. I do, however, have a few frustrations with it:
1. TitanTV schedule is unreliable when updating. Sometimes it just refuses to update the schedule even when I try doing it manually. I can go online to TitanTV.com and schedule it that way however. Don't know if this is TitanTV or EyeTV's fault.
2. Even though I get pretty decent reception for my HD channels, the EyeTV will sometimes report "no signal" making me switch to another channel and back before it will work. I have lost several recordings because it gets "no signal" part way through even though the station is coming in fine.
3. No season pass functionality! I would think this would be an easy feature to add. I just want something where I can tell EyeTV to record all shows with a certain title. It is inconvenient to have to check every couple days to make sure I have scheduled all my favourite shows. Would love the "set it and forget it" factor.
Other than these frustrations, EyeTV is a great system and definitely worth the cost. With a little tweaking of their software they could make it so much better!
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Michael Rose said 9:55AM on 3-20-2007
Rus -- Yes, you can use either the analog tuner or the composite/S-Video inputs to copy off your VCR. I can't say whether that will do anything to defeat Macrovision protection (the most common VHS anti-copy technology) but it might be worth a try.
Another option for this sort of work is a DV bridge -- either a standalone unit or employing a DV camera.
http://www.snazzi.com/dvbii.asp
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justflie said 10:06AM on 3-20-2007
@Rus
I also have the EyeTV Hybrid (love it) on my iMac. I'm not sure about copy protected VHS tapes (didn't know there was such a thing), but in general, you can hook your VCR through the TV tuner to your Mac. I know someone else that has done just that. They wanted to transfer an old NOVA special onto DVD so I let him borrow my EyeTV (now he wants to buy one). I've done other video-ins through the tuner and it works just fine. I don't have a VCR to test this out for you, but maybe the author of the article does. I would definitely recommend this product. I live about 50 miles away from Boston and Providence so I bought a medium directional antenna (with a small amp) and I can receive a little under 20 stations and the HD is phenomenal, especially the 1080i.
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Kenny Ye said 10:27AM on 3-20-2007
EyeTV is pretty much useless to me. I have a HDTV and pay for HD program. Although I have a DVR, i would like to be able to watch the recorded program somewhere else. Luckily, someone has worked out a solution to move recorded TV from DVR to your mac, using iRecord or FirewireSDK, see below http://joshnichols.com/2007/02/17/rip-recorded-video-powerbook/
I think what is missing on the market is a device with hardware encoding to do all above easily. afterall, most of americans get TV from cable.
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Marcos said 10:43AM on 3-20-2007
I have the hybrid and use it on a Core Duo Mac mini.
It's ok. It's small and works. I only get a handful of OTA HD channels in North Austin. The software is quirky though: I've gotten a few kernel panics, there is no scrub bar to jump back or ahead in the video, the GUI for the guide can be improved quite a bit. Overall it is decent though and I'm looking forward to future improvements in the software.
As for the Firewire thing... I had Time Warner Digital cable and while I got the box to talk to my computer, I could NEVER get my computer to capture any video. Has anyone been luckier?
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siva said 11:03AM on 3-20-2007
ABC, Fox, MyNetworkTV broadcast in 720p while NBC, CBS, PBS and the CW broadcast in 1080i. So, the local affiliates that have upgraded their equipment to support network HD broadcasts will use these same resolutions. So, if you live in a big city most probably an ABC show like Lost would be at a resolution of 1280x720 60Hz.
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Michael Rose said 11:04AM on 3-20-2007
#2 Danny -- you're right, LOST is 720p. I've removed the resolution references.
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sincitymedic said 11:40AM on 3-20-2007
Well, I sprung for this product. I gotta tell you that it has been nothing but a headache on my Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. I bought my first unit around Christmas time from the Apple Store. Every time I connected that unit to one of my native USB ports (not a hub), I would get a message that said "Device Could Not Be Initialized." I would have to re-launch the program a number of times (sometime in excess of 10!!) in order to get it initialize & display a picture/audio). I contacted Elgato & after over 1 month of discussion & sending me beta-software to try & solve my problem, they sent me a new unit. I received the new unit recently & am having exactly the same problem with it....."Device Could Not Initialize." Elgato has said that there is a known issue with some systems that causes this to happen. They could not tell me what specifically is up my system that is causing the issue. They have now requested that I allow them to send me pre-tested unit that does not have the specified bug w/ my system. So, 3 months later & I still don't have a working unit. And, I'll be on my 3rd one in not-too-long. Needless to say, the product has not lived up to my expectations. I'll cross my fingers for the pre-tested one......
Cheers!
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Michael Rose said 11:59AM on 3-20-2007
Phat59: That's a big no, sorry. The Hybrid cannot decode QAM "clear to air" cable signals.
http://faq.elgato.com/index.php/faq/more/453
Now, Miglia's upcoming MiniHD+ is supposed to support QAM. We don't know what software it will ship with, we only know it won't be EyeTV.
http://miglia.com/products/video/tvminihdplus/index.html
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Chris Hauserman said 2:03PM on 3-20-2007
I use a Hybrid on my MacBook - it is brilliant. In the UK I use tvtv for programme information which works well, and in London, I get all the freeview ones (about 50). The tvtv subscription is free for the first year. One thing I have noticed is how hot the dongle gets after an hour or so. Really hot. I use the aerial it came with and have no problems signal wise.
Only problem is it is not all that good for fast moving pictures, like the football. Played around with the settings to see what works best, but just doesnt do as well as normal TV. Ok for regular every day tv though.
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airdrummer said 4:53PM on 3-20-2007
re: No season pass...in the schedule edit, you can change the repeat to weekly, but that's not available from the fullscreen schedule.
and unlike tivo, the schedule's date/time/channel oriented, not show-title oriented, so if the show changes, you'll have to update manually.
re: no signal...i've also lost several recordings... good thing i've got tivo 4 a backup;-) but sd looks so 20th century after hd;-)
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JeffDM said 9:19PM on 3-20-2007
Scheduling repeats is possible, but it is definitely anything as good as Tivo's season pass. It'll record whatever is on that time slot. It will usually properly label it if some other show is there instead, but it wouldn't adjust the schedule if it changes.
I have two Hybrids. One bad thing is that the A/V input is nearly useless, it takes three tries to get a good window, and don't count on making a timer recording with that input, it usually fails on me. The coax jack is fine though, just lower quality if used for analog input. It still messes up a small percentage of recordings, maybe it's down to 1% or less now.
As for digital channels I got several with rabbit ears, but it is much better if I hooked up a roof antenna.
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Peter said 4:26AM on 3-21-2007
I bought eyetv diversity, plugged it in, put one antenna next to my g4 powerbook and the other on the powerbook, left of the trackpad. Like many other mac users, I unfortunately don't read manuals often, but rather play with the products. My harddrive packed up, because of the magnet under the antenna. Thank god I had backed up, but I am less than thrilled. A message to elgato gave me 'I am sorry to hear about the problem you have experienced. We also have this information posted on our website' and 'We are aware of the potential problem and have warned our users of the problem.'. Hmm...
Anyway, it is a good oportunity to by a macbook pro, once a new one comes out and has leopard pre-installed.
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dug said 8:25AM on 3-21-2007
my eyetv hybrid on iBook has been a huge problem too. with identical (lack of) support from elgato. the player freezes after a couple hours and refuses to quit. it won't even respond to force quits. hd video stutters as do any recorded shows. the only thing that does work is regular tv. that is until it crashes and i have to restart. great idea, but such a headache.
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Jay said 8:38AM on 3-21-2007
I have also been somewhat disappointed with this tuner. I have been getting the dreaded "Device Could Not Be Initialized." message. I have lost several recordings because of it. Very frustrating! Also, everytime I start the EyeTV program, it resorts to the ASTC programming info and then records in analog even when HDTV broadcast is clearly available. Elgato support hasn't been very helpful. I have to say that HDTV broadcast looks great when I watch it live. However, the whole purpose of this device is to allow recording and in that the solution is far from perfect.
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Gordy said 9:08AM on 3-21-2007
"Of course, once you have your shows in iTunes, you can play that stuff straight through your AppleTV and enjoy."
EyeTV recordings will not play 'straight through' to AppleTV, the files will have to be transcoded to an AppleTV-friendly codec...which will take forever at full HD.
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Michael Rose said 9:28AM on 3-21-2007
#19 -- as I said, "once you have them in iTunes." The time to transcode is noted later in the review. I believe most people will set the transcoding to happen overnight/offline if they intend to show the files on Apple TV.
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phat59 said 2:02PM on 3-21-2007
I get some network HD channels unencrypted over my cable signal. I don't have a cable box, but my plasma tv is able to find the HD channels coming over the coaxial cable.
Does anyone know if the EyeTV Hybrid would be able to detect the HD channels over the coaxial cable? (i.e. without an antenna or cable-box).
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