 |
 |
 |
| ^
Our
Screenshot gallery uses the Terratec Hybrid since it has the most
complex configuration of all the Tuners compatibile with EyeTV,
due to it's capacity to receive both analog and digital terrestrial
channels. We'll also see also specific commands for Elgato and
Miglia products as well. |
^
You
have to input a serial number related to your specific product
in order to make EyeTV work properly. The license can be bought
also for products that come only with Windows software. |
^
The
first step is to connect your tuner to the antenna cable. If you
have a home antenna is better to test it with a good signal rather
than with the portable antenna bundled with some device. |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
The
next step is to connect the device to the appropriate I/O port,
in this case USB 2.0, with other devices you use PC CARD o Firewire. |
^
Now
you can autotune the channels (Satellite, Analogic or DTT): in
this case the hybrid receiver has 2 options: we choose the analog
receiver section first. Select also the country since the channel
range can be different from country to country. |
^
This
is the tuner searching for analog channels.
After this, you choose the search for DTT introducing your country
too. |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
This
the DTT tuner searching for Digital Terrestrial channels |
^
Boom...
there you go... DTT TV tuned |
^
And
DTT Radio Tuned...
But there are other passages in between... |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
You
can choose a TV guide or EPG (electronical Program Guide) based
on different services alla around the world: with EyeTV you got
a one year subscription that makes you record automatically the
right broadcast directly from a web page: the schedules are transferred
inside the appropriate EyeTV Windows. |
^
You
can change the settings on a second time via the preferences panel |
^
The
software tries to collect the EPG data from the tvtv service but
first you have to set up the pairing with same name on tvtv. |
 |
 |
 |
^
Here's
the data collected from tvtv.
The EPG can be viewed and searched, and programs may be scheduled
for recording, even when there is no Internet connection or TV
signal present. |
^
Obviously
you can do a manual schedule for your preferred shows also with
recurring registration.
|
^
Let's
see other preferences: no need to explain anything but the choice
of different compression for iPod exporting: the first is better
quality at 320x240, the second can be use for projecting video
registrations from an iPod to a TV at a resolution product smaller
than 340.000 pixels. |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
This
preference let's you choose where to put your recording, how to
extend them e how big is the temporary memory used by the PVR
function that let's you forward and backward a live trasmission
on the fly. |
^
You
can jump forward and backward during a live trasmission with custom
settings. |
^
In
the display preferences you can choose the best aspect ratio for
your standard CRT TV, monitor or display base also on the original
transmission settings |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
You
can choose also the best way to deinterlace the signal based on
the quality of the transmission and the power of your Mac. Each
choice is well documented. |
^
The
output can be directed to the normal stereo plug of your mac or
to the multichannel digital audio output if you have a recent
G5 or Mac Intel computer with opticat output. |
^
In
the devices tab you can check ther current firmware version of
your device |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
This
tab reveals the quality and the strenght of the signal from antenna:
in hybrid devices you can check both tha analog and the digital
input at your choice |
^
As
you can use different receivers from different brands the encoding
capabilities may vary depending on the analog or digital tuner
and... |
^
...
if you have an analog input both from the tuner or the A/V input
(if your device has one) you can setup a Recording quality that
depends on:
- The power of your Mac (double G4, G5 or Core Duo processors
and a high speed of the processor help a lot)
- The presence of an hardware encoder (i.e. tha MPEG2, MPEG4,
Divx encoding chip that is built in some Miglia, Elgato, third
party devices) |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
In
the analog input you can choose also the "live" quality to adapt
the reception to the power of your Mac: if the processor speed
is low (such as 500 Mhz G4) you chan choose a lower resolution
avoiding to loose frames otherwise you can choose for the mid
or highest quality (in the PAL standards). |
^
If
the analog receiver has encondig capabilities onboard you have
a wider choice on the fly compression: this is the list of available
direct encodigs of a Miglia Device, even with a low power Mac. |
^
The
presence of an internal encoder can be disabled on some models
(EZ TV 250, Terratec Cinergy 800/850) so you can get near to zero
latency or "Game mode": the best for connecting you game console
to your Mac screen |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
If
the receiver works with digital signal there's no possibility
of choice in encoding (see the difference on the analog side of
this hybrid device) since the size and the bitrate are the same
of the streamed original. |
^
After
al these settings let's look at the "EyeTV programs" window: here
you can see the recording (more later), Schedule and Program Guide
but let's look at the channels: here you can find the the DTT
ones, on a hybrid device you have to switch manually from the
digital to the analog reception to see the analog channels under
the "Channels" voice... but there's a trick |
^
You
can add (via the big "+" button) a favourites folder that collects
analog and digital channels (you can also build up different favourites
such as "Sport", "Movies" and so on) so that you don't have to
switch manually from one mode to another.
In this picture you can see the differente information for each
channel: for DTT (o DVB-S) you get also the provider (or the boquet).
You can choose also if the EPG is based on tvtv or the DTT (or
DVB-S) provider.
See the remote command that shows "aed" list, the same name of
our "hybrid" favourite |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
Obviously
you can also create favourites with your recordings and classify
movies, telefilms, sport and so on... The size of te preview can
be set with slider in the bottom right corner. |
^
Here
the "virtual" remote: you can see the channel list, the input
(in this case we use a S-video from a Hybrid receiver) the timer
and the timeline that shows if you are live or seein a previous
part of the recorded material.
The red led over "eyetv" shows that you are in recording mode.
You can pause fast forward and forward, back forward and change
volume of the playback.
These commands are available on the original EyeTV command (that
comes with Elgato and Miglia products) or on the remotes from
Terratec or other third parties. |
^
If
you press down and up arrow when the remote is active you can
navigate trough the list of available channels (even in hybrid
mode if you have set up a favourite as we showed before) |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
You
can choose the standard list or the favourites directly on the
on screen remote |
^
If
you use your mouse you can use the right button o control-click
to open a contestual menu that allows you to choose between aspec
ratio, audio channels and output and screensize.
Most of this commands are available trough a combination of keys...
we'll see it later navigating trough the main menu. |
^
As
we have seen you can record just pushing on a button, you can
schedule the events via the EPG or external service or you can
manually set the recording with date, time, duration, repeats,
channel and the ability to create a version for iPod just after
the recording (after which iTunes will start and sync with your
iPod) so when your back to your computer you have also a "mobile"
version of your recordings.
You can do the same with audio recordings building your own podcasts. |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
Here
the sinthetic information on a sample scheduled recording. |
^
If
you had used TitanTV o tvtv you could have obtained a lot of more
useful details such as director, charachters, plot, year of production
and so on...
You can add your own data too because The information can be edited
later.
|
^
Be
shure to not overlap your recordings... |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
...
anyway EyeTV is smart enough to give you some advice.... |
^
Here's
a list of the recordings: in this window you can see info, play,
toast and iPod buttons on the top such as "+" button, the free
left space and the size of the preview.
The “Backup” command in the Action menu (upper left)
can be used to back up the complete archive or a selected set
of recordings. This feature requires Roxio Toast 7 Titanium.
|
^
Let's
start a navigation trough menus.
You can add playlist and favorite, open live window and quicktime
movies.
When you choose Show Program Info and Stream Info... |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
...
you get all the data about the current program (at the bottom
of the window) and the data about the streaming (at the upper
right) with video and audio bitrate and codec used |
^
This
is the view menu that gives you also access to the Teletext options
if your channel has this feature. It's not easy to navigate among
pages but you can use the "real" remote control color buttons.
Closed caption or subtitles are available.
The latest voice allows you to open the Editor windows when you're
accessing a recording. (see further on this matter) |
^
This
is the audio control window: if the stream has more than one audio/language
channel you can choose your preferred one. You can also redirect
the sound trough you multichannel audio system if your Mac has
a digital audio output (on board like the Mac-Intels or added
via an USB board like the Sonica from M-Audio) |
 |
 |
 |
| ^
This
menu controls the PVR side of EyeTV: you can choose how to move
inside the recordings, fast forward and backward, loop and go
to live o recorded pieces. You can activate the recordings also
by this menu and, whats more important you can select the input:
Tuner, composite video o S-Video. Too bad you can't choose beetwen
the analog or digitali side of an hybrid tuner but you have the
"favourite" trick we showed before. |
^
You
can choose the scan rate of accelerated movement trough the recording
even at a blazing 32X speed! |
^
This
menu gives you direct access to the windows and control their
position and size. |
 |
 |
 |
^
The
last one gives you help trough the offline guide (in French, German,
English and Japanese) or trough Elgato support pages online (english).
What's new is the EyeTV VHS assistant that helps you with the
entire process of digitizing your videotape, right through to
creating a DVD.
The VHS Assistant shows you how to connect the video recorder's
outputs, play back the tape, and record it into EyeTV's Archive.
From there you can choose to export the file to your iPod, leave
it in your EyeTV Archive, or burn a DVD using Roxio's Toast 7
Titanium or iDVD.
The usual setup assistant launches the setup configuration we
have seen at the start of this review. |
^
If
you have an hi-speed two processor G4, G5, or Mac with Intel Core
Duo you are able to import from the AV input at full PAL resolution
and without the need of a device with an embedded MPEG2 processor
(like EyeTV 200, 250, Miglia Evolution etc.)
This recording was done with a MacBook and Cinergy Hybrid TS.
With no embedded Mpeg2 compression and with a slow Mac (single
g4 processor) you can record at VideoCD bitrate and resolution. |
^
Once
recorded, the movie is placed inside the into the "Documents"
folder can be read by EyeTV or VLC o exported to iPod or other
mobile devices (also cell phones with 3GPP) in any video format
you want.
EyeTV can export multiple recordings as a batch. It exports one
recording after
another.
Select “Show in Finder” from the Action menu to select
the recording in a Finder window.
A double-click on an EyeTV recording document in
Finder will start playback of that recording in EyeTV.
|
 |
 |
 |
| ^
The
editing of the clips couldn't be easier: you choose the recording
press Control-E and there you go: you have access at the whole
recording a with the marker on the center bottom you can decide
what pieces need to be erased (before and after the recording,
advertising and so on...).
This Invert Markers command, in the editor's action menu, inverts
the sense of
the edit markers; instead of marking a sequence, you mark the
rest of the show.
The timeline can be fine tuned with more precise access to the
frames by clicking on the "fine" button at the left bottom of
the window
You can also save a part of the clip as a new recording or export
the clip.
If you click on "compact" the recording will be shortened to
it's final lenght. |
^
Here's
how EyeTV shows the clippings of your recordings: choose compact
and here you go!
The archive can be exported to any format supported by QuickTime
with all its' multimedia extensions (also DiVX if you need it
and have the appropriate encoders).
EyeTV offers intelligent choices of
export format for further processing of recordings in applications
such as iMovie, iMovie HD, iDVD or
DVD Studio Pro, burning with Toast, use of shows on the iPod
and so on. EyeTV analyzes the recording
and chooses the optimum export format. Users can also choose
their own export settings.
|
^
Once
recorded you can put directly on DVD you shows, personal movies
or whatever directly with Toast by Roxio: see the icon in the
EyeTV stripe on top of the window.
You can "toast" several recordings at once and build up a menu
for easy access to each one. |
