About a week ago, I decided that I couldn’t wait for Christmas anymore, and I went out and bought an Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus from the Apple Store. Before I became a Mac user, I had a Windows Media Center PC setup with a WinTV PVR 150 MCE TV Tuner, so I was itching to finally regain a major feature I had on my PC. How did I find it in comparison to the Windows options?
Video Quality
The EyeTV 250 does a great job playing both analog and digital channels. With the clear QAM feature, I am now able to watch free HD channels, which is really awesome. The fact I knew that I would be getting some free HD content is half the reason I wanted to buy this thing, and it works great for that. My WinTV PVR 150 certainly wasn’t able to pick these HD channels up, which really sucked.
Remote
The remote control that comes with the EyeTV 250 looks like a bad knock off of the first Microsoft remote for Windows Media Center. The build quality of the remote is poor and several coloured buttons aren’t even labelled. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with it. I have considered buying a Logitech Harmony remote to streamline my remote needs, but after spending $200+ on the EyeTV 250, it’s tough for me to justify spending money on an expensive Logitech Harmony remote. You can use the simple little FrontRow remote with the EyeTV 3 software, but the functionality is limited compared to the standard remote.
EyeTV 3 Software
Overall, EyeTV 3 software, which ships with the EyeTV 250, is solid. Recording shows is a breeze, converting them for your iPhone is a few clicks, and with the recent beta (version 3.0.5b13) Canadian channel guides are now supported via a TVGuide account. Elgato gives you a free one year subscription, but when you’re year is up, you’ll have to pay a marginal fee for the listings.
The channel guide within the EyeTV 3 software does the job well, but I still find it less intuitive with poorer usability than the Windows Media Center solution. When you reach the end of the channel list, you have to scroll back up and it doesn’t jump you to the start of the list from the end of the list. I found that to be really annoying. Also, when you select a channel, you are given several options such as tuning to the channel, recording it, etc. Although this can be useful, when you’re just trying to channel surf and quickly find something to watch, it’s another step before the channel comes up.
FrontRow Integration
There is a way to setup EyeTV to integrate into FrontRow, making it easier to manage your download video content and watch your TV shows in the same place. This is something my Windows Media Center HDPC did really well. With PyeTV, you can now have EyeTV menu options integrated into FrontRow. Unfortunately, this isn’t an Apple created solution, so the integration with FrontRow isn’t as streamline as I would have prefered it to be.
Conclusion
The EyeTV 250 Plus is solid PVR hardware. It does a great job playing both analog and digital TV signals, allowing for you to potentially catch some free HD content. Although the software has some great features for recording and converting video, I was left wishing for more. I don’t blame Elgato for this one though. It isn’t like Hauppauge makes great software with their hardware in the Windows world. There’s something to be said for a program that manages both TV tuner video content, your PVR recordings, and your downloaded video from the internet, which Windows Media Center does well. FrontRow would be a great alternative if Apple started to work with Elgato to bring about a truly integrated solution. The one problem is that Apple would never do that, since it would kill it’s TV and movie iTunes download business. I know this can be done better than this.
December 8, 2008 at 8:31 am
Great to hear there’s finally Canadian EPG program guide support in a new beta for EyeTV 3. Will note this at my Mac Compatible Digital TV Tuner Blog — Also nice to get a perspective from a Windows Media Center user’s switch to EyeTV on the Mac.
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January 8, 2009 at 12:55 am
Hi
I am the furthest thing from a technoholic or technogeek. I don’t know who else to ask these questions but you sound pretty knowledgeable. Am I to understand that with this box, I can hook it up through my Mac and get free-to-air cable including some HD channels, without a dish? I assume it all comes through the Internet? Is that how this thing works?
I love the idea of recording and converting and all that – but I live in a building where putting up a dish is verbotten, so I am really interested in free-to-air without using a dish.
Thanks in advance! Roxanne
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peter Reply:
January 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am
No, it doesn’t feed off of the internet actually. The free HD channels I’m getting are received from my standard cable (not satellite or digital cable). Because of a certain technology the EyeTV box has, it can pick up some digital HD channels off of the standard TV (coaxial) cable. So, if you have something like basic cable from somewhere like Shaw, you might be able to pick those channels up. Hope that helped a bit.
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January 9, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Thank you. That explains it perfectly.
Whatis the reference to the free-to-air channels in the ads I see? Is that referring to these same HD channels?
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