EyeTV EZ

reviewed by Eddie Hargreaves

When Apple released its Front Row software solution, enabling users to utilize their Macs as a home media center, the most notable omission was the ability to watch and record television. If they do add that capability (which I predict they won't) they will have a long ways to go to catch up with Elgato, who has combined Terratec's USB 2.0 TV receiver hardware with their award-winning software for EyeTV EZ, a low-cost, simple, and fun way to watch and record TV on your Mac.

The hardware portion is a 4”x2.5”x1”, 125-channel, analog TV tuner that weighs less than half a pound and is enclosed in a Mac mini-style aluminum and white case. Plug your TV antenna or cable feed into the tuner, connect the tuner to your Mac via the included USB 2.0 cable, and the EyeTV software (installed with a simple drag and drop from the CD) will automatically launch and walk you through the setup steps. Because the device draws power from the USB bus, no external power supply is necessary.

The EyeTV software is currently at version 2.2.1, is a Universal Binary, and has an incredibly clean and functional interface that takes its cue from Apple's software but exceeds even that in its ease-of-use. Recorded shows are displayed in a manner that combines the sortability of the Finder's list view, the active image preview of icon view, and the detailed file information of column view. And the size of the listings can be resized on the fly with a slider.

The program guide gets television listings from TitanTV.com, which requires you to create a free account. This also allows you to schedule recordings remotely via the Internet. The EyeTV software will go online to update the listings and check for remote scheduling requests on a regular basis.

Recording quality is dependent on the processor of your Mac. A G4 can only record at the lowest quality, which is a quite small 352x288 pixels. A dual G4 or G5 can record at the "standard" quality setting of 352x576, and only a dual G5 or Intel Core processor can record at the high setting of 720x576.

An iBook G4 is the model shown in the advertising, and I initially tested it using Apple's last iBook G4 model (1.33GHz). A one-hour episode of ABC's "Alias" used about 700MB of disk space, but quality was certainly lacking. When displayed on a standard television set (the lower resolution can often mask poor quality) visible artifacts occasionally appeared and audio sometimes didn't sync with the video. I also recorded in standard quality using the original iMac G5, where one hour used 1.9GB of disk space. Quality was greatly improved, and display on the same television set showed no visual artifacts or audio syncing problems.

If you want to watch the programs on a television set, but lack the capability or patience to hook up your computer, you can burn the recordings to VideoCD or DVD using Toast. A 2-hour recording of the movie "Starman" from the Sci-Fi channel burned to a DVD via Toast and played via a set-top player looked perfectly normal and no one you showed it to would ever suspect it was recorded and burned via your Mac.

The other simple option for exporting your recorded content is to an iPod. The software will automatically convert the file to either MPEG-4 or H.264 and add it to your iTunes Library to sync with your iPod (provided you have the 5th Generation model with video capability).

The EyeTV software also allows you to export the recording for a number of different uses: E-mail, Web, iMovie, iDVD, PSP, DV, and the list goes on. It helpfully provides descriptions of all the formats and an estimated file size.

The tuner also includes an S-video input and an RCA converter cable so you can hook up a game console and use your Mac as your display. Turning off Deinterlacing reduces the lag between the two devices so you can play the games without a delay between the controller and the on-screen action. Because it's using S-Video, the quality is somewhat poor (and Macs with fast processors would no doubt improve that) but it's a great solution for anyone who wants to use a game console and doesn't have a TV set handy.

You can even record your gameplay, though I don't recommend using a G4 for that as the lag will make you look like you have very poor hand-eye coordination as Mario stumbles around the mushroom kingdom.

A remote and its required two AAA batteries are included, but its range is quite limited and it was somewhat unreliable, requiring trips to the Mac to manually fast forward commercials, change the volume, etc.

The EyeTV EZ follows the Microsoft model of computing: one company makes the hardware, another makes the software, and yet another provides the program guide. But Elgato has succeeded in putting these pieces together to create a compelling product that is incredibly useful, easy to use, and inexpensive. Although it doesn't perform particularly well with G4 processors, it should perform spectacularly with the Intel Core Duo-based MacBook and MacBook Pro as well as the Intel-based Mac mini, which it visually matches. Just make sure you've got a lot of hard drive space available.