16 November 2004
by Noah Kravitz
Reviews Editor

A DVR for Your Mac

Media Center PCs, LCD panels that hook up to your computer and your Cable/Sattelite box, DVD burners that let you put your home movies on disc with the click of a button -- 2004 certainly represented a big step forward in the age of "convergence," bringing the traditional functions of personal computers and home entertainment systems together under one roof. Well, under one computer case, anyway.

Microsoft has made a big push to put TiVO out of business with the launch of their new Windows XP Media Center Edition OS, and WinTel box makers like HP, Sony, and others have followed suit with a slew of media-centric computers designed to function as the heart and soul of your digital entertainment system. Made to interface with your home audio and video systems, Media Center PCs simplify access to your music and video files (or try to, anyway), and feature input/outputs and form factors meant to play as nicely as possible with the look and feel of your home theater rack.

Apple has yet to unleash a "Media Center" version of OS X upon us, and while some new Macs feature digital audio outputs and composite/S-Video dongels, I'm hard pressed to recall an Apple box since my beloved Power Mac 8600 that featured a full-on set of built-in A/V inputs and outputs. Lucky for us El Gato's around.

Last year I took a look at El Gato's EyeTV USB, a standalone box that basically functions as a TiVO for your Mac by combining an outboard TV tuner/video encoder with El Gato's EyeTV DVR software. The problem with the first interation of EyeTV was that it relied on USB 1.1 to communicate with the computer, so video quality was severely hampered by slow throughput.

Firewire leaves USB 1.1 in the dust when it comes to throughput, and El Gato has worked this faster interface into their line of products, including the EyeTV 200. El Gato claims full-on DVD-quality MPEG-1 and 2 recording and full-screen 720 x 480 playback via the 200's firewire interface, and the unit delivers in that regard. Coaxial, S-Video, and composite video inputs (along with RCA analog audio-in jacks) allow for video recording from analog cable and video sources as well as sattelite and digital cable signals so long as they're first routed through a digital receiver.

EyeTV's software is easy to install and relatively simple to use. An internet connection is needed to make use of the free, integrated Titan TV interactive programming guide service. With Titan TV, you can look up shows in a standard Web browser and very easily schedule them for programming. What's nice about Titan is that it's free, whereas TiVO and ReplayTV charge for their programming guide. Without the guide, a unit like this is severely limited.

Recording and playing back TV shows and video signals (from camcorders, etc) is very easy. I had no problems recording shows both manually and via automated scheduling with EyeTV hooked up to my iBook G4/1 Ghz. As advertised, I could play back programming in full screen, in a small window (with other apps running), or even at thumbnail size in the Dock. EyeTV also let me pause live TV, skip through recorded programming (great for dodging commercials), and do most of the other nifty things DVRs are meant to do. The included remote control allowed for, well, remote control of the unit, which was nice when I hooked it up to my external LCD monitor by way of the iBook's video out dongle. Programming can also be watched on your TV set by way of El Gato's EyeHome media receiver, which I'll be reviewing within the next week or two. Suffice it to say the two work very well together, but you'll need a robust 54g wireless connection or better (you're better off with wired Ethernet) you stream video around your home.

Why Not TiVO?

The big draw of a device like EyeTV over a stand-alone DVR like TiVO is that EyeTV integrates very nicely with iMovie, iDVD, and other multimedia apps you might have on your Mac. It's easy to archive programming to DVD using EyeTV and Toast 6; it's not so easy to do this with a TiVO (TiVO is actually made to prevent moving your files to disc). EyeTV also works very well as an analog-to-digital video converter -- you can hook your VHS deck or camcorder up to EyeTV's inputs and bring your old home movies and other footage into your Mac for editing, export to QuickTime and various Web formats (or 3G wireless formats), and so on. Other slightly less expensive devices allow for this, as well, but without the TV tuner capacities.

Road warriors, of course, might also love being able to watch TV shows on their iBook or PowerBook while travelling, in the hotel, etc. Once video has been captured, you don't need the EyeTV box to watch it on your Mac -- you can view it using El Gato's software, bring it into iMovie, and do pretty much whatever else you can do with video on a Mac. Again, this isn't so easily accomplished with a stand-alone DVR.

I had two big hangups while using EyeTV 200. First, there's no solution (yet) that allows EyeTV to switch channels on a cable/sattelite box. Many stand-alone DVRs now include serial or IR adaptors to handle this task, which is essential if you want to recording multiple programs on multiple channels without having to change the channel yourself. To me, that's kind of the point of having a DVR. If you have unscrambled analog cable, this isn't a problem, as you can plug the coaxial cable directly into EyeTV and get a clean signal. I have digital cable, so my cable box has to do the unscrambling before the signal gets routed to EyeTV. As such, EyeTV can only receive/record whatever channel the cable box is tuned to. This is a big drawback if you want to use EyeTV like a TiVO. El Gato says they're working on a channel changing solution but nothing's ready just yet.

Second, EyeTV must be connected to both your video signal and your Mac, and your Mac must be up and running in order to record programming. EyeTV is also dependent on your Mac's hard drive for data storage, so you need to make sure you've got about 2 GB of free space for every hour of programming you want to record. If you're running the laptop with a 30 GB drive you use for everything else as well (like me), this means making sure that big, cheap external drive is also hooked up and turned on. This also means keeping that puppy hooked up and turned on when you want to watch programming. Or, of course, you can get a bigger hard drive for your laptop.

Is EyeTV Worth It?

The EyeTV 200 El Gato sent me worked very, very well. Until Apple decides to bundle a TV tuner and DVR software into their computers (or license El Gato's wares for the same purpose), this is the best way to go if you want to watch and record TV on your Mac. At $329 direct from El Gato, the EyeTV 200 will run you just a little less than a TiVO with lifetime service subscription (around $400 total, depending on promos and rebates). El Gato still also offers the lower-cost USB 1.1, but the video quality afforded by the 200 is far, far superior (they also offer a full line EyeTV boxes capable of HDTV quality recording that work with sattelite and digital terrestrial programming only).

I wouldn't recommend purchasing the EyeTV 200 as a pure PVR substitute. For just a little more money you can have a stand-alone device from TiVO or ReplayTV with a built-in hard drive, the ability to automatically switch channels on your cable box, and no need to stay tethered to your Mac. However, if you're looking for a way to catch up on TV shows when your on the road with your Mac, or are interested in both DVR functionalty and a way to convert those old VHS home movies to DVD, EyeTV 200 might just be for you. The software includes iLife integration and is quite easy to use, the video quality is excellent, and it's really the only game in town when it comes to recording TV on your Mac.

If only they'd hurry up and get that cable box channel changing figured out...

El Gato's EyeTV 200 firewire DVR system is available for $329 direct from The El Gato Website. The package includes a remote control, software, and user's manual. Compare prices at PCPrices.

* * * *
Noah Kravitz runs the Technology and Culture blog Threebase.com. He is an educator, musician, and writer who now lives in Oakland, CA and is the author of Teaching and Learning with Technology.