

Users with a single-processor G4 computer can encode VCD (video CD) quality MPEG-1. In addition, the Hybrid doesn’t have a hardware MPEG encoder like Elgato’s other PVR (personal video recorder) offering, the EyeTV 250, so your MPEG recording quality is dependant on your processing power.
Eyetv hybrid usa 720p#
Decoding 720P or 1080i HDTV programming, for example, requires dual G5 or Intel processors.
Eyetv hybrid usa mac#
It’s a good thing that every Mac sold today comes with a dual processor, as the diminutive Hybrid leaves most of the heavy lifting up to the computer. The minimum requirements for the EyeTV HybridĪre a single G4 processor or greater and OS X 10.4. ) scheduling software, you really can’t go wrong with this product. Supported by Elgato’s mature and ever-improving
Eyetv hybrid usa mac os x#
Mac Pro/iMac PPC/MacBook Pro/Mini Mac OS X (10.4.Elgato knocks one out of the park with its newest offering: the versatile EyeTV Hybrid, a USB stick TV tuner capable of bringing to your Mac both digital over-the-air broadcasts (including HDTV) and analog TV from cable or a traditional antenna. These devices are recommended to people with less powerful machines since they handle the demanding encoding process themselves. "EyeTV 200 supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 hardware encoding.", see This can be contrasted with the EyeTV 200 and 250. Since the encoding process is quite intensive it places much higher demands on the computer's CPU and possibly memory. ) to MPEG format so the host computer must handle this task. This is because the EyeTV hybrid does not have a processor which can convert the YUV (
Eyetv hybrid usa software#
The EyeTV software encodes this YUV into MPEG-2 or MPEG-1, and the speed and quality of that encoding is entirely dependent on the power of your Mac.". "EyeTV Hybrid features an analog NTSC or PAL TV tuner that lets you watch live TV directly on the Mac, in the uncompressed YUV format. This is not the case with an analogue TV signal. This requires relatively little processing power on the computer since it is just a matter of grabbing the data from the device and writing it to disk.

When recording from a digital source using an EyeTV Hybrid (and most other digital TV devices) the digital information that makes up a digital TV broadcast is sent directly to disk. Not be an issue either-unless you have poor reception. Handle hi def content with no problems, analog should I don't use an analog source but I imagine if it can (now there is now a $20 rebate for American/Canadian purchases of it made before June 30th - has me wondering if a new model is being developed.) If your priority is recording (analog) over just watching TV, the Eye250 is probably the best choice. hardware encoding allows quality/useability with less powerful Macs. good for watching analog broadcasts, digital via included breakout cable. okay for recording video but quality/useability is dependant on your Mac. good for watching analog and digital broadcasts. The Mini's 'laptop' hard drive is (obviously) not as ideal for DV recording as a desktop 7200RPM one although I'm confident that it would still be up to the task.Įssentially, from my experience with the Hybrid and from the literature that I've read For one, your system will not be pushed as hard. I haven't used the EyeTV 250 so I can't make a recommendation from personal experience but my understanding is that because the 250 performs hardware encoding as opposed to requiring the Mac to do it via software - performance should be noticeably better. In the latter case, a hardware encoding solution is preferred. My understanding is that the hybrid is a good solution for watching televison, less ideal for recording. On that note, even a core duo iMac with 2GB of RAM experiences the odd glitch with the EyeTV hybrid. With a traditional 5400RPM laptop hard drive, the performance will suffer more compared to, as an example, my iMac's desktop 7200RPM drive. If you run out of physical memory, your Mac will turn to VM which will will slow things down.

I haven't monitored how much memory EyeTV uses over an extended period of time but it seemed to grow the longer it ran/recorded. The OS will use at least half of that not to mention the extra memory use via the Intel graphics chip. I wouldn't trust 512MB total RAM to be enough for everyday use, never mind multimedia. The other issue for Jay is whether 512MB of RAM is up Transmitter such as a wireless network station orĬordless phone is causing intereference for the EyeTV Just a thought - is it possible that a radio
