EyeTV Export Settings

macmac13 said:

So I just got my EyeTV hybrid and have been using it with my Mac mini HTPC for a few weeks now. It's great. I have been working on my export settings and I have finally perfected them. I have 3 different quality settings that I use all exported as .mp4 files that run seamlessly in XBMC.

SD
720x404
1000kbps
23.98fps
~330MB for a 42 minute show

HD
1280x720
3500-4000kbps
23.98fps
~1GB for a 42 minute show

HD+
1920x1080
5500kbps
23.98fps
~1.4GB for a 42 minute show

Usually I use the 720p setting, but when I really like an episode I save it with the HD+ setting. When I say a 42 minute show, I mean a normal 1 hour long show with the commercials edited out. So what settings do you guys use for your setups?

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I use EyeTV's built-in "Apple TV HD" export option. Works fine.

macmac13 said:

When you do that though, does it give you an uncomfortably large file size like 3-4GB? That's what I get when I try to use the normal Apple TV HD button.

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I think the file sizes tend to be 1-2 GB (for a 1 hour show) rather than 3-4. I'll have to check when I get home tonight, though.

I should note that I don't usually actually click the "Apple TV HD" button. Instead I either use an applescript to tell EyeTV to export, or check the "auto export to iTunes" button when I make the recording schedule. But it ought to have the same effect as clicking the "Apple TV HD" button, I think.

macmac13 said:

Okay. Also, how do you edit out your commercials that way?

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You have to use ETVcomskip and some applescripts. This will auto-mark the start and end points of commercials, and remove them before exporting to iTunes.

At least, that's how it is supposed to work. In practice I find that ETV comskip works for some channels, but not others.

See this comment in another thread to see the applescript I use and how to use it.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17132595/

macmac13 said:

When you do that though, does it give you an uncomfortably large file size like 3-4GB? That's what I get when I try to use the normal Apple TV HD button.

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I just checked. All my 1-hour shows are between 2 and 3 GB after transcoded to .m4v format.

There's an add-in for XBMC called EyeTV parser that lets you watch the recordings without exporting them. Of course therefore it doesn't edit out commercials or reduce them in size.

NewbieCanada said:

There's an add-in for XBMC called EyeTV parser that lets you watch the recordings without exporting them. Of course therefore it doesn't edit out commercials or reduce them in size.

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Yes I tried that a year or two ago. (My Apple TV 2 is jailbroken so I have XBMC on it.) I would not recommend using EyeTV Parser for HD recordings. SD works ok as I recall. . . but the interface is not very user friendly.

The problem is that the bit rate of the EyeTV recordings is very high. These are uncompressed mpeg2 files. About 7 GB for a 1 hour show. Streaming that over wifi or ethernet really bogs down your network and I would get essentially unwatchable choppiness on my Apple TV.

EyeTV Parser probably works fine if you have a mac mini hooked up to your TV, with the EyeTV recordings sitting on a local hard drive, and you prefer to use XBMC as your "10-foot-interface". But if you are streaming to your Apple TV, don't bother. Better to transcode and get the bit rate / file size down. Much smoother streaming.

dgalvan123 said:

EyeTV Parser probably works fine if you have a mac mini hooked up to your TV, with the EyeTV recordings sitting on a local hard drive, and you prefer to use XBMC as your "10-foot-interface". But if you are streaming to your Apple TV, don't bother. Better to transcode and get the bit rate / file size down. Much smoother streaming.

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The OP mentioned that they're using a Mac Mini as an HTPC

The issue is not really with the bit rate and file size so much as the MPEG2 format, which the Apple TV doesn't have built-in hardware support for. I have no trouble playing EyerTV recordings located on my Mini's hard drive on XBMC on my MacBook over Wifi

macmac13 said:

Also, do you know how you can have XBMC and iTunes 11 running off of the same naming conventions?

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I don't use iTunes for video - but XBMC's scraper is pretty good. I'd have thought it would recognize most things named according to iTunes conventions.

macmac13 said:

Okay, thanks. It can't seem to recognize the episodes, only the series.

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On XBMC if you have a folder structure like this:


TV/The MacMac Show/S01E12.mp4

It should pick it up. The TV folder (any name is fine) is designated as containing TV shows. The folder for the show should be the name of the show. In some cases it will need something more, when more than one show has the title (i.e. The Office UK and The Office US). And for the name of the episode it isn't fussy at all, as long as it can figure out the season and episode. So "The.MacMac.Show.S01E12.Mac.Goes.Crazy.mkv" works just as well as long is it's in the right folder. I also make subfolders for each season - they aren't needed, but it's easier on me in Finder.

Yes, XBMC definitely needs the season and episode in the filename.

Since no one else here seems to have a solution, maybe out in the wild world of google someone knows.