Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

EyeTV Hybrid recording on Duo Core Mac Mini

E

ejdd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
5
0
I just purchased an EyeTV Hybrid and I'm a little disappointed. I'm wondering if my Mac is underpowered to run it properly.

I have a 1.66 Duo Core Mac Mini 120GB HDD 1GB RAM
OSX 10.4.8 and EyeTV 2.3.1

I make sure other apps (Itunes, browsers etc.) are all closed.

I can view tv fine but as soon as i come to record (with or without watching live tv as well) the recording is very broken up, generally unwatchable - or at the least very annoying to watch.

I'm recording on the highest setting (DVD 90 Minutes setting). If I switch to a lower (DVD 180) its a pretty underwhelming picture.

Is my MAC just too slow to be doing this?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
J

jimTV

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2006
13
0
ejdd said:
I'm recording on the highest setting (DVD 90 Minutes setting). If I switch to a lower (DVD 180) its a pretty underwhelming picture.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert, but I have an Elgato Hybrid too, and I'm sure when I go to "preferances" in Eye TV, then tell it I'm using an Elgato Hybrid from the selection, it doesn't give me the "DVD 90 Minutes" selection. It only says something about it being M-PEG 2 and "Records... without loss".

So, I'm guessing maybe you need to change those settings, tell it you're using a Hybrid !?
 
E

ejdd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
5
0
The Mpeg 2 option is for digital signal recording (as the hybrid is expecting the compressed Mpeg2 from a digital signal). If you check the Analog settings you have 3 options
VCD normal
DVD 180 good
DVD 90 better
 
R

rmarasa

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2006
39
0
London, UK
I have a similar setup and from time-to-time I experience the same problem, which a reboot seems to cure. But only since I've downloaded the new 2.3.2 software which I have problems with. However, since you're using 2.3.1 and our systems are not exactly the same, I'd suggest you back it up and grab a copy of 2.3.2 from the elgato site. This is a major revision with such a minor number. Perhaps it will work much better with your system, and I expect it might. Let us know.
 
marioman38

marioman38

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2006
899
84
Long Beach, CA
The Mini should have enough power, it may be the hard drive that can't keep up.... You'll pretty much need a 7200RPM drive to record that quickly...
 
E

ejdd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
5
0
I put in a trouble ticket with Elgato - their advice was to try the latest 2.3.2 version and also the 2.3.1 version. Both had the same issues.
Maybe you are right - the drive isn't fast enough - it caches live tv as well as the recording so maybe the combination of caching live and recording is the issue. i might try reducing the live tv cache - see if the processor is powerful enough to play directly.....
 
M

menziep

macrumors 6502a
Jan 21, 2006
527
1
ejdd said:
I just purchased an EyeTV Hybrid and I'm a little disappointed. I'm wondering if my Mac is underpowered to run it properly.

I have a 1.66 Duo Core Mac Mini 120GB HDD 1GB RAM
OSX 10.4.8 and EyeTV 2.3.1

I make sure other apps (Itunes, browsers etc.) are all closed.

I can view tv fine but as soon as i come to record (with or without watching live tv as well) the recording is very broken up, generally unwatchable - or at the least very annoying to watch.

I'm recording on the highest setting (DVD 90 Minutes setting). If I switch to a lower (DVD 180) its a pretty underwhelming picture.

Is my MAC just too slow to be doing this?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Congrats. on EyeTv Buy!
 
F

FireArse

macrumors 6502a
Oct 29, 2004
900
110
I've found no issues

menziep said:
Congrats. on EyeTv Buy!
Click to expand...

I bought an eye-TV DTT. It's not the hybrid, but the software is great. I've used it on my PPC G5, my brother's 1.66 Mini and my new 2.66GHz Mac Pro.

In every installation it worked great. In fact, I happen to think its one of the best bits of kit not created/written by Apple Engineers.

As for the issues, are you sure there's nothing running or using the Mac's resources? Sounds like something in the background may have hung. I tend to use 'top' within Terminal to make sure.

Hope you sort your issues out, because I feel its a great product.

F
 
E

ejdd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
5
0
I got the reply back from Elgato.
Their response:

"I'm trying to confirm if your Mac mini does have a problem, perhaps with the highest recording quality (which should need a G5 or higher)."

So I'm guessing the mini isn't powerful enough for the highest quality analog recording (DVD90 quality)

I'm resigned to it recording on the middle (DVD180) quality.

Yes, I agree - the software is awesome though
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
FWIW, I've recorded on my mini - same specs as yours but with a 100GB drive, and I find the same issues when I try to record with too high a quality. In fact, my iMac (1.8GH Core Duo) seems barely strong enough for those settings.

Conversely, recording HDTV off the air works quite well (obviously, as there's no further compression required).
 
C

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
With an EyeTV 200, a single 1.8 GHz G4 (on a 100 MHz bus) is more than enough to record MPEG2 High quality (DVD90). It uses about 70% if you're viewing, but the recording itself uses almost no CPU. The software compression of the Hybrid kills you.
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
cube said:
With an EyeTV 200, a single 1.8 GHz G4 (on a 100 MHz bus) is more than enough to record MPEG2 High quality (DVD90). This G5 requirement is a fantasy. Maybe it's the hard disk.
Click to expand...
I'd be stunned if it was the drive - the data rate isn't that great, and, like I said, there are no issues with HDTV, which has a much higher rate. For whatever reason (poor Intel code?), standard-def compression tears through CPU cycles.

And this is with the Hybrid, although I'd expect it to behave like a 200.
 
C

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
I fixed my post. The 200 has hardware compression (even MPEG4). The Hybrid does not.
The 250 does not have MPEG4.
 
E

ejdd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
5
0
i'm sure now it's the processor speed that's the limit. Unfortunately no free to air HDTV for me. I live in the mountains in Canada and no signal gets up here.

Still, for a cheap unit the hybrid still does OK.

If I were to purchase again, i'd probably look and one of the external elgato's or the plextor, which do the external encoding.

Thanks for you help.
 
C

Crynja

macrumors newbie
Nov 25, 2006
2
0
Quartz slowing you down?

One thing that might help you. According to the macosxhints article below, if you run the eyeTV using the full screen interface the motion background stays running all the time, even when you can't see it.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060914081057994

You might try to replace the fancy background (with a still, black billboard using quartz composer) to save CPU cycles.

Thanks for posting your problem. I am planning on getting a Mac mini with either the Hybrid or DTT pretty soon, and would appreciate hearing if this, or other suggestions have helped. I might hold out now until core 2 duos come out to get a little extra zing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom