Elgato Eye TV, anyone use?

[Kevin83165]

Is anyone using this product? If so, whats been your experience?

I want to take my 24" iMac in our 5th wheel on the weekends since it has all my music and games. I would also like to double use it as a monitor to our Dish network receiver.

One think I want to avoid however, is having to run it in a windowed mode or hitting full screen having it look like crap due to resolution problems. I had a Hauppauge TV tuner, like that, sold it because I hated it.

 

[shu82]

With a 24" all analog video would probably look bad. But the OTA hdtv looks great on my 17" PB. I don't have much experience with satelite but as long as you use a digital signal it should look ok.

 

[Jessy]

I play my Wii through it (into my MBP and then into an external monitor). The software doesn't support anamorphic widescreen, which is absolutely ridiculous. As such, I have to use the "stretch" mode (fills all screen pixels), which is close, but not perfect, because widescreen monitors (like all Apple displays) are 8:5 (16:10) instead of 16:9.

Nintendo are a bunch of jerks for not using digital video signals, but then again, you can't get that into a Mac right now anyway, and I don't own a TV. I consider the product overpriced, as this should be a standard feature of Macs, instead of a peripheral, but it gets the job done pretty well, and the software is pretty slick, aside from the widescreen rubbish.

 

[aristobrat]

With a 24" all analog video would probably look bad. But the OTA hdtv looks great on my 17" PB. I don't have much experience with satelite but as long as you use a digital signal it should look ok.

I pretty much agree.

I had a Mac mini + EyeTV hybrid hooked up to a 50" plasma. Running full-screen, OTA HDTV looked stunning. Analog wasn't nearly as great looking, but it wasn't so bad that it really bugged me. I always watched the analog stuff with sidebars on it. I'm not sure if the EyeTV software can stretch it to fill the whole screen.

 

[Jessy]

I always watched the analog stuff with sidebars on it. I'm not sure if the EyeTV software can stretch it to fill the whole screen.

Do you WANT everyone to become short and fat? Or perhaps you prefer cropping out a giant chunk of the picture and lowering the effective resolution?

Also, although the Wii looks as good as could be expected, I have never used any TV signals of any sort with the EyeTV Hybrid, but I can't see how you wouldn't get similar results, given a decent signal.

 

[aristobrat]

Do you WANT everyone to become short and fat? Or perhaps you prefer cropping out a giant chunk of the picture and lowering the effective resolution?

Also, although the Wii looks as good as could be expected, I have never used any TV signals of any sort with the EyeTV Hybrid, but I can't see how you wouldn't get similar results, given a decent signal.

I personally don't like watching 4:3 stuff that's stretched to fill the entire screen, but I know plenty of people who "deal" with the short/fat issue in order to see the analog picture spread across their entire 16:9 display.

HDTV looks simply awesome.

 

[Kevin83165]

Thanks for all the replies, I think I am better off just getting me a nice LCD TV instead of hassling with this.

 

[Peace]

I found out quit by accident that the new Elgato Hybrid is actually a Haupage WinTV-980.This means you can download the windows drivers and software from haupage and use the Hybrid in bootcamp under Windows.

 

[Jessy]

I found out quit by accident that the new Elgato Hybrid is actually a Haupage WinTV-980.This means you can download the windows drivers and software from haupage and use the Hybrid in bootcamp under Windows.

I don't see why you'd want to, but that's a good catch. Anything that helps kill off television sets is a-ok with me.

 

[kitki83]

I found out quit by accident that the new Elgato Hybrid is actually a Haupage WinTV-980.This means you can download the windows drivers and software from haupage and use the Hybrid in bootcamp under Windows.

So the reverse is true?

Now I am very tempted to get one, but HD possible.

 

[aristobrat]

So the reverse is true?

Now I am very tempted to get one, but HD possible.

I think that Elgato recently announced that they made their software work with the Haupage, but they charge something like $70 for it (the software).

 

[kugino]

i use the eyetv200 on my 20" imac...full screen doesn't look great w/non-HD signals, but as a second tv it's watchable. i also have the eyetv hybrid, which looks great with over-the-air HD. both can be used simultaneously on one mac (to get both cable and analog HD signals), though the eyetv software is not yet "smart" enough to juggle recording on the two eyetvs.

i am quite fond of the elgato's products...and the eyetv software is really what makes it all run great.

 

[dcv]

I have the Elgato EyeTV 410 (DTT with C/I slot) and it works fantastically with my 20" iMac, picture is superb. Also have the EyeTV 200 (analogue).

The EyeTV 2 software is great and so easy to use. Can't recommend Elgato products enough!

 

[Lyle]

I had the EyeTV Hybrid briefly, but returned it because I was having trouble consistently picking over the air HDTV signals. This was not a fault of the EyeTV itself, just problems with the antennas I had to work with and my location.

When it was able to pick up a signal, it looked fantastic. And of course, hooked up to the (analog) cable, it worked like a charm as well. So I can highly recommend it, even though it didn't work out for me personally.