EyeTV EZ or EyeTV 250?

[mulletman13]

Hello all!

I'm looking to move my iMac into the Media Center category... right now I have it hooked up to a projector in my house, which is it's second display. Now I'm looking into getting a TV tuner for it, which will turn it into a Tivo of sorts, and I'm wondering if the EyeTV EZ or the EyeTV 250 would better suit my needs.

From what I gather, they are the same, except the 250 has a built in chip that offers encoding/decoding. I may be doing other things whilst watching television, so would that EyeTV EZ be really taxing on my 1.83ghz Intel Core Duo?

I'm just looking for some advice, as there is a $70 price difference between these two items.

Thanks for the input!

mm13

 

[wmmk]

Hello all!

I'm looking to move my iMac into the Media Center category... right now I have it hooked up to a projector in my house, which is it's second display. Now I'm looking into getting a TV tuner for it, which will turn it into a Tivo of sorts, and I'm wondering if the EyeTV EZ or the EyeTV 250 would better suit my needs.

From what I gather, they are the same, except the 250 has a built in chip that offers encoding/decoding. I may be doing other things whilst watching television, so would that EyeTV EZ be really taxing on my 1.83ghz Intel Core Duo?

I'm just looking for some advice, as there is a $70 price difference between these two items.

Thanks for the input!

mm13

EyeTV EZ will do just fine. As a matter of fact, the miglia mini, which comes with the eyeTV 2 software and does the same thing as the eyeTV EZ is smaller (the size of an iPod shuffle), $50 less, and works in both europe and the US without needing two models! great for travelers, but as you said you have an imac, the miglia thing will still be just fine.

 

[jsw]

Personally, I'd choose the 250 over the EZ not only because of the on-board hardware (no, it won't often tax your iMac, but, on the other hand, do you want to have to avoid doing anything CPU-intensive whenever you've got a show being recorded?) but also because of the custom compression, allowing you to set the quality both above that allowed by the EZ (nice for those shows you want in as good a condition as possible) as well as far, far below that allowed by the EZ (good for those shows you tape "just in case" or which don't need to be high-quality). In addition, the zero-lag capability ("game mode") might be useful.

To me, that adds up to justification for the US$50 difference.

Edit: the Miglia mini is useless to you. The Miglia micro is very nice, but has no analog inputs. If that doesn't bother you, it looks like a great product.

 

[mulletman13]

Thanks a lot for the advice!

I've never heard of this item before, guess you learn something everyday

In any case, that seems like it will do the job, except I'm concerned what the remote interfaces with... it seems to be an IR remote, but there doesnt seem to be a reciever anywhere on the dongle. Even if there was, it would be plugged in behind my iMac.... hrmm?

I'll look into it more, but I'm ruling the EyeTV 250 out.

Miglia Mini is $100
EyeTV EZ can be found for $130

hrmm...

 

[wmmk]

Edit: the Miglia mini is useless to you. The Miglia micro is very nice, but has no analog inputs. If that doesn't bother you, it looks like a great product.

what's wrong with the mini? the micro is only for digital HD cable considering that the iMac has a SD screen, HD content is of no use.

 

[Atlasland]

except I'm concerned what the remote interfaces with... it seems to be an IR remote, but there doesnt seem to be a reciever anywhere on the dongle. Even if there was, it would be plugged in behind my iMac.... hrmm?

I have the Miglia TV mini, and I was initially worried about that when I bought it.

The reciever is on the dongle itself. The IR signal is very strong, so even if you put the dongle behind your iMac, you will still be able to control it from in front of your iMac - but the controlling will be a little erratic, though still useable.


What I have done, is:

instead of plugging the dongle into the back of my iMac and connecting it to my roof aerial socket...

i have plugged the dongle into my roof aerial socket, and then connected it to my iMac. This way the IR reciever is in a better position, and controlling the TV is much much better (still not perfect though). Also, this setup removes clutter from the back of my iMac.


The Miglia TV mini is beautiful piece of equipment (its tiny as well!). My only 2 qualms are:

the imperfect IR control and

the fact that when watching TV it takes up upto 40% of my CPU's processing power (on a G5 Rev B 2.0Ghz).


Anyway, hope this helps.

 

[mulletman13]

Hey thanks a lot for all the responses.... here is some additional information:

I will not be using this for HDTV cable... I can't afford getting that wired to my house, so it will just be for standard basic cable. I'm looking to record at decent quality, nothing spectacular, but just so it would look nice on a television screen

Thanks!

 

[wmmk]

Hey thanks a lot for all the responses.... here is some additional information:

I will not be using this for HDTV cable... I can't afford getting that wired to my house, so it will just be for standard basic cable. I'm looking to record at decent quality, nothing spectacular, but just so it would look nice on a television screen

Thanks!

in that cae the miglia micro will do nothing good at all. the EZ or miglia mini will gie quality between VHS and DVD, which is about TV quality


BTW: as i am thinking abot buying one of these, how does the tv signal hook up to a miglia mini?

 

[jsw]

what's wrong with the mini? the micro is only for digital HD cable considering that the iMac has a SD screen, HD content is of no use.

The mini is for Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT). It won't work in the States. The micro is for analog (standard def) TV. It will work in the States. mulletman13 lives in the States. Please look at the Miglia site before buying the wrong device.

 

[mulletman13]

Thanks for clearing that up for me

In any case, I think I'm getting Digital Cable in the near future, which does not seem like it will work with the Miglia model. For this reason, I'm going with the EyeTV EZ -- which will accept output from Digital Cable via breakout cable. The EZ can be found for $130 online, so that seems to be my choice for this situation.

Thanks for all your input!

Ken

 

[alienex]

I just got the micro in London it worked fine there. Im in Paris now and it doesnt work here. Just curious at home in the US I have regular TV and digital TV. I cant use the micro for my digital TV? Should I return it in favor of something else?

 

[wmmk]

The mini is for Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT). It won't work in the States. The micro is for analog (standard def) TV. It will work in the States. mulletman13 lives in the States. Please look at the Miglia site before buying the wrong device.

i stand corrected. sorry.

 

[dongmin]

question: the EyeTV EZ and Miglia Micro rely on your CPU for the encoding, but if you're just watching live TV and not doing any recording, an 800 mhz G4 iBook will be fine? I'm eventually gonna upgrade to a core duo machine, but for now, i just watch to catch live TV now and then.