I want a DVR, opinions on EyeTV 250 or Miglia TVMax

[EasyB]

I have played with the eyetv before, but not the TVMax. Both are hardware encoders, but the TVMax does mpeg 2 &4 and Divx. I wonder if the mpeg4 that comes off the TVMax is playable by the iPod without any more encoding. Any advise?

 

[GFLPraxis]

Depends on the bitrate- if the bitrate is 2500 or less, and the resolution is 640x480 and not 720x480, it should play.

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

I just ordered my miglia tvmax yesterday so if I get a chance, I'll answer your question when it arrives.

 

[pumpkinwhite]

I have used both eyetv 250 and miglia TVMax. My experience with both has not been good. I have a TVMax right now, and am having a few problems. The tech support is trying to help me though. so probably it will get sorted out. Hopefully my experience helps you.

I have a 20" intel imac. I had initially bought an eyetv 250. The problem with the unit was that the channel quality was not very good. most channels were decent. however some had a lot of graininess. but the biggest problem was that the closed captioning did not work properly. it used to drop letters in almost every line. It did not display it properly even when used with a dvd player. after a series of mails with the tech support, they realized that it was a problem with my unit and offered to exchange it. However, i asked them for a refund instead and they obliged. (on a side note - elgato customer service is excellent).

then i purchased the miglia tvmax. the quality is excellent. every channel is crystal clear and closed captioning works perfect. however i am having a very annoying problem that occasionaly i get 0KB files on scheduled recordings (the recording counter remains at 0 seconds). it happens at least once every day, and i am not able to find the conditions when it happens. whenever this happens, the tv window displays "this channel is not currently available". it gets stuck at that, and even if you change channels, it displays the same thing. if i close the tv window and reopen it, then it works perfectly. the tech support asked me to reinstall eyetv software, as i had not done a fresh install when i changed from eyetv 250 to tvmax. however, even after a fresh install the problem has not gone away. i seems to me (though i am not sure) that it happens when the computer has been at sleep for many hours. when it wakes the computer, the tuner does not tune as fast to the channel and gets stuck. i updated the case to tech support just this morning and am awaiting their reply.
i shall keep you updated.

 

[pumpkinwhite]

update - it seems the tvmax problem is universal with all units, and is a software bug in eyetv. will have to wait for elgato to fix it.

 

[catranslo]

hopefully this will help

www.amazon.com/review/R2A054PS3S0GD7

I have used both eyetv 250 and miglia TVMax. My experience with both has not been good. I have a TVMax right now, and am having a few problems. The tech support is trying to help me though. so probably it will get sorted out. Hopefully my experience helps you.

I have a 20" intel imac. I had initially bought an eyetv 250. The problem with the unit was that the channel quality was not very good. most channels were decent. however some had a lot of graininess. but the biggest problem was that the closed captioning did not work properly. it used to drop letters in almost every line. It did not display it properly even when used with a dvd player. after a series of mails with the tech support, they realized that it was a problem with my unit and offered to exchange it. However, i asked them for a refund instead and they obliged. (on a side note - elgato customer service is excellent).

then i purchased the miglia tvmax. the quality is excellent. every channel is crystal clear and closed captioning works perfect. however i am having a very annoying problem that occasionaly i get 0KB files on scheduled recordings (the recording counter remains at 0 seconds). it happens at least once every day, and i am not able to find the conditions when it happens. whenever this happens, the tv window displays "this channel is not currently available". it gets stuck at that, and even if you change channels, it displays the same thing. if i close the tv window and reopen it, then it works perfectly. the tech support asked me to reinstall eyetv software, as i had not done a fresh install when i changed from eyetv 250 to tvmax. however, even after a fresh install the problem has not gone away. i seems to me (though i am not sure) that it happens when the computer has been at sleep for many hours. when it wakes the computer, the tuner does not tune as fast to the channel and gets stuck. i updated the case to tech support just this morning and am awaiting their reply.
i shall keep you updated.