My iMac (intel) is having serious problems playing saved video files, especially from the Elgato EyeTV hybrid (file extension .eyetv). Everything played fine for about 1.5 years, then suddenly the iMac just started pinwheeling intermittently and stopping the video every few seconds. It was like watching Youtube on dial-up. I tried closing programs, stopping Time Machine, restarting, reinstalling EyeTV... but nothing fixed it, it only got worse and actually started freezing the whole machine and causing incredibly slow and scary restarts with lots of blue screens. At this point I actually re-formatted the whole darn computer and the files played OK for maybe a day or two, then just started pinwheeling the .eyetv files again, although movies on my hard drive play ok now as far as I know. Youtube and other streaming has always been fine. Watching live-feed TV on the EyeTV has never been a problem either. Why can't I watch my recorded files?
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Video files choppy on iMac (intel)
- Thread starter Astronott
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Any other EveTV users reporting the same issue? Any update available for EyeTV?
In the Finder, select the Go menu, and click on Utilities. In the window that appears, launch Activity Monitor. Sort by CPU usage, and launch your recoded videos. You should be able to see what is using your computers resources and go from there.
In the Finder, select the Go menu, and click on Utilities. In the window that appears, launch Activity Monitor. Sort by CPU usage, and launch your recoded videos. You should be able to see what is using your computers resources and go from there.
Thanks for the response. I seem to remember watching the Activity Monitor before the reformat and not noticing any spikes during the freezes, but I'm not 100% sure. I was going to try it again but the funny thing is my video files suddenly started working again. This happened to coincide with a repair of my internet connection! I didn't think the EyeTV program and the internet performance were related at all (because it's USB -> Coax cable, and files are on the hard drive) but ...
Around the same time the EyeTV files were being problematic, the ethernet connection was also totally down and we were depending on the landlord's wireless, using just the AirPort, and the service was very intermittent. Every few seconds the AirPort would try and reconnect, again and again, sometimes getting the network and sometimes not. Maybe this was using the computer's resources? I'm still not sure what the relation is, though.
Around the same time the EyeTV files were being problematic, the ethernet connection was also totally down and we were depending on the landlord's wireless, using just the AirPort, and the service was very intermittent. Every few seconds the AirPort would try and reconnect, again and again, sometimes getting the network and sometimes not. Maybe this was using the computer's resources? I'm still not sure what the relation is, though.
Update
If any of you mac experts out there are still looking at this thread...
I tried to play an avi file today in vlc (a full length movie). It played for about 3 minutes and then started freezing - just like my eyetv files tend to do. This happened before the reformat as well.
I then went back to Eyetv and tried to play one of my recordings. It worked for a full 1/2 hour show! After that I tried another file and the freezing happened immediately. I have heard about some intel iMacs having video card problems - but doesn't that usually mean lines and phantoms on your display? I don't know much about video cards. Thanks for any more advice!
If any of you mac experts out there are still looking at this thread...
I tried to play an avi file today in vlc (a full length movie). It played for about 3 minutes and then started freezing - just like my eyetv files tend to do. This happened before the reformat as well.
I then went back to Eyetv and tried to play one of my recordings. It worked for a full 1/2 hour show! After that I tried another file and the freezing happened immediately. I have heard about some intel iMacs having video card problems - but doesn't that usually mean lines and phantoms on your display? I don't know much about video cards. Thanks for any more advice!