When the AppleTV was announced last year, one red flag immediately flew up in the feature list… what about HDTV? Not “near-HD” quality or “DVD quality”, why wasn’t Apple talking up what was a rapidly-becoming-mainstream format?

Because it’s not natively set-up to deal with HD. No recording and watching live content. Let alone an ATSC tuner. So it’s not really the same type of machine as a Tivo.

Hence, my current static situation with EyeTV, DVD Assist, VLC, & Front Row continues to sate my longing for Tivo’s Best of Breed interface.

Macworld offers a pretty thorough review of the EyeTV Hybrid. I shied away from this model due to the USB connection and the reviewer doesn’t mention the 500 (which I use x2), so it’s not entirely complete from my POV.

Regardless, it does sound awesome for folks on the road with Intel laptops…no way I’d drag a 500 with me on a trip.

Read it all here.

Among the colossal missteps El Gato has made in recent releases sits a gift…version 2.3.2 introduces a surprisingly robust Picture-In-Picture feature.

DISCLAIMER: For some reason or another, there a lot of folks who think adding PIP means they just gained an additional tuner. They didn’t. You must have TWO EyeTV units to use PIP with two different live TV feeds. You can use it with one tuner, but the other window will be recorded material.

So, assuming you have two tuners, I think you’ll find the PIP to be a very deluxe feature. Not only can it be moved to the four corners of your screen, but El Gato also created two new position/sizing options. I created a small video of the switch between them to illustrate the possiblities.

I was really excited after taking this feature for an initial spin…especially about how dynamic the window position is. But after a few minutes, I realized that PIP has become an outdated feature. Tivo eliminated the need to juggle two live shows by allowing users to record them, making PIP just a very crude, analog form of timeshifting…with no control over the content’s position.To be fair, there are some things I’d like to watch live…in particular, the occassional sporting event. But most of my EyeTV viewing is “regular” programming that isn’t time-sensitive (beyond a vulnerability to spoilers). I’m not a huge sports fan and that’s the only place I see folks really gaining regular functionality out of PIP.

That said, EyeTV adding PIP is more than what it appears on the surface. I’ve written a number of articles about using dual EyeTV tuners and until PIP, El Gato had not officially recognized the feature. But PIP is their first step in making dual tuners a REAL, officially-supported feature. And that is a HUGE move forward for Mac users fiending for Tivo-functionality.

And the implimentation and feature set are thick for a first introduction. As you can from the below screenshots, there are more than a couple of way to enjoy this new feature.

Overall, my contempt for 2.3.2 (and 2.3.1) cancels out the shallow enjoyment PIP offers. Instead of adding new functionality, El Gato needs to get back to the basic application framework and listen to it’s customer’s real needs. Period.

Yesterday around 6pm PST, El Gato released a new version of EyeTV’s software. Despite an avalanche of complaints from users over the major changes made in 2.3.1, El Gato ignored all of the major ones and even managed to cripple functionality a little more. Here we go:

THE GOOD

PIP - Adding Picture-In-Picture explains a lot about EyeTV’s development focus…even before 2.3.1, they were focusing on adding HUGE functionality to the software. So much that they were completely unable to notice huge mistakes they were making in some of the small details (like making their Mac app look like a verison of Windows OS, for instance).

That said, I like fooling around with PIP…expect a post exclusively about this functionality in the next couple of days.

Change Channels via Apple Remote - It’s no longer necessary to exit Live TV to change a channel, but they pulled Jump Forward and Back in exchange. To that end, I’m not sure this is such a huge step forward. Time will tell if users wanted that functionality, I suppose. But making users jump to the menu to navigate channels was nuts to begin with.

THE BAD

deep breath…

It’s amazingly frustrating when a company straight-up ignores a united voice from their customers for functionality change. 2.3.1 introduced the following:

Eliminated the Front Row menu option
Added a heavily Windows-influenced theme
“De-integrated” Front Row from the app
Switched the way menus change away from Front Row’s style
Made the Apple Remote’s Menu Button trigger Front Row from anywhere in EyeTV

These were all quickly and loudly addressed to El Gato in forums and emails, who offered very little communication (in most cases, none) in return. Most of us held out hope an update would fix some of these oversights.

They didn’t.

I knew right away upon seeing the Windows MCE Royal Blue that things weren’t any different from before. And trying it out for a few minutes made me realize I wouldn’t have to elaborate anymore about how disappointed I am…referring people to my 2.3.1 review would accurately reflect my feelings about El Gato’s latest build.

I’ll start hoping 2.3.3 will begin to address the weakened foundation 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 created for customers. But I’m certainly not holding my breath.

In my previous post, I detailed the compelling reasons why Front Row makes an excellent HD jukebox. But the one huge drawback is VLC’s weak .ts playback control. Jumping back and forward isn’t going to happen. A bookmark feature is nonexistant. Digital Output is not automatically selectable. But all three features are present and available in EyeTV.

Using EyeTV as a video jukebox involves looking beyond the standard feature set. DVD Assist’s developer reminded me recently that one can “import” .ts files into EyeTV’s library by streaming them through EyeTV’s tuner and recording them simultaneously.

I use the word “reminded” because El Gato’s support clued me into this feature when I asked about importing orphaned EyeTV mpeg files back into the program. They pointed me to this article in their FAQs. And it worked beautifully. In the beginning.

But as I began playing back .ts files, I noticed some of them weren’t having their AC3 signals recognized. Files that played back without a problem in VLC were silent in EyeTV. There isn’t any rythme or reason to which files it accepts…even when I “clean” the files up in varous Mac and Windows apps, no joy.

So the good news is you can timeshift exactly as you would an EyeTV recording (ie like Tivo). The bad news is your very favorite .ts file might not offer any sound in EyeTV. To that end, EyeTV is so very perfect with it’s playback control but not stable enough to playback ANY .ts file you’d like…something VLC always seems to able to do.

Beyond HDTV, it’s worth noting that EyeTV can play back any QT file you’d like. It will open in an EyeTV window and allows total playback control. You just can’t import it into EyeTV’s library…Nick at El Gato set me VERY straight about this point.

As my obsession with HD programming grows, I’ve been on the lookout for a way to organize and playback the growing number of legally-obtained HD movies I have in my archive. Unfortunately, Quicktime’s .ts playback is amazingly weak. Nonexistant, actually. So that precludes iTunes, an otherwise-excellent library manager from helping.

And Front Row seemed doomed to the same fate, since (like iTunes) it uses QT to handle video playback. But that’s without the addition of DVD Assist, whose latest version allows one to launch HD files from within Front Row, that then playback via VLC…AC3 signals and all!

The great thing about using this app as my video jukebox is DVD Assist and the way it allows me to keep alises to both VIDEO_TS files (ripped DVDs) and HD files (.ts, in particular). Although they launch in different apps, starting from the same place allows the tightest integration one could ask for between the two file types.

Of course, there’s a downside. While it’s admirable that VLC can playback .ts files, the feature set it offers is weak at best. No jumping forward or back. No bookmarked playback position. The digital audio output has to be manually selected to fully utilize AC3. But it does play the files back consistantly…something no other Mac video app can do.

It’s with great sadness that I report my dual EyeTV tuner set-up is providing less-than-stellar stability. Of course, I knew going in this wasn’t something El Gato had spent time refining - they even go out of their way to let customers know using two tuners is an “unsupported feature.” The only official guideline they offer is not to use more than three of the same tuners on one machine.

The good news is El Gato is planning on adding this feature set in the future…here’s a promising note from them about using multiple tuners:

“We’re starting to gear up to finish this feature, but I’m not certain when. When it is done, it should be quite robust.”

So we know that the future is promising. But for now, there are a couple of recurring “features” I wanted to update EyeTV users about.

1. Kernal Panic/Unannounced Shutdown: The hallmark of a serious Mac App problem is it’s ability to force a system shutdown. When I used to work on Windows machines, this was a fact of life with a lot of tasks. But it’s a rare occurance for me in OS X.

And that’s why I know the recent “You must restart your computer” messages are directly related to the multiple EyeTV units. My Mini only runs EyeTV, DVD Assist, & FR (when I need it) and there were zero problems with a single EyeTV 500 plugged in. But since hooking the second unit up, I’ve had to restart the computer three times…all at unrelated times of the day and during differing tasks. I haven’t missed a recording. Yet. But that’s the event I’m dreading, because I know it will force me to chose either stability or dual-recording.

2. Losing Dolby Digital Signal: One of the features I heralded most during EyeTV 2’s release was it’s new ability to manage my Mini’s Digital Audio signal.

Pre-2.0, using DVD Player/VLC/whatever to play back digital audio involved jerking the sound from EyeTV and forced users to reaquire it upon returning to EyeTV. Version 2.0 fixed this and effortlessly switched the signal behind the scenes based on which app needed it.

So you can imagine the sickening feeling I got seeing the same “Lost Digital Audio Signal” error message pop up twice since setting up the dual tuners. It was easy enough to fix, but unsettling nontheless. And like the first note, it’s got me thinking about life with a single tuner should the problem persist.

So what WILL I do? Leaving things the way they are for now seems like the short-term plan. Perhaps El Gato will release a more stable version in the near-future. Either way, I’ll keep record of it all here.

Since I’ve been using dual EyeTV 500s, I found solutions to two of my initial complaints. It is in fact, quite easy to reopen a second tuner window: either via the File Menu (thank you, Mactor) or clicking Apple+N. Very embarassing oversight.

The second is switching between tuners. I needed to look no further than the EyeTV’s own remote which has a key that swaps between any open EyeTV window. I found the EyeTV remote to be simple in design, but packed with useful INFRARED commands….meaning it can teach any of these commands to a universal learning remote! I just mapped them directly into my Sony remote and eliminated the afore-mentioned problems straight away.

Thanks to Mac OSX Hints, I was able to address one of the most grating new features in EyeTV 2.3.1 - the blue, straight-outta-Windows-MCE theme.

The color combination was so weak compared to the previous black/grey combo that (among other reasons) I had decided to stick with a previous version.

But even though I’m a complete novice at working in Quartz Composer, I easily changed the theme to something exponentially more presentable. There’s still that annoying text on the edges that I couldn’t get rid of, but I’m happy enough that I’ve decided to go ahead and stick with 2.3.1. In particular, the ability to list recordings in chonological order was a HUGE hole in v 2.3.0 that El Gato fixed in 2.3.1. The new fall season means I’ll be wrangling a lot more programs and I look forward to this essential feature.

Just don’t forget to hold down the Menu button to access EyeTV’s FS menu. A “Quick Click” will accidentally launch and bring Front Row to the front.

In the mean time, here’s what I’m working with (note the cut-off text all along the left side of the screen):

The ability to record two shows at the same time is a highly addictive PVR function that’s sorely missed when it’s absent. And my EyeTV 500/Mac Mini combo simply didn’t have the capability.

Until I got my second refurbished EyeTV 500 day before yesterday, that is. And now I’m running a dual-tuner PVR that allows me to watch and/or record two HDTV programs simultaneously. Unfortunately, this feature is officially “not supported� by El Gato and there aren’t many simple guides to what two tuners can (and can’t) accomplish. Hence the following description of what I came across.

EyeTV’s software integrated the second tuner without any additional installation steps…I just powered down the Mini and daisy-chained it to my first 500 and external hard drive. Upon restart, EyeTV opened automatically and displayed two separate tuner windows (albeit playing the same station).

I have EyeTV set to always open in Full Screen mode, so one tuner filled the screen and the other sat in front in a smaller size. I switched the smaller station and confirmed both were playing without any dropped frames.

The Preferences didn’t offer any new options beyond acknowledging the number of units attached. The Menus also stayed the same.

I immediately began recording whatever was playing on each station to see what would happen…and the recordings went directly into the Recordings folder. They both played back (again) without dropped frames. So far, so good.

The most common complaint I came across about dual EyeTV units involved scheduling, so I tried scheduling two programs at the same time. No problem. And the Program Guide reflected two simultaneously scheduled recordings, something that obviously wasn’t possible before.

At the scheduled time, both recordings went off without a glitch. The tuners each changed from different stations and dropped both finished recordings into EyeTV’s library. No dropped frames during playback.

While the recording seems to be working effectively, there are a couple of rough edges worth mentioning that make the experience fall short of Tivo’s ease-of-use. Navigating between the two tuners requires a mouse or keyboard…ending the single Apple Remote I was able to use with a single tuner. This sucks when you’ve just gotten pumped about dropping the “computer� aspect of a Mac Mini PVR.

I’m also unable to locate the second tuner if I close it after the program starts up. I’m sure there’s a way to re-open a second channel window, but trying to actually accomplish this can be frustrating when one tuner is recording. It’s not impossible, just not as intuitive as I’d like.

It’s should be noted that I’m using EyeTV v2.3.0 instead of the most current release 2.3.1. I upgraded to 2.3.1 and ran the same tests in that environment and saw no difference in features or ability from 2.3.0 during dual-tuner activity.

Overall, I’m very excited with the new set-up. Being able to record two shows at once is a huge gift going into the new fall season!