There are four quality setups and then a custom one which you can tweak every setting. The options for quality and recording length are limitless.
The remote control requires you to be a bit of a sharpshooter, but it's not as bad as my Philips DVD Player. Once the guide downloaded - everything seemed ready to record just like a Tivo. What I can say about that - setup went quick, event free, and everything worked - all my channels including those fancy new digital ones (which look really nice on the computer screen). So my review will not cover a lot about the tuner functionality. I bought this specifically to do VHS to DVD conversion. (Besides a fast Mac, the main requirements for these features will be lots of fast and free hard disc space.)Īnyhow, as the saying goes.
The EyeTV software includes a fabulous DVR, including plenty of scheduling and an on-the-fly "rewind" feature available during real-time viewing. The Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus's backward-compatible NTSC capture inputs allow me to transfer my legacy video library into the digital domain.But the best part is that the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus actually does a better job of presenting HDTV ATSC broadcasts than any of the set-top HD converter boxes I have used with my regular old TV sets exhibiting less video latency, more reception sensitivity and better audio/video synchronization. In fact, TV subscription services such as Cable often reduce the High Definition video resolution so they can fit more channels in their signal or charge customers extra for the HD. are subscription-only, yet with HDTV's ATSC comes not only superior video quality but also content-dedicated sub-channels offering 3 times NTSC's viewing variety (in the greater NYC area), as well as a detailed and informative program guide. Granted, channels as such as HBO, SHO, MSNBC, TLC, etc.
I have not subscribed to a TV broadcast service since 1988, and the upgrade of our terrestrial TV broadcast system to digital/HD has been a monumental improvement.Combining a roof antenna with Elgato's EyeTV connected to an 8-Core MacPro with an HD display provides breath-taking television broadcast quality with no monthly subscription fees!
With fast external I/O such as the Mac world's FireWire and the more recent development of cross-platform USB2 has come the availability of units like the EyeTV which are much more versatile due to their portability alone. Back then, combining the TV Tuner with the PC's internal Video Adapter was practical because there was typically no external "user" I/O interface fast enough to otherwise get the job done.
That being said, comparing the ATSC/NTSC Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus to an NTSC ATI All-In-Wonder is nearly insane. Multiple Channel Thumbnail Display (kinda neat, but also kinda useless). TV Tuner "Wallpaper" (live TV desktop background, which had an "Oooooh"-"Aaaaah" factor but was basically useless). There are only two things I can think of that the Elgato unit doesn't do which the old ATI All-In-Wonder did: My main motivation for the purchase was the need to import NTSC VHS and 8mm video recordings into my Mac.
I purchased the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus to fill the void left by the absence of an ATI All-In-Wonder TV/Video adapter I previously used in a Windows98 PC many years ago before switching to Mac.