At first wasn't sure what it was, and whether i needed it. After re-reading the descriptions on Apple's website a few times, and browsing reviews on ArsTechnica, Gizmodo and Engadget.
One way to look at it is an iPod that connects to a TV, but it can also view/stream live without syncing from a Mac or PC with iTunes. (though it takes a moment to scan the list of available content)
If you have a big screen TV, AppleTV is a great device for showing off photos. The built-in Ken Burns and transitions just about eliminates the need to make slideshows. It even adds background music from your iTunes library.
It also works with EyeTV, which can export to iTunes.
A recent software update lets you browse movies, shows, YouTube and podcasts directly on the Internet. So you're even less dependent on a computer. There are tons of HD podcasts to choose from.
I do find it strange that the main menu is text-only and arranged in two vertical columns where the entire rest of the interface is made up of visual horizontal scrolling views.
I could see renting movies with AppleTV. The selection and prices look good. I do wish the rental time was longer than 24 hrs.My main movie time would be on weekends.
Netflix's instant viewing gives iTunes a run for its money. We have an unlimited 3-movie account, which means we can stream an unlimited amount of movies for no extra cost. The selection isn't as good as the entire Netflix library and it only works on Windows after installing Windows Media Player 11 and a slew of updates and security patches. But like I said, no extra cost.
January 29, 2008
Useful Apps for the Mac
Chat: Adium
Works with a dozen different chat networks. The owl is sooo cute too. :)
Remote Access: Chicken of the VNC, Remote Desktop
Browser, Email: Firefox, Thunderbird
FTP: FileZilla
Sharing mouse & kb with PC: Synergy
Use one mouse and keyboard with Mac, PC or Linux. The clipboard works too, most of the time.
Video conversion: Visual Hub
This does a great job converting to H.264 for iTunes. I can't believe it's only $23. You can use KeepVid.com to grab videos from YouTube, then Visual Hub to finish the job.
Playing video not supported by QT: VLC Player, WMP with Flip4Mac
VLC plays various flavors of MPEG.
Flip4Mac lets you play WMVs from a PC.
Backups: Carbon Copy Cloner, WinClone
Carbon Copy is a full disk image copier.
WinClone lets you back up your Boot Camp partition.
Works with a dozen different chat networks. The owl is sooo cute too. :)
Remote Access: Chicken of the VNC, Remote Desktop
Browser, Email: Firefox, Thunderbird
FTP: FileZilla
Sharing mouse & kb with PC: Synergy
Use one mouse and keyboard with Mac, PC or Linux. The clipboard works too, most of the time.
Video conversion: Visual Hub
This does a great job converting to H.264 for iTunes. I can't believe it's only $23. You can use KeepVid.com to grab videos from YouTube, then Visual Hub to finish the job.
Playing video not supported by QT: VLC Player, WMP with Flip4Mac
VLC plays various flavors of MPEG.
Flip4Mac lets you play WMVs from a PC.
Backups: Carbon Copy Cloner, WinClone
Carbon Copy is a full disk image copier.
WinClone lets you back up your Boot Camp partition.
Elgato EyeTV
Last year we switched to the Mac. After enjoying the benefits of Beyond TV on our PC, we still wanted to be able to have the same capabilities on our Mac. After some searching discussion boards and reviews, I settled on EyeTV by Elgato. It seemed to offer a similar feature range as Beyond TV and had decent reviews.
I ordered the Eyetv 250 Plus, which comes with the EyeTV software and supports for composite & S-Video as well as analog NTSC and over-the-air HDTV.
The EyeTV software runs in the Mac GUI. By contrast, BeyondTV had a non-Windows interface designed for TV viewing. This worked great when using their Beyond TV Link client program to view another PC's recorded shows running the main BeyondTV software. We'd hook a notebook up to the TV and start browsing. But on the main PC, the interface felt too clunky.
The first version of EyeTV that came in the box recorded only at scheduled times. A nice feature of BeyondTV was you could select a show and it would figure out the times for you and only record new episodes. The latest version of EyeTV now has a similar feature called Smart Schedules. The only problem I've had with this is that not all shows use the "new" (aka not a rerun) flag properly so either all shows come up as new or none at all. Smart Schedules let you also specify channel, show title, and other parameters, which gives more precise control than BeyondTV. For instance, Family Guy appears on several networks but new episodes are on Fox. You can tell it to only record from Fox (whatever channel that is in your area).
Like BeyondTV, it can export to iPod/AppleTV via iTunes. We just got an AppleTV, which took the place of the laptop running BeyondTV Link.
EyeTV has a unique feature called WiFi Streaming that runs a web server designed to be browsed by an iPhone or iPod Touch. You can select shows that have been specifically exported for streaming (not just any show). BeyondTV also has a web interface which lets you view the recording schedule, start export tasks (to WMV, QuickTime, etc.) and change system options. The EyeTV web interface is just for watching shows.
EyeTV gets its program guide from Titan TV. The data is accurate as far as I can tell. The interface fits lots of shows together very well, much better than the BeyondTV over-sized GUI.
Since we have an iMac, we had to go with an external capture device. Fortunately The EyeTV 250 Plus is small and attractive. We were using a Hauppague WinTV PVR-250 with Beyond TV. The quality is comparable. I specifically went for the 250 not just because it can input analog and digital TV, but also because it has on-board compression so the CPU isn't doing all the work when it's recording.
The first version of the software had a bug where encoding shows >1gb would stall. A recent update fixed that, showing Elgato's attention to customer issues. I also had purchased Elgato's Turbo.264 device. But that fails to encode every time. I'm currently in discussion with Elgato support to troubleshoot this. I'll post an update when it's resolved.
I ordered the Eyetv 250 Plus, which comes with the EyeTV software and supports for composite & S-Video as well as analog NTSC and over-the-air HDTV.
The EyeTV software runs in the Mac GUI. By contrast, BeyondTV had a non-Windows interface designed for TV viewing. This worked great when using their Beyond TV Link client program to view another PC's recorded shows running the main BeyondTV software. We'd hook a notebook up to the TV and start browsing. But on the main PC, the interface felt too clunky.
The first version of EyeTV that came in the box recorded only at scheduled times. A nice feature of BeyondTV was you could select a show and it would figure out the times for you and only record new episodes. The latest version of EyeTV now has a similar feature called Smart Schedules. The only problem I've had with this is that not all shows use the "new" (aka not a rerun) flag properly so either all shows come up as new or none at all. Smart Schedules let you also specify channel, show title, and other parameters, which gives more precise control than BeyondTV. For instance, Family Guy appears on several networks but new episodes are on Fox. You can tell it to only record from Fox (whatever channel that is in your area).
Like BeyondTV, it can export to iPod/AppleTV via iTunes. We just got an AppleTV, which took the place of the laptop running BeyondTV Link.
EyeTV has a unique feature called WiFi Streaming that runs a web server designed to be browsed by an iPhone or iPod Touch. You can select shows that have been specifically exported for streaming (not just any show). BeyondTV also has a web interface which lets you view the recording schedule, start export tasks (to WMV, QuickTime, etc.) and change system options. The EyeTV web interface is just for watching shows.
EyeTV gets its program guide from Titan TV. The data is accurate as far as I can tell. The interface fits lots of shows together very well, much better than the BeyondTV over-sized GUI.
Since we have an iMac, we had to go with an external capture device. Fortunately The EyeTV 250 Plus is small and attractive. We were using a Hauppague WinTV PVR-250 with Beyond TV. The quality is comparable. I specifically went for the 250 not just because it can input analog and digital TV, but also because it has on-board compression so the CPU isn't doing all the work when it's recording.
The first version of the software had a bug where encoding shows >1gb would stall. A recent update fixed that, showing Elgato's attention to customer issues. I also had purchased Elgato's Turbo.264 device. But that fails to encode every time. I'm currently in discussion with Elgato support to troubleshoot this. I'll post an update when it's resolved.
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