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Ratings

Category: Personal Computers
Brand: Elgato
Model: 10020780
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Elgato 10020780 Review

Elgato 10020780 Review by Mr Kitty "mr kitty" (New York, NY)

I have to admit to not fully understanding how the EyeTV worked before purchasing it, but I desperately wanted to pipe my cable through my (Intel) Mac mini "media center" and the reviews of this product are great everywhere, so I took a chance.

Boy am I glad Amazon has such a great returns policy.

Anyone looking to use an EyeTV for digital cable needs to read this article from Elgato first:

http://support.elgato.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=8

Basically it says that the only digital cable channels you are going to get with their devices are the (limited) ones your cable company pushes unencrypted. Mostly, those will be the free network channels in your area. In fact, if your tv has a digital tuner in it already, you will only get the channels that already come through to that tv if you bypass your cable box.

You can theoretically put the cable box in between and use it to select the channels, but when I did this the picture quality was so degraded it was hardly worth it. What channels it did get (without the cable box) worked great, but those are mostly analog cable and not HD (your area may vary).

From what I read online (trying to get it to work) I understand that this isn't really Elgato's fault -- content providers and cable companies have locked them out of providing full "cable box" service -- but the analog cable selection is definitely on the decline, so I can't see the wisdom in investing in this platform.

Elgato 10020780 Review by MPhoto "mphoto" (United States)

This thing does what it is designed to do: however, some Internet descriptions of it are vague (and the manufacturer's own site could be clearer) so please be sure that it is designed to do what you WANT it to do. Also, while it has a lot of DVR features (including some that some of the reviewers obviously couldn't figure out and claimed it doesn't have) it is NOT a Tivo or a single-function DVR and it is NOT as easy to use or as gee-whizzy as such stand-alone devices usually are.

While it does have its own signal processor (which is why I picked it over the EyeTV Hybrid) your computer does still have some work to do. I don't care what it says on the box, if you don't have a Core Duo or preferably a Core Duo 2 based machine, don't bother unless you are willing to put up with slower performance and possible performance issues. That, as they say, is life. Also, make sure your OS is up to date, you have plenty of RAM, and you don't have fifty zillion little doohickies running in the background all the time. I am using a 1.8GHz Core Duo 2 Mac Mini with OSX 10.3 and 2GB of RAM, recording to an external USB2 HD, and it is smooth as can be.

I am using it solely to digitize VHS videotapes. To answer a question it took me FOREVER to research on the Web, it DOES allow you to digitize commercial VHS tapes with Macrovision. (However, I am digitizing tapes I own for archival/backup purposes, which is clearly allowed under US Copyright Law no matter what the content providers claim. You should not use it to digitize tapes or other media you don't own, because that's stealing. Also, once you digitize them, you can destroy them, but you can't give them away or sell them, because that's also stealing.) The quality is acceptable especially when you consider, as another poster pointed out, that VHS video quality sucks compared to modern digital cable, HDTV, or DVD media.

While you can adjust the recording quality, please be advised that digitized video at watchable quality takes up lots of space. I'm averaging about a gig and a half an hour of VHS video. If you want to watch it on a big screen and enjoy the experience, you can't compare it to how small the little videos people email you are or YouTube videos. If you aren't willing to buy some HD space, then either digitize at low quality and don't complain, or don't buy this thing for digitizing video.

Elgato 10020780 Review by Theron Krusling "Plumber" (Florence, KY USA)

I bought this specifically to do VHS to DVD conversion. So my review will not cover a lot about the tuner functionality. 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). Once the guide downloaded - everything seemed ready to record just like a Tivo. The remote control requires you to be a bit of a sharpshooter, but it's not as bad as my Philips DVD Player.
The options for quality and recording length are limitless. There are four quality setups and then a custom one which you can tweak every setting. I believe recording length is limited to 12 hours per recording - which is no problem for me. Seamless integration with Toast (which also came with it) and a plethora of export options to keep anyone happy. The quality is crisp. People that complain of VHS conversion quality encoding have one of two problems 1) They don't remember how crappy VHS looks compared to digital 2) Their VCR is a piece of garbage. I'm using an $1800 professional Sony editing VCR as the playback device - it cleans up the quality and makes the tapes look as good as possible. Remember - The better the source, the better the quality. Don't expect this device to make your tapes look better, just the same. However, I was able to tweak some tapes that had poor color and sharpness from a crappy camcorder. It has those settings, too.
It's mac quality at its finest - I have transferred over 60 hours of video in my first week with it without ONE problem. No errors, glitches, encoding errors, anything - IT JUST WORKS.
There is a PC version made by Terratec, but it's kind of hard to find - I've read that it is almost as good as this for the PC.

More Reviews...

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus Digital/Analog TV Receiver and Video Converter (10020780):: Description

EyeTV 250 Plus is a TV tuner and a powerful video converter in one device. Watch and pause live TV on your Mac. Record, subscribe to TV series, and create Smart Playlists. Edit out unwanted content and send your favorites to iTunes to sync automatically. Enjoy sharing EyeTV recordings over a local network with other Macs and accessing them on an iPod or iPhone via Wi-Fi. Store your collection on your Mac or external disc. EyeTV 250 Plus receives free over-the-air (OTA) HDTV, Clear QAM, and traditional analog TV, and comes with a composite video and S-Video break-out cable to connect a set-top box. EyeTV 250 Plus captures high quality video from analog sources such as a VCR or camcorder, comes with a VHS Assistant and iPod Assistant to guide you through the setup. EyeTV 250 Plus' built-in hardware encoder rapidly converts analog video to high quality digital video without using your Mac's processor.

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus Digital/Analog TV Receiver and Video Converter (10020780):: Features

Record TV shows and export videos to your iPod, Apple TV, or iPhone.
Watch, pause, and rewind free over-the-air HDTV, Clear QAM or analog television on your Mac.
Records high quality video and frees up your processor for other activities.
iPod Assistant to convert analog video to iPod/iPhone/Apple TV formats
Item Dimensions: 10 x 3 x 8 inches; 0 pounds
Brand: Elgato
Model: 10020780
Product Type: Personal Computers

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Monday, December 12, 2011

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Elgato 10020780 Review

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus Digital/Analog TV Receiver and Video Converter (10020780):: Description

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus Digital/Analog TV Receiver and Video Converter (10020780):: Features