EyeTV 250 Plus : Excellent!

Posted on 02. Sep, 2008 by DigMo in Hardware

Our new EyeTV 250 Plus arrived this morning and we couldn’t wait to get it up and running. Two years ago I took the decision to give up on my Mediacenter PC and move to Apple not only for the ease of use of OS X but the decision was also greatly influenced by the EyeTV software, simply how easy it was to record and better edit recorded TV.

Two years on we have added an AppleTV to our EyeTV system and have created a media recording and management system second to none. With a few clicks Advertising breaks can be removed from programmes and clips can be exported in a range of different formats, AppleTV, iPod etc.

It was hard to know what Elgato were going to do to improve the product range then suddenly the 250 plus was announced. The EyeTV 250 Plus is the first TV device I have seen that comes with a dedicated power supply probably due to the built in hardware encoding. Although the device lights up when connected to USB2 it requires power to function (yes we see the obvious here ). The device offers both analogue and digital recording and in the case of analogue offers a range of encoding qualities.

Having EyeTV 2 already on my mac I thought it would be simply a matter of connecting the 250. My current installation didn’t recognise the device but 2 mins with the install disk and EyeTV had listed the 250 plus. It is recommended that you re-use the ‘EyeTv Setup Assistant’ to re-tune the device but this only takes 2-3 minutes.

Analogue & Game Mode

One of the major improvements over my Cinergy T2 device is the ability to import video from VHS and other analogue sources. The devices come with the appropriate cable to connect an S-Video or composite device. The 250 also allows for a gaming mode (analogue connection) this allows you to use your Mac as a screen for your games console.

Roxio Toast

I can remember my only frustration with EyeTV was the Roxio Toast icon along the menu bar. Toast is an essential additional application for quick output to DVD (that and a dvd recorder!). Elgato have kindly taken this additional cost out of the equation by including Roxio Toast 8 Basic. Toast 8 Basic CD/DVD recording software enables you to burn recorded DVB-T or standard cable television shows directly within EyeTV.

For both DVB-T (in most cases) and digitized analog television shows, the EyeTV recording format is DVD-compliant MPEG-2, which eliminates lengthy re-encoding. Users can simply click the Toast button in EyeTV after finishing their (optional) edits, then insert a DVD into the Mac’s disc drive.

I can think of a dozen applications for the 250plus. From the student dorm with Mac and games console to the family who are taking the digital TV step who have family VHS tapes to convert. At £139.99 and the trademark ease of EyeTv 2 & Roxio potential customers will have no regrets in this investment. If Elgato could add a “series link” system to their software then I think even Sky+ would have a run for its money !

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9 Responses to “EyeTV 250 Plus : Excellent!”

Sharon King

02. Sep, 2007

I have been using a similar Elgato device for about 3-4 months now and they really are excellent. As the author suggests a series link option would be great although the true power of this system is how flexible (and fast) in the range of output for recorded Television.

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Digg Review

03. Sep, 2007

I agree wholeheartedly with this review. EyeTV 250 Plus is the most excellent “tivo” with editing and exporting to various formats than any other product like it. In fact, nothing in the MS world comes near it! I LOVE the ability to edit – to copy over old BetaMax and VHS tapes to high quality digital video, export to AVI, DiVX, WMV, MP4, MPG – whatever – and burn off to DVD as data files is simply wonderful. Kudos to Elgato for their continued upgrading.

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Robert Morgan

03. Sep, 2007

Remember the EyeTV 200? It’s no longer shipping but we have two in our lab. It uses a FireWire 400 connection instead of USB 2.0. And it requires no power supply. Uses the latest EyeTV software. We use them to watch live TV, record live TV, archive broadcasts saved on our DVR, and to convert VHS tapes to DVD.

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Rodney

06. Sep, 2007

I have ordered mine and I can not wait ! I have an elgato device in work and love it. The only down side is I have over 50 VHS videos to convert it is going to be a long winter.

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Rednap Johnston

12. Sep, 2007

I have pre-ordered the touch and have decided on this device as as a way of recording TV for the Touch. Do you know if Elegato will release an update to export to Touch/iphone ?

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Sultry

13. Sep, 2007

EyeTV 2 has an ipod export (that you can also automate) I would think this will work just as well with the Touch as the other iPods in the range. I have used EyeTV 2 to export to ipod and then show the program via my iPod direct to TV using an AV cable. The results are near perfect !

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DigMo

30. Sep, 2007

Also the latest version of EyeTV (2.5) now allows you to stream your tv programmes over wifi to the iPod touch etc.

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Justme

28. Dec, 2007

i know this thread finished a long time ago but can anyone tell if its possible to connect a ps3 to a mac using Eyetv. i’m trying to work out the cheapest and best way of getting Blu-ray onto my imac. if it is possible will the quality stay the same. basically what i am trying to do is take advantage of my imacs HD capabilities.

thanks

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