Elgato EyeTV 200

Elgato EyeTV 200 ... encoding, EyeTV 200 offers Mac users a major upgrade in the quality of television they can enjoy on their Mac.

EyeTV 200 features an analog NTSC TV tuner (US) or PAL/SECAM TV tuner (International) and DVD-quality MPEG-2 video encoder that let users watch live TV directly on the Mac, in stunning high quality. MPEG-2 is a premium-quality video compression standard, which is the basis for DVD and Digital Television. Television can play in its own window, side by side with other applications, at full screen or even in the Dock. With the on-screen Remote Control, users manage their television watching with many more options than normal TV. They can pause the program, repeat a favorite section and fast forward.

EyeTV can do everything a VCR does without the hassle of video tapes. EyeTV needs only 2GB of disk space to store an hour of video on your hard disk. If you want a permanent copy, use your CD or DVD recorder to burn a Video CD, Super Video CD or Video DVD that is playable in your home DVD player (Toast 6 Titanium is required to burn VCDs, SVCDs and DVDs).

This level of control is possible because EyeTV records a buffer of video as it plays or records live television which gives users the ability to "shift time" within the television show. EyeTV 200 also includes its own infrared receiver remote control. All of EyeTV's watch and record functions can be controlled remotely, allowing users to sit back and enjoy television on the Mac, even from across the room.

EyeTV records television directly to the Mac's hard drive. This allows users to collect and organize their favorite shows to watch again whenever they want. More significantly, EyeTV lets users program what shows they want to record. EyeTV's manual control panel lets users record their favorite shows once, every day or every week, or they can use EyeTV's optional program guide from TitanTV (US) or tvtv (Europe) to easily catch all possible viewing options. Through keyword searches, users can enter the name of a favorite actor, show title, or type of show (sports, comedy, action) to find exactly what they are looking for and schedule EyeTV to record it.

EyeTV features a built-in editor that lets users quickly edit recorded television to save only the parts they want to see again. Its intuitive graphical timeline easily identifies where programs and scenes start and stop, making it simple to cut out unwanted content.

EyeTV works seamlessly with Toast 6 Titanium to let users burn their recorded television onto DVD or VideoCD. This allows users to create archives of their favorite shows that they can play anywhere on most standard DVD players. The ability to burn recorded television content onto DVD is a major advancement for television lovers who have previously only been able to record onto VHS tapes.