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Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick

Cathy Lu — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:15:51 -0500

Access programs in EyeTV Lite by hitting the Menu button on the remote and looking under Recordings.

The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick is a high-definition TV tuner that allows digital video recording on your Mac. You're still relegated to the Mac for your TV viewing, however, unless you connect the computer to your HDTV.

To receive programming, plug a cable line or antenna into the USB dongle. Conveniently, Pinnacle includes a compact antenna that can receive analog and digital programming. You get the additional benefit of time-shifting features (rewind, fast-forward) when you're tuned in to digital channels. You can resize the video screen to your liking, or use one of four presets, including a full-screen option. HD programs look as amazing as you'd expect.

The included remote control is nice and small, so it won't occupy much desk space, but that also makes using it more confusing, as certain buttons serve dual functions. For example, some of the number keys do double duty as Up, Down, and Enter - your only hint is their subtly different shape.

The HD Stick comes with Elgato's EyeTV software, but unfortunately, it's the Lite version, which has a severely reduced set of features and fussier navigation. For example, to schedule a one-time recording, you can use the TitanTV online programming guide to locate the show you want. But to create a repeat recording, you have to visit the Manual Schedule window and program it VCR-style, entering start and end times and other info. Ugh.

We also had difficulty figuring out how to access recordings. We finally found them by pressing the remote's tiny Menu button (you can also use the onscreen controls), scrolling to Recordings, clicking on a recorded show, clicking through the detail page of the show, and clicking Play. That's a lot of clicking. Also missing from EyeTV Lite: editing capabilities, iPod export, text search, and Internet programming, among other things. You can upgrade to the full version of EyeTV for $50, which pretty much negates the price difference between this product and the similar EyeTV Hybrid, which costs $150 but doesn't include an antenna.

The bottom line. If you want to receive digital and analog TV on your Mac, and you can live with the no-frills software, the HD Stick offers a quick way to get tuned in.

COMPANY: Pinnacle Systems
CONTACT: www.pinnaclesys.com
PRICE: $129.99
REQUIREMENTS: G4, G5, or Intel Core processor (dual G5 or Intel Core Duo processor for HDTV), Mac OS 10.4 or later, 256MB RAM (512MB for HDTV), 1GB disk space, USB
Brings in both digital and analog channels. Includes antenna.
Takes time to get used to the remote. Time-shifting features are available only with digital channels. EyeTV Lite software is kind of a pain.

Apple TV

Roman Loyola — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 21:55:30 -0500

The Apple TV can't access Internet videos - and it's not a DVR like TiVo - but it works well as a way to send your iTunes content to a big screen.

At its core, the Apple TV is a conduit between your iTunes library and your widescreen TV. That may not sound like much, but if you spend a lot of time "consuming" media in iTunes, it could be what you've been waiting for. Your songs, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and even your photos are no longer restricted to your Mac and iPod. The Apple TV could very well change the way you use your television - is that your cable box we hear trembling in the background?

To connect your TV to the Apple TV, you use an HDMI, HDMI-to-DVI, or component-video connection, which you must buy separately. You can get a good-quality 6- or 8-foot cable for $20. Apple says that a widescreen TV is required, but you can use the Apple TV with standard TVs with component video connectors - you'll just have to live with the Apple TV menus crammed onto a 4:3 screen.

Apple brings its knack for quick, easy setup to its home-entertainment device. After you make all the connections and power up the Apple TV, the onscreen prompts walk you through setting up the network connection to iTunes, either through Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It can take several hours for the Apple TV to sync the contents of your iTunes library, but once a show or movie is synced, you can access it immediately. The Apple TV has a smallish 40GB hard drive, so if your iTunes library is larger than that, you need to specify what gets synced and what will stream. If you have other iTunes libraries on your network, the Apple TV can access those too, but it streams the content over the network instead of copying the files. We had a hard time telling the difference between streamed content and video stored on the device - the image quality was the same, but we noticed some performance lag when streaming video over an 802.11b wireless connection.

The Apple TV's interface is much like Apple's Front Row, scoring it another point for ease of use. You control everything using the Apple Remote, which has basic controls for up, down, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, volume, and menu. Fast-forwarding or rewinding a streaming video or song reminds us of performing the same functions on streaming Internet content - it lacks precision and accuracy. Navigating through stored content works much more smoothly.

Apple TV has HD support, but there's a catch - iTunes doesn't sell HD movies (yet). You can play your own HD video, but it must be in either MPEG-4 (720 by 432 pixels) or H.264 (1,280 by 720 pixels at 24 frames per second or 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps). Since iTunes doesn't have these playback resolution restrictions, it's possible that you could have HD content in iTunes that won't play on the Apple TV. In that case, you'd need to use QuickTime Pro or another video encoder to adjust the resolution.

We watched episodes of Desperate Housewives and Psych, two standard-definition TV shows from the iTunes Store, and they looked just as good as they do on cable TV. However, we noticed jaggy, noiselike visual artifacts when watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, a movie purchased from iTunes. Audio quality was excellent, but we should point out that the Apple TV does not have 5.1 surround-sound support.

The bottom line. The Apple TV frees your iTunes movies, TV shows, podcasts, and music, as well as your photos, from confinement within your Mac. If you've longed for a way to connect your iTunes media collection to your home theater, the Apple TV is the missing link.

COMPANY: Apple
CONTACT: www.apple.com
PRICE: $299
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, iTunes 7 or later, widescreen TV, Wi-Fi or Ethernet network, broadband Internet connection, video cable (HDMI, HDMI to DVI, or component video)
Simple setup. Breezy to use. Only way to link iTunes-purchased media to the home theater.
Small hard drive. No HD content on the iTunes Store. Restricted video formats. Can't access iTunes Internet radio.

EyeTV Hybrid

Cathy Lu — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:01:57 -0600

Just plug it into a USB port and watch TV on your Mac.

Your Mac does so many things so well. Here's one more: It can play and record your favorite television shows. By inserting the EyeTV Hybrid into a USB 2.0 port, connecting an antenna or cable box, and installing the EyeTV 2 software, you can have instant TV on your Mac, including high-definition TV shows. Even better, you can record the shows directly to your Mac's hard drive.

The EyeTV's program-guide software resembles the onscreen guides for cable or satellite TV. To record a show, you locate it in the guide and click the red Record button. If you're used to TiVo's onscreen interface, you're probably going to rankle at the relative dumbness of the EyeTV software. For example, you can record Desperate Housewives every Sunday night, but the software can't avoid repeat episodes. And if the show's not on, it will record whatever is broadcast in its place at the same time. Also, you can't record two shows at once. To receive HD, you need a dual-processor G5 or Intel Core Duo Mac, and it can only handle digital content over the air, not through cable or satellite.

Still, the EyeTV Hybrid does offer you the option to waggle your tongue at the iTunes Store, since it lets you export shows to view on your video iPod or in a format you can work with in iMovie HD and Toast.

Exports took a while on our dual 2GHz Power Mac G5: about 90 minutes for a 30-minute, 1.5GB show. But the shows displayed beautifully on our 5G iPod. You can even use the software's rudimentary editing tools to hack out commercials. The freedom to watch any shows we want on our iPods - for free - is worth it.

Though you can pause and resume digital television, you can't do so while watching analog TV. You must record those shows and watch them later to gain navigation capabilities. We also ran into a few blips when multitasking. We tried watching a recorded show while checking email, for example, and while exporting and recording other programs. Occasionally, the audio disappeared or the signal would go out.

The bottom line. Despite some of the EyeTV Hybrid's quirks, it works instantly and easily - we just hope the software's shortcomings can be addressed in future versions.

COMPANY: Elgato Systems
CONTACT: www.elgato.com
PRICE: $149.95
REQUIREMENTS: G4 or Intel Core Solo or faster (dual G5 or Intel Core Duo or faster required for HD), Mac OS 10.4 or later, 256MB RAM, built-in USB 2.0 port, Internet connection
Enables you to watch and record over-the-air digital content. Exports to iPod.
Scheduling software lacks TiVo-esque features. Some quirky behavior.

Tunes Explorer

Roman Loyola — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:14:39 -0600

No more flying blind with iTunes.

Until now, we haven't found an ideal remote for using iTunes on a Mac. Even the Apple Remote (also used with Apple's Front Row), like many iTunes remotes, is missing one major feature: You can't see the song that's playing unless you're close enough to your Mac's display to read the iTunes window. So when the Tunes Explorer arrived in our offices, it seemed like our prayers were answered - the Tunes Explorer has an LCD, albeit a tiny one.

Using 2.4GHz radio frequency, the Tunes Explorer touts a range of 90 feet. You plug a USB transceiver into your Mac, sync the remote by pressing a button, and you're all set. To our surprise, the Tunes Explorer had excellent range, even with the transceiver connected to a Power Mac G5 stored under a desk. When you're out of range, the remote tells you so; when you're back in range, you can see your iTunes info again. We lost our signal when we entered completely separate rooms, but we had expected as much (hey, Hercules, how about adding a signal-strength indicator?).

On the Tunes Explorer's tiny 0.48-inch LCD, you can squint to see iPod-like menus and info about the song that's playing. The center ring of buttons on the Tunes Explorer works just like an iPod's buttons, except for scrolling; the Tunes Explorer has a separate scrollwheel on its right side. Since the interface is similar to an iPod's, you may find yourself trying to use the center ring as a scrollwheel - we sure did.

The bottom line. The Tunes Explorer is a great complement to any Mac-centric home-entertainment center.

COMPANY: Hercules
CONTACT: www.hercules.com
PRICE: $59.99
REQUIREMENTS: 300MHz G3 or faster or Intel processor, Mac OS 10.4 or later, 256MB RAM, USB, iTunes, two AA batteries
Built-in LCD lets you see what's going on with iTunes. Good range. iPod-like interface.
Tiny LCD font. No signal-strength indicator.

RoverTv

Gil Loyola — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:50:15 -0600

You can palm this digital video recorder.

The RoverTv is like a high-tech VCR you can put in your pocket. It not only displays photos and plays video and audio, but it can also record video from just about any source with standard AV connectors.

We tested the widescreen RoverTv, which has a bright 4-inch screen (the standard version's screen is 3.5 inches) that makes the iPod's 2.5-inch screen seem minuscule. The RoverTv measures 4.13 by 2.75 by 0.6 inches, and it weighs only 5.5 ounces (for comparison, an 80GB iPod is 2.4 by 4.1 by .55 inches and weighs the same). To maximize screen size, the RoverTv's buttons are lined up on the top and right side of the device. This creates a clean look, but the button layout isn't intuitive. The Menu and Escape buttons, which are on the top, would work better located next to the navigation keys on the right side instead.

The 2GB SD memory card it comes with seemed a bit paltry at first, although you can always use additional cards or get larger-capacity ones. It turns out that 2GB is a good size to start with; the included card can hold about four hours of video or 2,800 MP3s.

The RoverTv connects to your Mac via USB, and you can drag and drop MPEG-4-formatted videos to the device (iMovie HD, QuickTime Pro, and Final Cut Pro can reformat your clips as MPEG-4 if needed). But capturing video directly from a source is where all the fun happens. You connect the RoverTv to your DVD player, TV, or VCR, and then press Record on the RoverTv or set the timer to record while you’re away. The device records video as an ASF file, which means that if you copy the files over to your Mac, you need to convert them to a Mac-friendly format for use in iMovie HD or any other application. The RoverTv can't play movies or TV shows purchased at the iTunes Store; only your Mac and iPod can play those protected files.

The image quality of the video clips won't blow you away (we noticed a lot of dithering and washed-out colors), but it's adequate for catching up on the latest episodes of that reality show you've been following.

The bottom line. As a stand-alone, portable media player, the RoverTv is a capable gadget for easy video to go.

COMPANY: Doghouse Electronics
CONTACT: www.rovertv.net
PRICE: $349 (widescreen), $299 (standard screen)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS X, USB
Nice screen size. Easy to record video. Easy file transfers.
Recorded video needs conversion to Mac-friendly format. Mediocre video-capture quality. Can't play content purchased from the iTunes Store.

ZonePlayer 80

James Gross — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Now this music-managing baby can connect to your stereo.

Last year, we reviewed the first offering from Sonos, the Digital Music System, which includes the ZonePlayer 100 and Controller. Sonos now also offers the ZonePlayer 80, a less-pricey alternative to the ZonePlayer 100. While the ZonePlayer 100 acts as an amplified audio device to which you connect a set of speakers, the ZonePlayer 80 is ideal if you have a stereo or other amplified audio device with RCA input jacks that you want to use for audio output.

Both Sonos systems have two parts. The first is the ZonePlayer, a well-designed box that allows you to play music from your Mac remotely. The ZonePlayer 80 (5.4 by 5.5 by 2.9 inches) is smaller than the ZonePlayer 100 (10.2 by 8.2 by 4.4 inches), and it sports RCA audio-in and -out ports, two Ethernet ports, and optical audio-input and -output connectors. One ZonePlayer must be connected via Ethernet cable to your home network, while additional ZonePlayers (you can add up to 32) connect to the wired ZonePlayer wirelessly, using a proprietary wireless technology.

The second part is the wireless handheld Controller, which has a gorgeous backlit display with lighted buttons and an intuitive user interface-if you can operate an iPod (and who can't?), you can run a Sonos system. The Controller lets you control the ZonePlayers individually or as a group. Sonos also has software to control the ZonePlayers from your Mac.

Installing the ZonePlayer 80 was a breeze-it took less than 30 minutes, and it's similar to the setup of the ZonePlayer 100. You connect your first ZonePlayer to your network with an Ethernet cable and then connect the ZonePlayer to your audio device using the RCA connectors. You can then run the setup CD on your Mac or use the Controller to configure everything manually. Pressing the Volume and Mute buttons on the ZonePlayer at the same time puts it into Discovery mode so your Controller and Mac can find it. You show the system where your music is stored by navigating on the Controller to your Mac's Music folder. You're done.

Sound quality, of course, will depend on the speakers you're using as well as the quality of your music files, but we experienced excellent sound from our installation. Sonos supports many file types, including MP3, WMA, unprotected AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Audible Format 4, Apple Lossless, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF files. Unfortunately, you can't play songs bought from the iTunes Music Store. Damn FairPlay DRM.

The bottom line. The ZonePlayer 80 is a welcome addition to the Sonos line-a great (if still pricey) way to distribute music throughout your home without messy wires.

COMPANY: Sonos
CONTACT: 800-680-2345, www.sonos.com
PRICE: $349 (ZP80 only), $999 (bundle that includes two ZP80s and a Sonos Controller)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3 or later, amplified audio device, broadband connection
Small footprint. Effortless installation.
No support for Apple's DRM. Pricey.

Squeezebox 3

Jake Widman — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 19:29:09 -0500

It'll look cool in your home entertainment center or with a set of powered speakers.

When you attach the Squeezebox 3 to your stereo or powered speakers and use the remote control to connect to your Ethernet or Wi-Fi network, you can play the music from your Mac to wherever your Squeezebox 3 is located. When we reviewed the Squeezebox 2 , we dinged it for its complicated setup and high price compared to its main competitor, the Roku SoundBridge. These complaints are still true of the Squeezebox 3, so what makes it better than its predecessor? Two things: It has a better design and it does more.

The core components of the Squeezebox 3 are the same as the previous version's: a Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC, gold-plated RCA connectors, optical and coax S/PDIF ports, and an Ethernet port. The sound quality is noticeably better than the SoundBridge's (assuming you play it through a system that can take advantage of the difference in quality). The Squeezebox 2 looked like a router, but the stylishly sleek, thin, 7.6-by-3.7-by-3.1-inch Squeezebox 3 looks like something that belongs with a nice stereo system.

Once you get the Squeezebox 3 on your network, you need to go to the Slim Devices Web site and download the free, open-source SlimServer app, which installs as a Preference pane in Mac OS X's System Preferences. When you first launch the app, you point it at your Music folder, and it recognizes your iTunes library - the Squeezebox 3 can play MP3, WMA, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC files, but not iTMS-bought protected AAC files. Click the Web Access button to launch the SlimServer interface in your Web browser, and you can browse your library, start and stop play, and modify settings for the server and player, such as the various interface options.

The current version of the SlimServer software fixes the earlier problem of not picking up changes made in iTunes, such as deleting playlists or songs. In the Server Settings part of the browser interface, you can set how long the software will wait between updates of your iTunes library information.

Squeezebox 3 can connect directly (sans Mac) to thousands of Internet radio stations, such as Live365, SHOUTcast, and radioio. You can also connect to a custom music feed at Pandora.com, a site that lets you create personal radio stations. Imagine having access to a radio station that only plays music that sounds like what you already like - it's a revelation. And you can connect to the Live Music Archive (www.archive.org) and stream entire concerts from bands that have permitted access to their performances, ranging from the reasonably well known (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, the Grateful Dead) to bands we can pretty much guarantee you've never heard of. For comparison, the SoundBridge allows only 15 preset Internet radio stations.

The bottom line. The wireless Squeezebox 3 costs twice as much as the entry-level SoundBridge, so if all you want to do is stream music from iTunes, the SoundBridge is a better choice. But since our last comparison, Internet radio has grown to be a significant part of our musical diet, and here the Squeezebox 3 is a clear winner. Add in other features - such as SlimServer's ability to stream music to multiple rooms with the addition of more Squeezebox 3 units (or even SoundBridges) and the Ethernet bridge features - and the extras go a long way toward justifying the price.

The browser interface lets you see what's playing, control various settings, and get lots of online help.

COMPANY: Slim Devices

CONTACT: 650-210-9400, www.slimdevices.com

PRICE: $249 (wired), $299 (wireless)

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3 or later, Ethernet or Wi-Fi network

Good sound. Recognizes iTunes playlists. Extensive Internet radio options.

Pricey. Requires separate software download.

Olive Symphony

Jake Widman — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 02:00:00 -0500

The Symphony offers a nice way to integrate digital music into your home entertainment center, if you'd rather leave your Mac out of the picture.

Olive Media Products calls its Symphony a "wireless music center." It's a single device that handles pretty much every listening-to-digital-music function you can think of: It rips, mixes, and burns music to CD; plays music; streams tunes to your Mac; and uploads songs to an iPod. It's great - unless you have a Mac, which already does most of what the Symphony can.

The Symphony comes with an 80GB hard disk and a CD drive. It's shaped like a stereo component, with gold-plated RCA jacks in addition to four Ethernet, two USB, and two S/PDIF ports. The most basic use of the Symphony is to rip your CDs to its hard disk-you can copy in FLAC (a lossless compression format), MP3, AIFF, or WAV-and play the music back through your stereo. The Symphony plays music in the aforementioned formats plus Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and AAC (though not protected AAC songs purchased from the iTunes Store).

Music transferred directly to the hard drive sounds great, especially when stored in FLAC format-songs are essentially indistinguishable from CDs played on a good CD player. The Symphony has a special quiet hard drive, a custom low-noise power supply, and no fan, so there's no distracting equipment noise. Olive also touts the quality of the Symphony's CD player, but on our unit, the CD drive made the same kind of noises your Mac's CD drive does - that's fine for ripping, but it interferes with music listening.

Once you've transferred your tunes, the Symphony becomes an all-purpose music server. Aside from just playing songs through your stereo, you can use the Symphony's Ethernet or 802.11g wireless-networking capability to stream audio to your Mac, or stream your Mac's music to your stereo. You can also connect your iPod to one of the Symphony's USB ports and copy music from the Symphony to the iPod (though not the other way around) or play music from the iPod through the Symphony.

The Symphony can also help you digitize an extensive vinyl or cassette collection. Since the Symphony plugs into your stereo system, it can digitize music from any of your other components, such as your turntable or tape deck. It can also burn CDs of your digitized music, provided you use CDs labeled as Music CD-Rs (rather than the cheaper data CD-Rs you probably often use).

Some stumbles. It's frustrating to have to scroll through menus on the Symphony's little iPod-like 3.25-inch-wide, 400-by-160-pixel screen to do anything. The primary control consists of two concentric jog wheels: The inner wheel scrolls through the menus, while the outer wheel makes a selection or moves back through the menus. The Symphony's long list of capabilities means you have to navigate extensive hierarchical menus, and since the screen is small, you have to do it while standing or sitting within arm's reach of the unit. A remote control with a screen would improve the Symphony tremendously.

Not everything worked every time, either. Copying CDs to the hard disk: no problem. But one of our recordings from a cassette ended up with a digital stutter that made it unlistenable. Also, when streaming from iTunes, changing a playlist would often cause the Symphony to lose its connection with iTunes; it would then refuse to reconnect without rebooting (the Symphony, not the Mac). No error messages popped up to explain the glitches, so we were left scratching our heads and just trying again, never knowing what went wrong the first time.

The bottom line. The Symphony is a fairly complete and mostly satisfactory digital music package - but so is your Mac, and you can add the Roku SoundBridge ($149.99 to $199.99, www.rokulabs.com) or Apple's $129 AirPort Express to handle streaming from iTunes to your stereo, and ADS Tech's Instant Music ($49.99, www.adstech.com) to attach an analog music source to your Mac. Putting all of those functions in one stereo component and using it to clear the CDs, tapes, and vinyl (not to mention your cassette deck and turntable) out of your living room definitely has appeal - but for someone who already has a Mac, probably not $899 worth.

COMPANY: Olive Media Products

CONTACT: 877-296-5483, www.olive.us

PRICE: $899

REQUIREMENTS: Stereo with audio-in jack

Integrates with your stereo system. Handles most digital music functions.

Awkward controls. Duplicates many musical functions that the Mac can already perform.