EyeTV Rant

What sucks about EyeTV? Very little, it turns out. The program really kicks ass almost any way you slice it. However, there are some simply inexcusable "bugs" that have been in there since the beginning, which i've reported, but which they have never deemed worthy of fixing. WTF, say I! Perhaps a little exposure will up the ante.

Only One Tuner at a time or: No SD + HD at the same time

I have a lovely HDTV. I've had my awesome SD EyeTV and it rocks, but doesn't support HD. I learn about the HD EyeTV and wow that's fuckin cool but it does not support SD, well who cares i've already got an SD EyeTV. Okay so I go buy the HD EyeTV and plug it in. Hey cool the software recognizes both devices, awesome... But wait, no it doesn't?? What? I can only see one program guide?? I can only schedule recordings on one device? WHAT?? AARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! I bought your hardware in good faith that your software would support it, and you TOTALLY let me down. It is not hard to support multiple tuners / program guides / schedulers at the same time, so why the hell are you slacking? You know you could move more units if you say "hey why don't you plug in multiple tuners so you can record multiple shows at once!" or even "Record SD and HD shows simultaneously!"

Link to EyeTV FAQ about this issue.

Kicks you out of the show you're watching

Ever record an hour long show, and just start watching it 20 minutes late? That way you can still watch it on the night of broadcast as soon as possible, yet still skip the commercials. (an hour long show typically has about 20 minutes of commercials). If you time it right, you'll catch up to real time just as the show is ending. But you never time it right. Usually i start a little late. That means I'm still watching the show when it stops recording, I've not caught up to real time, there might still be 10 minutes of show left to watch. And you know what happens when the recorder clicks off? You get kicked out of your show, and now you're suddenly watching the live feed. What? Now i have to close that window, navigate BACK to the show i was JUST frickin watching, and guess what ELSE??? It doesn't remember where you left off!! SHIT!! Now you have to scrub thru the show to find the moment you left off!! GOD DAMMIT that pisses me off to no end!!! This happens probably THREE TIMES A WEEK for me and it is UTTERLY MADDENING!!!

Update Jan 15 2008: It now at least remembers where you left off.
Update Jan 20 2009: After a couple years they finally fixed this.

Does Not Warn of Conflict, your show does NOT record

Say I've got a show that is scheduled to record like an hour from now. I don't even think about it, it works right? Maybe I even forgot it's on tonight, but no worries. So I'm channel flipping and I see this awesome thing and i'm like HEY i want to record that so I click the little red button. You know what just happened? You just overrode the next THREE hours of schedules. No warning. No service, no dice. If you leave the room and don't shut off the recorder you turned on manually, you won't record your scheduled show. FUUUUUUCK!!!!! Why the HELL didn't they warn me this would happen when i hit that record button? Or, if no warning, why the HELL didn't the recorder switch to the scheduled show when it started??

Update: Jan 20 2009 From the 3.1 Update release notes: " A problem where scheduling conflicts were not reported after editing a scheduled recording has been corrected". So we'll see.

Software Update interrupts your viewing

So you have "Automatically check for updates" turned on in the prefs, right? Of course, you want to always have the latest version. Okay so you've invited your friends over to watch a movie or something, the room is dark, Frodo is *just* about to throw the ring into the volcano, when up pops a BIG FAT DIALOG BOX asking if you want to update to the latest version??!? How utterly embarrassing! Not to mention jarring and derailing of the whole movie experience. Well, I have my little AppleRemote here so I will just press the play button which will dismiss the dialog right? No!??! Why the hell not?? Okay the Menu button!! No?? AAAAA!!! Do I really have to go get the keyboard across the room or find the mouse over on the coffee table just to dismiss a dialog that shouldn't pop up in the middle of a show anyway?? Really, if you're in full screen mode AND playing, don't show dialogs. Wait until the user pauses or stops watching a video. Please.

Update Jan 15 2008 You can now press the "play" button to dismiss the annoying dialog