Welcome To The World: EyeTV 3

It’s been a long time and Elgato managed to keep it under wraps until the weekend, but EyeTV 3 is out and it looks like an excellent update. Included are some long requested features and a much needed graphical overhaul. With all the new features, it looks like EyeTV will remain the best way to watch TV on the Mac.

So, without any further ado, here are they key features of EyeTV 3:

New Interface - EyeTV’s interface now includes CoverFlow. It works exactly the same as iTunes, so if you can use iTunes you can use EyeTV.

Renewed Full Screen Menu - The menu is back looking like it should. It now looks much more like Front Row, using a black colour scheme instead of blue. It is also much more akin to the new AppleTV (take 2), with a simple menu floating over the TV window; making it easier to channel surf. Also, during playback, there is now a timeline bar which lets you see how far into a program you are and allows you to manually move through a recording or even manually rewind Live TV.

Smart Guides/Playlists - These work exactly the same as Smart Playlists in iTunes and the Guides are particularly useful. Not only can you group programs together, but when a new episode comes onto the TV guide, it will add it to the guide, and you can set it to automatically record it (a la TiVo’s “Season Pass”). This leads me brilliantly onto the next point.

Series Linking, But Better - This is one of the most requested features for EyeTV. Not only can you series link using smart guides, but again taking from iTunes, you can set old episodes to delete as new ones are recorded (ie. you can just keep the 3 newest episodes). This is a great feature for those tight on disk space.

Wi-Fi Access - Although this was added with EyeTV 2.5, version 3 makes it better. It will now work with more devices and allows you to password protect your recordings.
Saved Channel Lists - Although a small-ish feature, this can save you lots of time if you travel. Simple save a channel list for each location you use your EyeTV in, then never have to re-scan again.

Shared Libraries - Again, a fairly niche feature, but for those of us lucky enough to have EyeTV on more than one Mac, a brilliant one!

EyeTV 2 was a great app. It did nearly everything. But EyeTV 3 goes above and beyond; doing more and adding that much requested feature: series linking. That $39 upgrade is well worth it if it saves you from missing episodes of your favorite show because you forgot to set it to record. Apple may have made the big headlines at Macworld with the Keynote, but Elgato is not too far behind.

EyeTV 3 is available now and pricing is as follows. If you bought on or after 1st December 2007 it is a completely free upgrade; however if you bought before this date, it is a $39 upgrade, which is reasonable (this includes ANY full version of EyeTV 2, whether it came with and Elgato product or a 3rd party one). The full licence is $79.95; or it comes free with any tuner, with prices ranging from $149.95 to $199.95. Stay tuned for a full review here at MacApper in the next week.