Saving Your Favorite TV Shows to DVD with EyeTV200 & Toast
posted: June, 24 2004
By Becky Waring
If you want to record your favorite TV shows (or any other live or recorded video) to DVD using your Mac and Toast 6 Titanium, the absolute easiest way to do it is via Elgato's EyeTV 200 recorder. The EyeTV 200 has a built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder that records video directly to your hard disk in the exact format used by DVDs and Super Video CDs, eliminating the often hours-long task of converting video from elsewhere, such as from the DV format used by iMovie.
EyeTV does a lot more than just record video to hard disk, however. It interacts with a free online program guide to schedule recordings, and maintains a list of past recordings stored on your hard disk, so you can use it like you would a TiVO box, but without the monthly fees. It even lets you pause live TV, skip commercials, and enjoy instant replays. And it comes with an infrared remote control, so you can control all functions from across the room. Since most newer Macs, and many older ones, have video output capabilities, you can plug the output from your Mac into a TV set, and then use the remote control to watch or record video from the comfort of your couch.
The EyeTV can accept almost any form of analog video, with a coax jack for antenna or unscrambled analog cable input, and S-Video and RCA jacks for plugging in sources like VCRs, camcorders and DVD players. Digital cable or satellite users can also connect, by using the set-top converter box supplied by their provider to change channels, and then plugging the output from the converter into the EyeTV, which should be tuned to channel 3 or 4, depending on your service.
For such a powerful product, the EyeTV software is amazingly simple. Open the EyeTV program and three windows appear: a resizable video window, a program list of all available recordings on your hard disk, and an onscreen controller (which you can use along with or in place of the handheld remote). The onscreen controller (pictured below) tells you what the current show is and how far into it you are, and provides typical fast forward/reverse/pause/record/volume/channel functions, as well as instant replay, program guide, and 30-second commercial skip buttons.
Step-by-Step from Videotape to DVD
Now that you know something about the features and capabilities of EyeTV, here's a step-by-step guide to burning your recorded EyeTV programs to DVD or Super Video CD.
1) First, a few words about system requirements and setting up your EyeTV 200. You'll need at least a 500MHz G4 or G5 processor, with at least 256MB of RAM (512MB is recommended--the more RAM you have, the longer you can pause live video). You'll also need about 2GB of hard disk space for each hour of video you want to record (DVD-quality video takes a lot of space, but it's worth it!), and Mac OS 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or later. Finally a built-in FireWire port or powered hub is required since the EyeTV gets its power from the Mac via FireWire (you can also buy a separate power adapter if you like).
2) Next, decide what types of inputs you want to use with your EyeTV. If you plan to record a lot of TV shows, and you have an over-the-air antenna or unscrambled cable source, plug the coax cable from one of these into the coax jack on your EyeTV. Also connect the output from your VCR or DVD player to the EyeTV via the S-Video or red/white/yellow composite RCA jacks. Then plug the EyeTV into your Mac with the provided FireWire cable, and you're done.
3) After you've got everything connected, running the setup program prompts you to sign up for the online program guide (so you know what you're watching, and can program future recordings), and also tunes all the channels coming off your antenna or cable input. The program guide supports over-the-air, cable and satellite services.
4) Next, set the Device Encoding preferences, depending on what type of disc you want to record, and how much video you'd like to fit on it. Experiment recording with different settings, then preview by playing back on-screen, to see which is satisfactory for your purposes.
5) Now you're ready to record! If you want to record TV shows, click the program guide button on the remote, and choose a future show to save by clicking the red "PVR" button that appears next to it. You can even set a show to record all season long, so you'll never miss another episode of American Idol or West Wing. Better yet, if you set the preference to "start EyeTV when the device is plugged in," it will wake up your Mac from sleep to record, and even boot up your machine if it is off! No worries about having to leave your machine on all the time.
6) When you're done recording, the show will appear in the program list window, where you can select it for playback on your computer, or "Burn" it to DVD or Video CD. If you choose "Burn DVD" or 'Burn Video CD" from the Edit menu, EyeTV saves a file to disk that is then opened in the Toast 6 Titanium project window for recording. Insert a recordable disc and burn. That's it! You've made your first DVD.
If you want to burn a Super Video CD, there's one more step. Choose "Burn Video CD", but cancel the process in Toast, change the setting in the Disc Options drawer from VCD to SVCD, and then start burning.
7) While that's all you need to know to create DVDs of your favorite programs, there is one more step you can take that is one of EyeTV's best features: deleting commercials from your recordings entirely! This not only saves disk space, but also is perfect for saving shows to DVD. To eliminate commercials (or any other parts of a recording), just click the Edit button in the program list window and select areas to cut. (Complete instructions for using the editor are on page 30 of the user guide.) Marked cuts will not appear when you burn DVDs, although they will remain in the original disk file unless you "compact" the recording to delete them completely. This lets you easily make multiple DVD versions of a recording for different purposes.
Another cool feature is the ability to save whole or partial recordings as QuickTime movies. If you save several video clips as QuickTime movies, you can then drag them all into a Toast DVD project window, and record them onto one DVD (assuming they add up to less than 2 hours of video).
Wait, There's More!
EyeTV 200 and Toast 6 Titanium have many more features than we can go into here, such as the ability to combine photo slide shows with video on DVDs in Toast, add custom soundtracks, and create great-looking DVD labels and inserts.
Once you've saved favorite video recordings to disc, you can also view them with Elgato's companion EyeHome media player. EyeHome lets you play back all your photo, audio and video files from your Mac on any TV in the house, using a simple Ethernet connection (AirPort works too, with an optional adapter!).
Finally, while compatibility between drives and media has improved dramatically over the years, you may find some brands that just don't seem to work well in your recorder or player. If you get frequent coasters or playback problems, switch brands. And when you find one that works every time, stick with it.