TwoTallSocks

Like I’ve already mentioned Apple announced some really cool new software updates and additions today, as well as the new iPod Mini. However they weren’t the only cool things announced at MacWorld.

Elgato System announced the EyeTV 200, and the EyeHome, both of which are extraordinarily cool looking.

EyeTV 200
I’ve written about the original EyeTV before, and the EyeTV is basically the same with a few exceptions.

It now uses Firewire instead of USB, which allows for much higher quality video capture from the device to your Mac. It encodes in MPEG2 instead of MPEG1, and is powered through the Firewire cord so you don’t have to have an AC adapter plugged in anymore. It also comes with a wireless remote so you can change channels and recording settings from across the room.

This new model is $309, whereas the old USB version of the EyeTV is only $180, which includes a third-party wireless remote that I have also mentioned before.

It would be nice to see a sample of the quality difference between the two on their web site, so you could tell if it was worth the extra $120 to get the 200 model.

EyeHome
This one is almost cooler than the EyeTV itself! It’s a little box that connects to your TV on one end, and to your Mac through an ethernet cable or wireless internet on the other. With the supplied wireless remote you can watch the TV shows that EyeTV recorded, listen to any song from your iTunes library, view pictures or slideshows from your iPhoto library, listen to internet radio stations, browse news sites, watch MPEG or DivX movies from the Movies folder on your Mac, and more.

And with a Wi-Fi router in the house, you don’t even have to run wires! Just connect the box to your TV and attach a Wi-Fi to ethernet adapter, and you’re good to go! The device then communicates with the Mac to access all of your digital content right on the TV. You could watch your iMovies directly on the TV from the Mac without having to run wires directly from the Mac to the TV, and without having to burn to CD or DVD first. You could download Ahem… Legal… Ahem… movies from the internet in DivX format, put them in your Movies folder, then watch them immediately on your TV!

Pretty incredible that it can do that, especially wirelessly with Wi-Fi! The EyeHome thing is $219.00, so if you got the EyeTV 200 and the EyeHome, you’d be looking at $550 for this system. But that isn’t too much more than a TiVo and most importantly, there are no ongoing subscription fees with the EyeTV method. With TiVo you have to pay around $15 a month for the service, which could make up the small price difference quite quickly. Plus if you went with the lower quality EyeTV, you’d only be out $400, which is only $100 more than the 80hr TiVo.

Hopefully someday I’ll be able to afford this setup. Gotta pay off the Macs it connects to first though!