How-to: Stream TV recordings to an iPod Touch

Elgato’s EyeTV software is standard with most TV tuners sold for use with Macs, and it’s generally well regarded. For some time it’s had the ability to export recordings to iTunes for transfer to iPhones and video-capable iPods, but version 2.5 brought a new trick: streaming video files to an iPod Touch or iPhone.

The company calls this feature Wi-Fi Access, but that’s a slight misnomer as it can also be used to watch recordings on other computers across a wired or wireless network. The way it works is that EyeTV first encodes recordings in H.264 format, then its built-in Web server shares them with your other devices and computers.

Activating Wi-Fi Access is straightforward. Select “Preferences…” from the EyeTV menu, then click the Wi-Fi Access tab. Click the Start button, and when EyeTV asks if you want to prepare all existing recordings for access you’ll probably click Don’t Prepare. As the program warns, it is a time-consuming process and you most likely want to prepare a single recording to check everything’s working.

The preferences window should now tell you Wi-Fi access is running and show the URL to be used. In my case, that’s http://192.168.0.51:2170/eyeTV/.

Record a few seconds off-air, and EyeTV will automatically encode it for you. The encoding process is slow on a G5, so keep the recording short for your first attempt. A progress bar in the Recordings section of the EyeTV Programs window lets you see how it is going, but you may need to scroll or resize the window to see it.

In the above window, note the Wi-Fi Access column. Ticking the box tells EyeTV to generate an H.264 version of the recording, clearing the box deletes the H.264 version, and the minus sign shown in the screen grab denotes encoding in progress.

Once encoding is complete, the quickest way to check whether everything is working is to open a browser (Safari 3 and recent versions of Firefox and Camino are fine, but not Safari 2) and type in the URL displayed in the Wi-Fi Access preferences.

If all is well, you’ll see a list of available recordings. At this stage it probably shows a single item, so click on it once to see the full description and again to start playback. It’s also a good idea to bookmark the Wi-Fi Access URL to save typing it repeatedly.

If instead you get a message saying the server isn’t found or stopped responding, the most likely reason is that you have an old version of Elgato’s EyeConnect media server software on the Mac. Either update it to version 1.5, or if it is an old trial version that you never got around to uninstalling, give it the flick. In some apparently rare cases, the EyeConnect uninstaller may leave behind a file or two that can interfere with Wi-Fi Access: if you’re game, dig around in the usual places to manually remove any remnant EyeConnect preference files or contact Elgato tech support for assistance. (If you suspect you’re listening to the voice of experience, you’re right!)

Once you know Wi-Fi access is running, make sure your iPod touch and Mac are both connected to the same wireless router (it’s OK if the Mac is connected to it via Ethernet), open Safari on the iPod and navigate to the Wi-Fi Access URL. If it works, remember to bookmark the page.

Providing you don’t mind the small screen, you can now watch recorded programs practically anywhere around your home or workplace, depending where your Mac is located. Watching in bed with minimal partner disturbance is one obvious use, or perhaps grabbing a few minutes of screen time while you’re out on the balcony for a smoko.

There are a couple of snags. One is that when Wi-Fi Access is running, EyeTV automatically makes an MPEG-4 copy of all new recordings. That sounds convenient, but it’s a relatively time- and CPU-consuming process and may interfere with other activities such as watching another program, video editing or gameplaying.

Another is that the inability of most Australian stations to stick to their own schedules means you need to pad the start and particularly the end of timed recordings, something EyeTV does nicely. The problem is that once you’ve trimmed the start and end it¹s necessary to re-encode the recording. This largely defeats the purpose of automatically producing the MPEG-4 version as soon as the recording is complete.

You might prefer to trim the recordings, manually export them for iPod/iPhone (the iPhone 480×360 H.264 setting is fine), and then sync the files with the iPod touch. But that takes forward planning.

Nor does it help if you’re away from home and want to watch something your computer recorded in your absence, something that can be achieved (bandwidth permitting) if your router is set up appropriately and you either have a fixed IP address or you use a dynamic DNS service. But that’s another story.

http://www.applesource.com.au/ipod/how-to-stream-tv-recordings-to-an-ipod-touch/403/