Ludacrisvp

EyeTV 4 (8526) lacking export functionality of EyeTV 4 Beta

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As a previous user of EyeTV 4 Betas and using the export functionality, I've noted that the released version is quite different from beta in the export functionality. 

Exporting a video with the Beta is infinitely faster (better) and consumes less CPU vs the current production version.
Production will use 600% CPU or more during an export. 
Beta will use about 250% CPU or less during an export, which again takes a few seconds for a 30 minute video, vs several minutes for the same video on production.  

Beta Format Options for export were limited to these 2 options:

Native Formats (no re-encoding)
- MPEG Program Stream -

The fastest export option. For MPEG-1/2 content a program stream will be created. 
For H.264 content a .mp4 file will be created. 
For MPEG-4 or DivX content an AVI file will be created. 

Video: MPEG, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Audio: Dolby Digital, Stereo, 48000 Hz
Duration: 31:59, Estimated Size: 1.4GB (753 KB/sec)

- MPEG Elementary Streams

De-multiplexes and creates separate files for audio and video.
This is an advanced formay for special applications. 

Video: MPEG, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Audio: Dolby Digital, Stereo, 48000 Hz
Duration: 31:59, Estimated Size: 1.4GB (753 KB/sec)

 

In the production version it just lists out a file extension option and no details on what it is going to do and no options on how it should be exported. 

The video exports in production are re-encodes using ffmpeg. 

MP4 - (appears to be default export selection) (compression artifacts introduced from video re-encoding, audio re-encoded from AC3 to AAC audio, and has a larger file size vs source)
-- ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00 -i EyeTV Archive/<showname>.eyetv/00000000253a2d18.ts -strict -2 -b:v 7000K -y -map 0:v -map 0:a Video/<showname>.MP4

MOV - (compression artifacts introduced from video re-encoding MPEG-4 mp4v stream, audio re-encoded from AC3 to mpeg AAC mp4a audio, and has a larger file size vs source)
-- ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00 -i EyeTV Archive/<showname>.eyetv/00000000253a2d18.ts -strict -2 -b:v 7000K -y -map 0:v -map 0:a Video/<showname>.MOV

MPEG - (compression artifacts introduced from video re-encoding MPEG-1/2 mpgv stream, audio re-encoded from AC3 to mpeg audio, and has a larger file size vs source)
-- ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00 -i EyeTV Archive/<showname>.eyetv/00000000253a2d18.ts -strict -2 -b:v 7000K -y -map 0:v -map 0:a Video/<showname>.MPEG

WMV - (compression artifacts introduced from video re-encoding MS MPEG-4 video v3 stream, audio re-encoded from AC3 to wma2 audio, and has a larger file size vs source)
-- ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00 -i EyeTV Archive/<showname>.eyetv/00000000253a2d18.ts -strict -2 -b:v 7000K -y -map 0:v -map 0:a Video/<showname>.WMV

WAV - not sure why one would want this format, but this flat out fails with EyeTV logging [Error Domain=转换失败,请检查源文件的编码格式! Code=0 "(null)"] leaving a 0-byte file in the export path.

(The same video that could be exported via beta in a few seconds, takes a long time in the production version because it is being re-encoded.)
 

Exporting in the beta just re-muxed the 'ts' transport stream files into a new mpg container with no-encoding keeping the original source quality, and the closed caption streams too, audio was also retained with the original format and quality. 

 

Why does the released retail copy of this program not offer the superior options for exporting video that was present in the beta?

Why are there zero options for fine-tuning the exports that are being run on the retail copy that is using ffmpeg on the backend?

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Yes, export is a lot slower with the release version. However, most users will miss the exceptional export formats available with EyeTV V3 versus V4 anyway, so it's all crap really.

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21 hours ago, Ludacrisvp said:

They actually advertise the export options of the beta on their product page (screenshot is from the beta).
I don't recall if I used EyeTV3 to be honest, so i can't make the comparison. 

You can see this exportability is advertised just after the video editor portion.

https://www.geniatech.eu/product/eyetv-4/

 

Screen Shot 2021-11-01 at 8.25.32 AM.jpg

I can confirm that editing and exporting with EyeTV 3 is far better/easier/more logical than with EyetV 4.

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On 11/7/2021 at 10:46 AM, M|S said:

As a workaround it is possible to open the .eyetv recordings with HandBrake and export with that.

True, but that's unacceptable in the same way that using a third-party program info app (TVGuide, TitanTV) to fill in all the program information stripped out in the 4.0 release was. If an application is advertised as an all-in-one TV viewing application (one that you've committed to by paying once for the application and once for a dedicated hardware tuner), then it should damned well work the way it's advertised.

For example: If you were to use the trick of recording files in EyeTV 4.x and then edit in EyeTV 3.x, you'd have to either: 1) leave your computer on macOS 10.14/Mojave; 2) maintain a separate boot drive with macOS 10.14 or less, and reboot from that drive to use EyeTV 3; 3) maintain a dedicated Mojave computer and network the .eyetv files recorded in EyeTV 4 over for editing/conversion in EyeTV 3.

That's a lot of excess burden imposed on customers who paid Geniatech money to at least maintain the elegant solution we had ten years ago, which they have utterly failed to do. The fact that Geniatech assumes that this level of performance is acceptable is a real insult to us. Unfortunately, they show no signs of improving their behavior.

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Because the signs suggest that Geniatech does not consider EyeTV to be an active product. There's little sign from them that they're trying to improve or optimize it, and they never talk to the user base. It makes you wonder why they bought the application from ElGato, if they didn't intend to do anything useful with it.

If nothing's changed since the 4.0 beta development stage (and I'm betting nothing has changed), Geniatech doesn't actually have in-house programmers working on EyeTV. My understanding is that they hired a couple of contractors to do all the work, and they know little of the 15-year history of the application. Which is why:

1) The interface changed radically, forcing the existing user base to relearn basic functions

2) Many of those basic functions (export, program information) were broken or crippled, compared to EyeTV 3

Better export in Version 4 would be welcome, but I see no sign that we'll get it. Since EyeTV 3 and 4 can use the same file archive, I am sticking on Mojave for now, where I can use EyeTV 3 for export, even if I record in EyeTV 4.

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I was disappointed enough with the EyeTV 4 betatest cycle that I stayed on EyeTV 3 - easy to do, as my EyeTV computer was limited to High Sierra. After the long no-program-info debacle was finally resolved (sort of) last year, I transitioned to a newer computer with Mojave. I finally broke down and paid for an EyeTV 4 license six months ago, largely because it would provide program scheduling information that was less frustrating to use than OpenATSC. Surprise, surprise! While the EyeTV 4 license + login provided program information to both v.3 and v.4, the scheduling license was only good for one month. After which, they want another 30 euro for...what? What's the time period? They don't say.

As of my check right now, there is no option on the Geniatech.us site to purchase an EyeTV 4 license at all, much less an extended license for program information. There is an over-the-air USB dongle with a license for EyeTV 3, and that's it.

It's very difficult to invest energy in keeping an application running, when the people who own and presumably profit from that application don't seem interested in even preserving the features that used to work.

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I’ve no desire to reboot to another OS to run eyetv3 (in fact I don’t believe I even have a copy of it). 
Big Sur can’t run anything less than 4. 
a workaround I’ve been using was to swap the eyetv binary from the retail version of 4 into the app bundle from one of the betas. That’s letting me bypass their time restriction on the beta, it doesn’t bypass license needs doing that (yes I have a valid license, had to buy it from the non US store as their US site has no mention of it). 
 

schedule wise I don’t have a subscription and have to have the tuner hit every channel to get the program guide from the provider. 
 

I was really hoping this hardware would have run via Plex and then I could bypass all this crap with eyetv but it doesn’t. I’ve been debating getting a HDHomeRun that has the ASTC 3.0 tuners (which handles 4K content) to deal with any OTA TV. 

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On 11/15/2021 at 12:57 PM, eaglerock said:

True, but that's unacceptable in the same way that using a third-party program info app (TVGuide, TitanTV) to fill in all the program information stripped out in the 4.0 release was. If an application is advertised as an all-in-one TV viewing application (one that you've committed to by paying once for the application and once for a dedicated hardware tuner), then it should damned well work the way it's advertised.

For example: If you were to use the trick of recording files in EyeTV 4.x and then edit in EyeTV 3.x, you'd have to either: 1) leave your computer on macOS 10.14/Mojave; 2) maintain a separate boot drive with macOS 10.14 or less, and reboot from that drive to use EyeTV 3; 3) maintain a dedicated Mojave computer and network the .eyetv files recorded in EyeTV 4 over for editing/conversion in EyeTV 3.

That's a lot of excess burden imposed on customers who paid Geniatech money to at least maintain the elegant solution we had ten years ago, which they have utterly failed to do. The fact that Geniatech assumes that this level of performance is acceptable is a real insult to us. Unfortunately, they show no signs of improving their behavior.

Agreed!

My solution to not have to boot back and forth between 10.14 and 11 was to create a Mojave 10.14.6 virtual machine with Parallels. I can now use EyeTV 3 while running Big Sur and Mojave at the same time. In coherence mode you can't even tell that there are two boot drives.

I use Parallels almost exclusively to run Windows 10 and AutoCAD 2020. Making a Mojave VM was the best solution I found for not dealing with EyeTV 4.

To tell the truth, I just moved on from EyeTV altogether. I still have a number of recorded EyeTV 3 shows that need editing and exporting. A few other 32-bit programs are keeping me from ditching Mojave entirely.

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After playing around with the export module I figured out: The export (mov, mp4, mpeg and others) semms to work. However, as the red progress circle is not coded in a proper way, it looks like the export hangs at around 20 percent. And unfortunately there is no message popping up at the end of the export. This leads to the impression that the export doesn't work at all, while the export has been foinished in the background within acceptable time.

I already forwarded the obvious bug regarding the red progress circle (hanging at 20 percent and never finishes) to Geniatech Shenzen but according to them a fix has no priority. To me it looks like they have no real coder team available, as fixing something like this would be rather easy.

Can somebody else please confirm that the export works in the background? Just check the respective folder for exported files.

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