Regressions on EyeTV 4 interface

[Lionel Poussier 0]

So far, I can see more regressions than improvements on new EyeTV 4 interface

TV guide:

EyeTV 3 had a beautiful feature when scrolling the guide horizontally: the title of each show remains visible, even if the beginning is passed. Now you just can see an empty rectangle; and you can't know what program it is until you scroll back to the left.

Editor:

The color of a selected clip can hardly be distinguished from the others, with such a little change of color  (lightblue vs dark blue)

Why did you remove the white triangles attached to the markers and to the vertical bar? Was is to much visible and understandable ?

Good luck to edit a recording on a sunny afternoon !

The funniest part here is : the vertical bar still reacts as if the triangle was there, you only can move it by clicking above the blue bar, just where the triangle previously showed the bar's location. Clicking in the middle of the blue bar , the way you would do with any scrollbar, has no effect.

Now , when I want to reduce a clip length to zero, I can't. There's always a small part (~2 mm) of the blue bar , so I can't see if the clip length is zero or 10 seconds.

OK, I found that I can now remove one particular clip using the delete key, which is an improvement. I can now decide what to remove.
But the drawbak is, apparently, that before compacting the recording, I have to manually remove each unwanted clip.

Recordings Window:

No columns anymore ? Sorting by date or size was so easy with EyeTV 3 ...

Now the information are mixed with the description, so if I want to compare the duration or size of a few recordings, I need to read the descriptions one by one and find the location of the size and duration attributes, each time different.

Changing the sorting order involves a local menu and 3 clicks (drop menu, select attribute, select direction), when EyeTV 3 could do the same with only one click or 2 on the columns title.

Really, after 30 years testing every application I could find on the Macintosh, I'm used to change my habits and to adapt to new versions, but I can't see what this one gives me as improvements.

[NealJ 14]

Lionel, I am in almost 100% agreement with your observations. EyeTV3 was ultra-slick and very very close to perfect. It made every PC TV app I used on my Home-built Windows PC look feel and behave in the ugliest ways imaginable. Nothing could touch EyeTV 3 for sheer quality (it’s what Mac users have come to expect from the hardware and software we purchase).

I guess EyeTV 4 is planned to be a paid-for software version update. Just so long as the current coders stick to the EyeTV3 layout and implementation we users have come to love I will not hesitate to pay for the effort Geniatech Dev’s (or are the superlative Elgato software engineers building the new 64Bit EyeTV 4?).

Real gripes: Entering Editing mode and trying to use it is a hideous experience. Apart from the new Video Editor layout not looking or behaving like it did in EyeTV3, I’m saddened to see that the "Fine" option is as coarse as ever missing the optimal frame cut by several frames. This slows down editing enormously as one has to scrub back and forth with the trackpad or keyboard hoping the edit splice happens on the frame where you want it to.

On replaying a captured video… Why on earth have the layout designers split the tools so we now have two time-line replay bars; one at the bottom of the video replay window and one at the top? Why divide a comparatively perfect multi-function tool interface found in EyeTV 3 which sat at the bottom of a screen into two, where we have to mouse from the top to bottom and bottom to top of our screens to achieve the functions which were logically and ergonomically kept together.

I have the distinct feeling Geniatech has handed the Elgato Source Code and some TV Tuners to a couple of cheap, Asian developers more familiar with Linux or Windows rather than commission a couple of experienced Mac software developers who understand GUI guidelines and the beautiful elegance of simplicity.

Still, it’s early days and Geniatech have left Beta testing right up to the release of Catalina when people such as I had been Beta testers contributing to 10.15’s development a year before Gold release. As EyeTV,s 2 and 3 have served me well for a decade or more, unless and until I launch EyeTV 4 on a 64Bit Mac running Catalina without my nerves being frazzled I will not be parting with any cash for it. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by NealJ