Freeway 5 Express Review

This past Tuesday, I had a “wow cool!” Mac moment. Like most “wow cool!” moments, it actually began as a conundrum. For my election night party, I needed a second television. I have a TV room with a nice wall-mounted HD television, but this room was simply too small to accommodate all my guests. However, upstairs, I have a 24″ Intel iMac, which was the perfect size to use as a second TV in a separate room.

The various TV tuners I’ve tested for the Mac in the past have always let me down. The software was either wonky, the reception was bad, or the video ended up being pixelated and unpleasant to watch. However, I’d read good reviews of the “EyeTV Hybrid USB receiver,”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/71143 and decided to give it a try. For only $135, the cost was far less than a second TV. Plus, if it worked, I’d have the ability to tune and record HDTV on the iMac–including shows I currently pay to subscribe to in the iTunes store. With EyeTV Hybrid, I could easily move these recorded HD shows to an Apple TV or iPod to watch on the big TV.

With some trepidation, I purchased the EyeTV Hybrid, along with an inexpensive antenna that supported both digital and analog broadcast signals. The EyeTV Hybrid itself is a small, aluminum stick with a USB port at one end and a full-size coaxial plug on the other end. You plug the USB port into your Mac (Intel Mac definitely recommended), and the other end into your antenna or analog cable connection. EyeTV Hybrid comes with a composite video and S-Video break-out cable to connect a set-top box or video game console.

EyeTV also receives free over-the-air (OTA) HDTV, Clear QAM, and traditional analog TV. When you plug everything in and install the software, you need to allow the EyeTV 3 software several minutes to scan the airwaves for analog broadcasting, and then again for digital broadcasting.

After this was accomplished, I was able to instantly begin watching live broadcast HDTV on the iMac. The image quality looked fantastic on the iMac’s widescreen monitor, and I was especially surprised by the HD video quality. The iMac was truly working as a LCD television. I was also impressed by the quality of the EyeTV 3 software. It was truly “Mac-like” in all regards.

The software gave me a list of channels with the strongest, clearest signal, but it was also possible to manually click through unlisted channels that suffered poor reception. I was able to tune four crystal clear HD stations, along with 13 other analog channels of varying quality. After years of having cable, it seemed odd to move the antenna around for better reception. For that particular night, I was satisfied to have the three HD channels.

As channels convert to DTV by 2009, reception should improve. Of course, a connection via cable would be best, but after initial hardware costs, it’s nice to have “free” TV again. Also, I am going to do some research and buy a really good antenna. I’ll set everything up in the office and let you know how it goes over the next few months. I’m also going to experiment with connecting the Mac to the cable with the EyeTV Hybrid.

Now my iMac is an HDTV and DVR in one. The EyeTV Hybrid works way better than I expected, and I am happy with it. This is a great solution for using a Mac as TV in a guest room, a dorm room, an office, or even a living room in a cramped apartment.

EyeTV hybrid also works as a pass-through device, so you can connect a VCR and convert all your old VHS tapes to digital format for editing, archiving, and burning to DVD.

See the EyeTV with FREE 3-day express shipping “by clicking here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/71143

*Start Soapbox*

California, Arizona and Florida all passed laws outlawing same-sex marriage on Tuesday. Small Dog Electronics had joined Apple in opposing this proposition that legalizes discrimination against one group of people. It is a slippery slope and a workplace issue that deserves our attention. I have been active in similar efforts here in Vermont and helped to pass a policy resolution for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility that states unequivocally:

__”The people of Vermont have long aspired to live together under fair laws that recognize our equality and common humanity. As business leaders, we support the freedom to marry in Vermont. We understand that strong businesses thrive in strong communities. We know that our ability to recruit the most talented employees depends on our ability to attract them to a state with fair and inclusive laws. And we understand that Vermont’s national leadership in civil rights is an important part of who we are as a state. Because marriage is a basic human right and an individual choice, we support full civil marriage for same-sex couples.”__

This issue is one of basic human rights. Couples, whether straight or gay should enjoy the same rights regardless of their sexual orientation. It is a matter of civil rights and equal protection under the law. Perhaps all marriages should become civil unions in the secular society and marriage itself should be a strictly optional label that could be governed by religious or other organizations. The key element, however, is that the rights granted under law should should be identical.

I know that this issue will come up again and hopefully, soon will be resolved intelligently and one more excuse for bigotry and prejudice will be put on the scrap heap of discrimination.

*End Soapbox*

Just a note that we regret the omission of the outro in last week’s Kibbles & Bytes (#593). The archives are updated with the corrected issue; see it here:

“Blog.smalldog.com/kibbles”:http://blog.smalldog.com/kibbles

View specials while on-hand supplies last. Please note that some specials may not be available in our retail stores; check for availability. Also,…

Undoubtedly, November 4 was the most important day nationwide in 2008. I wanted to be a part of that somehow, so I decided to volunteer at the local City Clerk’s Office on Tuesday.

When I arrived at 9AM, the energy was already high. Outside, there were picketers, TV crews and various political hopefuls to greet the voters who came in to cast their votes. Volunteers were ready with their “I Voted” stickers, and people were milling around everywhere.

Once inside, there was a lot to do: over 2,000 absentee ballots needed to be opened, counted (many times double- and triple-counted) and recorded, the ballot-feed machine needed to be emptied, voters needed to be checked in, ballots needed to be handed out and we needed to just be generally available to assist with the process. The day went amazingly smoothly–by about 2PM, more than 3/4 of Washington County’s registered voters in the Montpelier Disctrict had already had their ballots counted.

Since I spent a great amount of time working with the absentee ballots–including hand-transferring the emailed ballots onto the official ballot paper–I got to see how many people voted. Every ballot was anonymous by this point–someone elase had already recorded the absentee voter’s name onto the master list of registered voters, and yet someone else had opened the envelope and put the ballot in a pile (we were an assembly line of about 7 people–a well-oiled machine after a handful of ballots!). It was fascinating to see the voting trends (or seemingly lackthereof); it reminded me of the multiple-choice standardized tests I took in high school after a while!

I was able to do this as part of Small Dog’s Volunteerism Initiative, wherein each employee is mandated to take a (paid) day to volunteer in the community each year. It means a lot to Don to give back to the community, and this is a way that people can do their part without what may be the largest deterrent–sacrificing their pay. I have done a fair amount of unpaid volunteer work in the past, and the bottom line is that it just feels good, and it’s the right thing to do. I’m encouraged to go beyond this one day a year–no matter how busy I may feel–and be more active in community endeavors and volunteerism in the future. With that said, I’m already planning on 2010…

Check out our Flickr page to see some photos from my day at the polls: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalldog/

Find out more about Small Dog’s programs: http://www.smalldog.com/about

In later versions of iTunes, little arrows appear next to songs when they’re highlighted. Normally, when you click on these arrows, you’re directed to the iTunes store where you can browse related albums and songs. I recently discovered that these arrows can actually help you browse your own iTunes library. Simply hold down the Option key while clicking the arrow next to a song, and iTunes will show the albums with that song. Option-click next to a performer’s name, and iTunes will show all songs by that artist.

By using the Option key, the iTunes arrows are actually somewhat useful!