Those who know me know that I am all about new technology.  After a discussion with a friend I got all fired up to save lots of money on my television viewing.  We currently have DirecTV with HBO, and also basic cable that comes with our Internet.  The basic cable runs to our den TV.  If successful, this experiment would ultimately end up saving us over $120 A MONTH in satellite TV fees.  It seemed to good to be true.

The miraculous device that would replace DirecTV was called EyeTV by Elgato.  It is simply a USB stick that has a cable input on one end.  You plug in your cable and then plug the USB into a computer.  You then output a video/audio line to your TV.  EyeTV software allows you to record programs, pause live TV- just like a regular DVR.  It seemed to good to be true.  The device came with a 2 year free subscription to TV Guide’s online guide data.  This allowed you to see show titles, descriptions, and a program grid for the channels you received.

Alas it was too good to be true.  After putting the device through the paces I ended up sending it back from whence it came.  Three main reasons.  The remote control that came with the USB device was only effective from about 4 feet away. None of the seating positions in the room are that close to the TV.  I could change channels, etc… from a wireless keyboard or a program on my iPad, but I guess despite the new technology this old channel surfer prefers a remote.  Problem #2- the channels all came up in goofy locations.  On my den TV, the channels come in at their natural locations.  Channel 4.1 is at 4.1  Channel 18.1 is at 18.1.  They are all in a nice order.  Not so with the EyeTV software.  Channel 13.1 was at 1013.  Channel 18.1 was at 8- so the program grid was not in numerical channel order.  Despite really wanting to use this thing, I could NOT get used to the guide info.  Reason #3?  There was no way my wife would be able to navigate the menus to use the thing.  I include myself in that reason as well.  The picture quality was quite good, but not good enough to offset the problems- which to me were considerable.  My friend who recommended the setup gets his TV over the air and does not have the channel location issues.  Being in the fringe reception area for the Indy TV stations, my antenna reception is not reliable enough to go that route.  So DirecTV is safe for now, or until I investigate a non-computer solution.  TIVO.  I had a TIVO back in the day.  The new ones of course are HD capable and have very slick on screen menu systems as well as act as DVRs.  Even with the monthly fee to use the TIVO, I still come out way ahead on saving money by ditching DirecTV.  When I looked at what we were spending on TV I was a bit embarrassed.  I only have limited basic cable which would give us FOX, ABC, NBC, PBS, The CW, CBS, and CSPAN.  Other programs could be accessed via the appropriate web pages, Netflix (which I currently have) or HuluPlus- another $8 a month- but I STILL come out ahead but a large margin.  I’m talking about saving over $1100 a year.  Stay tuned.