eyeTV - The Return!

Elgato sent me a replacement eyeTV Hybrid which is working fine - woohoo! As it's a new pack it also seems to include a disk with the new eyeTV 3 software on it - so I may try installing that over the weekend to try it out.

Obviously having the device fail and the time without it whilst Elgato tested it was a real pain - but credit to Elgato for replacing it.

Summer Movies for Me

I'm not usually a big fan of summer blockbuster movies and they are sequels too, which usually isn't a good sign; however, the trailers look interesting.

I was worried that the fourth instalment of Indiana Jones would be a problem given that time has moved on and Harrison Ford isn't as young as he was (are any of us?) but the trailer for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull looks pretty good.

Next on the list is Hellboy II - the Golden Army. I thought Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman made a pretty good job of the first movie so I have high hopes.

Yet another sequel is The Dark Knight. The follow up to Batman Begins and the first Batman movie without "Batman" in the title. Whilst not everyone liked Christian Bale's performance in the previous movie, I enjoyed it and it was held together with an excellent supporting cast. I thought the approach in that film was nicely dark (my preferred approach to Batman) and I hope this one continues that trend.

RCD Saves the Day!

All our sockets tripped out yesterday - which was a little unnerving. I checked the circuit breakers and the RCD had tripped. I reset it and it tripped again. I went round and checked all the appliances that were on and noticed that the switch for the dishwasher was unusually hot. A quick inspection revealed that it was shorting out. A quick trip to B&Q today got us a new switch, I stripped back the insulation as the short had burned it, fitted the new switch and all's back to normal.

It's a good thing the RCD tripped as we often run the dishwasher overnight and who knows what could have happened. It just goes to show how lucky we can be...

eyeTV Phone Home

I finally got a response to my support request from Elgato. The eyeTV is off home to Germany. All they have committed to is to test it and I'm not clear what will happen if they can't replicate the problem - or whether I will get a replacement and my postage etc. if they can. They haven't given me any idea how long it might take either which, when they took a week to get back on my initial request (with which I'd obviously given them details of all the stuff that they might have asked me to do since they didn't ask me to try anything) is a bit of a worry.

It's going in the post tomorrow - I'll keep you appraised.

eyeTV R.I.P.?

Last weekend my eyeTV Hybrid started playing up following a reboot. It started by telling me that it wouldn't work if attached to a USB1.1 port (which I don't have) and finally gave up the ghost and stopped recognising that the device was there at all.

I tried everything I could think of, switching ports, leads, direct connection, via a powered hub etc. all to no effect. The problem is certainly not the USB ports as my T.264 and external USB hard drive are both functioning perfectly and were quite happy when swapped to the port the eyeTV was on.

I lodged a support ticket with Elgato but have yet to hear back. Needless to say I'm not a happy bunny!

A message from Apple?

If I was a PC user I might take offence at this...



This is a sign we saw several times at a zoo we visited yesterday. Obviously they've either got a Mac user with a sense of humour or have no idea where the logo was sourced from!

Lego Star Wars

With my daughter making scarily rapid progress on Super Mario Galaxy I decided we might need another game in our arsenal. I wasn't entirely sure about the mix of Lego and Star Wars but a quick look at the trailers etc. gave me a little chuckle so I decided to take the plunge. It's a fun game and the cut scenes are nicely amusing, I'm not entirely sold on the idea of the Jedi destroying everything to make progress (and chasing around after the little tokens can be a bit of a pain) but overall it's pretty fun.