Richard's Notes

I bought an Elgato EyeTV Netstream DTT Network Dual Tuner on the recommendation of my brother. Being a dual tuner, you can either watch/record two TV channels simultaneously or have two users on your network watch one TV channel each.

The biggest issue with EyeTV is the lack of electronic programme guide. OK, you can get a trial subscription to IceTV, but that’s not good enough when compared to Windows Media Centre (WMC). Did you know that MWC has a free EPG? That’s right, free. Why can’t Elgato arrange for a free EPG for EyeTV.

Luckily for us here in Australia, Paul Shipley has written a tool to generate an XMLTV formatted EPG which can be impored by EyeTV. Thanks to Paul, I now have an EPG for EyeTV.

Yesterday, I bought a Logitech M505 mouse.

First impressions …

• the M505 is better than the Logitech V470 Cordless Bluetooth Mouse. The M505 is faster and more responsive, especially after the mouse has been sitting idle for a while. I found that the V470 took a long while to respond after being in sleep mode.
• the M505 is better than the Apple Magic Mouse. The M505 has a middle mouse button — I didn’t realise how much I’d missed the middle mouse button. A lot of mouse actions have now magically (pun intended) become a lot easier to perform. Please remind me not to buy a mouse which does not have a middle button.
• I miss the Apple Magic Mouse’s scroll with momentum.

It’ll be interesting to see if my first impressions last. I hope that Logitech don’t let me down this time, like they did with the V470.

As reported in a previous blog post, my Sennheiser MM50 headphones died. The right channel failed.

I did contact Syntec International Pty Limited (the distributor here in Sydney) and they were helpful. They suggested two options:

• Return the headphones to the retailer for replacement; or
• Mail the headphones and purchase receipt to them and they’d replace them for me.

Hmm. Only one issue. I didn’t know where the receipt was.

After I returned from holidays (or vacation as some other countries call it) I found the receipt. I chose to return the headphones to the retailer, Maccentric at Miranda. The sales person was great. She listened as I described the problem and then explained the Maccentric repair/replacement process. We filled in the paperwork and I went on my way.

Two days later, Maccentric SMSed me to let me know that my replacement headphones were available for collection. I returned to the Maccentric shop the following Saturday where my replacement headphones were waiting for me. I collected my new headphones and I was on my way.

Kudos to Maccentric for making the replacement of my MM50 headphones quick and painless.