Elgato Systems has announced plans to add a Full Screen menu to its EyeTV software when the 2.3 version is released, hopefully later this month. The Full Screen Menu helps to integrate EyeTV-enabled Macs with Front Row, Apple’s remote control media playing software.
EyeTV enables you to record, edit and watch TV shows on your Mac using Elgato’s own hardware interfaces (it also licenses EyeTV to third parties who make their own PVR hardware). Front Row is Apple’s software included on new Macs that provides a simplified interface for viewing video, listening to music, playing DVDs and viewing photos — it works using the remote control included with those new systems.
The Full Screen menu is already available in EyeTV 2.2.2, which is bundled with the new EyeTV for DTT stick — a tiny interface that enables European users to watch Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) on their Macs.
The Full Screen Menu is designed to complement Front Row; it uses white text on a black background and provides users with access to Live TV, recordings, an electronic program guide and more. A menu selection at the bottom brings them to Front Row, so it’s a seamless fit. The software works with the Apple Remote and supports keyboard navigation as well. Elgato cautions that the screen shots of the Full Screen menu may vary slightly in the final EyeTV 2.3 release.
Elgato has announced plans to release the Full Screen menu for general use with EyeTV when the new 2.3 version comes out later this month — 2.3 will be a free update for registered EyeTV 2 users.