Nowadays, digital broadcasting is almost the standard, as coverage of the Czech Republic is starting to reach a solid level and the analog signal is declining. This gives an opportunity to small and powerful digital broadcasting receivers, so we can enjoy television on our laptop or MacBooku. Portfolio DVBT receivers for PC and NB with operating system Windows is very wide. The MAC OS platform is somewhat forgotten, where the offer is very narrow and the prices are, for an incomprehensible reason, up to double, compared to DVBT receivers for Windows.
Let's take a look at one of them, the eyeTV DTT deluxe from Elgato. First, a little about the hardware itself, the receiver is connected via USB toonewhich, when the dimensions of the receiver are 16 × 35 x 8 mm. So it is really a miniature device. The body is made of plastic, the onlyonewhich are USB for connecting to Mac and MCX foronewhich for connecting the antenna. When it comes to the antenna, the package includes two antennas, one telescopic for places with very good signal coverage and the other external on a roughly two-meter-long cable for "sticking" out the window. The antenna is equipped with a magnet and a suction cup, so it is not a problem to attach the antenna almost anywhere. Another solution is to connect it to a classic indoor or roof antenna using the supplied MCX-IEC adapter (coaxial cable).
The supplied software is Elgato eyeTV, which is fully compatible with all Elgato products. After installing the software, which needs to be activated using the supplied license code, the setup wizard will start, here you need to select the product, the product that will be managed by the software, then set the country and, last but not least, click on the automatic tuning button.
I was able to tune in the following TV channels without any problems:
CT1
CT2
PRIMA
NOVA TV
CT4
CT24
NEW CINEMA
Very cool
If you like radio broadcasting, there are 7 Czech Radio channels available, namely:
D major, Leonardo, Radio Česko, Radio Wave, Radiožurnál, Prague, Vltava.
A big jump in the signal is if you have the antenna outside the window, here the signal will improve by up to 30% compared to placing the antenna inside the room. So if you have the option, it is always better to have the antenna outside. The installation itself, with the initial search for programs, takes no more than five minutes. Controlling the program is very simple, through classic program switching, volume change and television program, the application also offers a Live TV function, where after setting the relevant buffer it is possible to go back in real time by a given time period, it depends on the size of the buffer, with my setting 2GB buffer I can go back about 12 minutes. This comes in handy when you miss an important scene in your favorite movie.
Recording has never been easier, just find your favorite show or movie in the TV program and add it to the recording calendar with one click. It is important to remember that this is a raw output, so one minute of recording takes up between 30-40MB on disk. The application needs to be running, but neither the image nor the sound need to be played, so any recording at night will not disturb your sleep.
Unfortunately, the recording will start and end according to the time the program is supposed to run, so you need to set the software preferences to start and end the recording in 5-10 minutes. The resulting file can be exported to with one click iPhoneIPod, AppleTV or burn to CD or DVD.
As is customary with similar software, it is possible to transfer the entire application and control to iPhone, control and watch eyeTV on iPhone will cost you 4,99 EU. This is a standard application available via AppStoreThe price of the entire receiver set with accessories and software ranges between 2200 - 2500, - which is comparable to other DVBT receivers for windows actually almost double, on the other hand here we pay for miniaturization and quality software with a wide scope.
Package contents:
telescopic antenna
external antenna with 2m cable
MCX-IEC reduction (coax)
remote control
2 pcs micropen batteries
USB extension
CD with software and license key
Thanks for the article. I'm just sorry to compare the price of Elgato products with something incomparable for woks. Yes, the price is higher for some, but the main thing here is the EyeTV software, which is truly unrivaled. I've been using it since version 1.0 for about 6 years and it works from older pieces (DVB-T and S via FireWire to today's USB). The program records a native stream with more sounds (if any), and the question of cutting from a recording of commercials and then joining them into the same reduced stream is a matter of tens of seconds even on a 3-year-old iMac. I have also tried Elgato DVB-S both on SD (MPEG2) and on HD (ČTHD, HBO HD, NOVA HD – H.264). What is unreal, however, is that in all cases you can play recordings recorded and edited in this way, e.g. in a Western Digital external box for multimedia data playback without conversion. I record from a Mac to a Time Capsule, and from it I watch recordings via HDMI on a plasma via WD.
But the unrivaled feature of the EyeTV program is that you can watch several programs at the same time on one DVB-T or DVB-S multiplex even on a slower Mac and, most importantly, record them simultaneously!!! (who doesn't read the instructions, hold control and go to menu file - open LIVE TV on Multiplex)
see screenshot: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7755459/Screenshots/3pfh.png
The latest version of EyeTV also has export for iPad. The version listed from AppStore but it is also 2 months PLUS native for iPad. For exporting SD recordings, Elgato H.264 HD is recommended, with which the program works (export and live TV viewing on iPad or iPhone).
I was also thinking about something like this, this is the best company for TV software for Mac, but what discouraged me is that every new version of this software the manufacturer charges a fee. This software is used by several manufacturers, for example my favorite Pinnacle, but it uses the Lite version, so I can't avoid this here either. Nakonec I chose a dongle from AverTV, which has a module where the drivers for both Win and Mac are directly on the dongle, so there is no need to have a CD, the software for Mac is better than for Win and it wasn't that expensive a DVB-T receiver ;-)
Unfortunately, I also like the price. If I'm only talking about the given device, it works both on Mac OS X and Win. So where do you get the other price, double it? And I'm not even going to talk about other ElGato products. So, sometimes think before you write something.
Hello, the price meant a comparison of purely Win DVBT receivers and Elgata, which is win+mac.
sorry, but a lot of other quality brands are in the same situation. In that case, comparing the quality/price of such a brand and others similar to it and some cheap ones, at which you curse every time, perhaps then there is no point in writing, so this whole mention of 2x cheaper is simply out of line
Okay in koneI agree with you. I hope you liked the review alepson :)
jj, that's only for the future. For improvement!