Elgato's EyeTV One sticks to ATSC, leaves analog out in the cold
By Paul Miller 
posted January 13th 2010 1:32PM
posted January 13th 2010 1:32PM
posted January 13th 2010 1:32PM
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CSI has a housewives spinoff?
@Phen yeah they mostly work on which maid stole what piece of jewelry from the misses. *Spoiler alert* it's usually at a different mansion, but they still end up usually shipping them back to wheresoever they're from do to bad papers. It's not nearly as good as CSI: Northern Illinois University since they at least had a murder to solve (too soon?).
@dcoke If you have to ask, it almost always is.
I use the hybrid it works fantastic. Gets great reception, and also has a line in. Great for tailgating and long airport layovers.
@RLBurkes
What kind of antenna do you use?
@TheLoveDr just the stock unipole collapsable.
@RLBurkes
It appears that a stock antenna is no longer included with this new offering.
@TheLoveDr I use one of these with my own EyeTV on my Mac....I mounted it outside on the eve of the house. Its very small and unobtrusive.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10901&cs_id=1090102&p_id=4730&seq=1&format=2
Best $20 I ever spent.
It picks up signals so strong that I can even split it, use 75 feet of RG Cable and still get plenty of signal for every digtial broadcast station in the area on both tvs.
@nixfu
Thanks nixfu, I will take a look at that...
For Jersey Shore... anything.
So what you're saying is that the EyeTV won't let you exploit the a-hole?
I love how in the RSS feed it was shortened to "Elgato's EyeTV One sticks to ATSC, leaves anal"
@PhoenixFox That'll get your attention lol
"The Cat's EyeTV"...I'm guessing this was intentional?
Why would anyone buy this when there are MUCH cheaper ATSC USB tuners? Does this have any advantages?
@Peter F
It works on Mac OSX, and a lot of those cheaper tuners don't.
@skoochy The cheaper tuners will work with OS X, it just doesn't have the software included, often, it's the same guts, sometimes even the same shell molded in a different color with a different brand label.
If you happen to have the EyeTV software, you should be able to run most of the USB stick tuners out there. I'm thinking of trying that given that my Hybrid seems to be on its way out.
@Peter F
I agree completely. EyeTV hardware is overpriced. I got a hybrid analog/digital tuner for $30 that was apart of a Windows TiVo software-powered package. (Hauppauge HVR-950Q) and a software only copy of EyeTV (I think $70?). It's a much better deal than any of the combos EveTV offers.
You can laugh Paul, but between an EyeTV device, a MacMini I got on Craigslist for $200, a subscription to MLB.tv and free services like Hulu... I have completely eradicated my DirectTV (or Cable) bills and so far, haven't really missed it at all. I have a $20 OTA Antenna that I set up once, about 3 months ago and haven't had to touch since, and I get all the major broadcast networks in HD (of course living in LA about 13 miles from the broadcast towers helps)... Products like this, wether you USE them or not have a role in keeping the cable/SatTV companies honest. How much do you think DirectTV would charge for access to the NFL Playoffs if we could not get them for free in HD with an Antenna?
Plus EyeTV offers some pretty cool tools, the DVR is seamless and invisible, the steaming to my iPhone is RAD, and they even offer 3G Streaming of anything coming from the Antenna. So I can watch the Playoffs Live on my iPhone from anywhere via that "OTA Antenna" you seem so biased against ;)
Anyway, just thought I would chime in and say, Alright EyeTV, help us stick it to the MAN!
What about component connections damnit?
@thecool82
1) this is a TV tuner... not video capture device
2) component = analog, which this article is pointing out that this device eschews analog connections.
Wow, thats expensive for an ATSC tuner. With a brief look at NewEgg, I see a $30 ATSC AND clearQAM tuner. Costs 70% less, does more.
Love EyeTV. I have 3 macmini media servers and have NEVER subscribed to sat or cable TV. Here in New Orleans I get 22 ota channels many in pristine 1080i. Add Hulu and many other net services to the mix and life is good--and FREE!
Hybrid tuners SUCK.
Hybrid mean all the encoding is done on the CPU. This thing is going to suck down 30% of your Core 2 Duo processor.
A hardware TV tuner does all the encoding on it's own processor, meaning it draws single digit percentage of even older processors when you're watching TV.
$100 is a rip off... this thing isn't much better than the super cheap tuners on meritline / dealextreme / etc
My AverTV Hybrid Volar Max does ATSC, Analog and QAM for $80.00. It also comes with a Composite/S-Video adapter with very little delay which makes playing games possible on the computer. The analog signal it gets from my no STB cable connection is pretty bad, but the ATSC and Analog signals come in great. I would recommend it for more functionality at a lower price.
*ATSC and QAM
@tdude51
According to their site, the EyeTV One doesn't support Clear QAM.
Their latest EyeTV Hybrid model does support Clear QAM. I ordered one yesterday.
Does anyone know of a TV tuner card or USB dongle that will allow me to hook up an analog cable connection AND and over the air HD antenna?
So I can get local channels in HD and cable in SD.
@roxics Something that will work with Windows 7 64bit.
@roxics
The EyeTV Hybrid supports both analog and digital but has a single coax input. Not ideal but you could use an A/B switch for the 2 connections. The EyeTV software maintains separate channel lists for analog and digital configurations.
To switch between the analog cable and OTA HD you would need to change the A/B switch and tell the EyeTV software to switch to the other tuner type/channel list.
Not the greatest option, but it would work.
@roxics
Hauppauge HVR-950Q, which works with EyeTV software, and can be found for $30. Highly recommended.
@roxics
You will need to buy TWO tuners, because broadcast digital and cable tv use the same channels and there is no way to keep them separate on the same connection.
@nixfu
that is not true at all.. The tuner I mentioned does it just fine.
... you'd better not get any wild ideas about plugging into some of your old analog sources like cable or your VCR.
Of course, many cable companies now offer only a few of their signals in the old analog format. For my local Comcast, only channels up to 38 are in analog; rest are digital-only. And those old tapes I have on my VCR? No thanks, I'm not about to try to convert them to digital.
So why WOULDN'T anybody in a situation like mine prefer so save some complexity, failure points and $30?
And replacing Comcast's $75 a month with a $30 Radio Shack antenna? Priceless!
It should be noted that EyeTV has moved away from free EPG (Electronic programming guide) to requiring $20 a year for TV Guide-brand EPG service. You get one free year with EyeTV, and the old EPG deal won't end till this year (so you have two years of free EPG, I think), so it's not that bad, but something to consider.
Good luck with receiving Real Housewitches or Jersey Skanks OTA; they're cable-only.
I use my EyeTV Hybrid with an antenna plus my laptop as a DVR for my TV. I use the antenna because I don't have a cable splitter ($5 at Home Depot, I know), but it works well and lets me get HD. My laptop seems to be able to squeeze even more resolution out of my TV (SD 36" CRT monster) displaying an HD signal on it over S-video. The downscaled HD picture is noticeably sharper than analog cable. I'm in downtown ATL, so I have no problem getting a signal even with the antenna just sitting on the floor. The TV tower a few miles away puts out nearly 9 megawatts of RF power!
I'm sorry for the following rant but anything that does not get you premium HD content is a half-a$$ed device. unless of course your idea of HD is watching your local news team? Eyetv's entire lineup falls short of providing a path for accessing full HD TV.
s-video?! component?! are you kidding me? is this a tech blog or stay at home moms learning to browse the internets?
EyeTV is garbage, and you should be ashamed for using it for HD tv viewing. Although, their devices are excusable if you are encoding vhs or other media I suppose. I tried the eyetv 250 hdplus super duper blah blah and it was had a significant delay and was choppy at times in display the few hd cable channels it could carry. For anyone who is used to real hd content, this is a joke. I'll stick to fancast, hulu, netflix etc.
Additionally I think its ridiculous that I cannot play other sources on the imac- no real hd tv options (especially if your talking about HBO or NFLhd etc), you cannot hook up an xbox/ps3 to it. does apple really think I am going to go to the itunes store if they just lock out other sources?
as a pc user who wanted a new toy the 27iMac is beautiful but I feel handcuffed.
@thegreenmenace If you or anyone out there thought they would get HBO or NFL network with a tv tuner card.. I have a bridge to sell you.
I have one, and its not a full DVR solution, but it still is a handy little gadget. It also does clear QAM which will usually get you locals in HD even if you don't subscribe to HD, although YMMV by cable provider and system.