HD Comes to EyeTV
If you have been following DigMo! for even a few months you will know how much we love watching, recording and editing TV on our Macs. So far we have been restricted to the generic list of Freeview channels and although they are great there isn’t an HD offering.
The new Elgato EyeTV Sat with CI Slot
Well that is about the change with the launch of Elgato EyeTV Sat, a new satellite TV tuner that delivers the stunning clarity of HDTV to the high resolution display of the Mac. EyeTV Sat connects the home satellite dish directly to the Mac via USB 2.0, and receives DVB-S and DVB-S2 transmissions.
Although not officially endorsed by FreeStat the full range of channels will able accessible (see here for a full list) including BBC HD. Direct HD TV recording via EyeTV is an exciting development both for home and educational use.
Powered by Elgato’s award-winning EyeTV 3 software, EyeTV Sat enables users to watch, record, edit and enjoy satellite HDTV on a Mac. For switchers, it also offers a complete Windows solution in the form of TerraTec Home Cinema software. EyeTV Sat has a built-in CI slot to enable Pay TV programming with an appropriate subscription module.
Superb quality recordings
EyeTV Sat has one quality setting, Lossless. The DVB stream is recorded unaltered to deliver the full quality MPEG-2/H.264 file as encoded by the broadcaster, both in HD and standard definition. EyeTV Sat supports multilingual programming, Teletext and Dolby® Digital sound.
Satellite Pay TV
EyeTV Sat has an integrated CI slot for satellite Pay TV which can be used with a compatible combination of conditional access module (CAM) and Pay TV subscription smartcard (not included). Elgato recommends that users check with their Pay TV provider to verify support of third-party standard CI receivers. Some providers, such as BSkyB in the UK, allow their smartcards to be used with proprietary set top boxes only.
Powered by EyeTV 3 Software for the Mac
EyeTV Sat comes complete with EyeTV 3 software for which we have produced a number of tutorials and help How to remove Ad breaks with EyeTV and How to use Smart Guides to name but two.
EyeTV 3
Watch, pause, and rewind live television at a desk or from the comfort of the couch. Search the Program Guide and create Smart Guides to subscribe to a TV series and topics of interest. Organize channels, edit unwanted content from recordings and create Smart Playlists to keep them organized. Put recorded TV shows and movies into iTunes to sync with an iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. Share EyeTV recordings over a local network, or access them via Wi-Fi on an iPod®, iPhone™ and selected SmartPhones.
Compatible with Windows
EyeTV Sat comes with TerraTec Home Cinema software and drivers for Windows PC compatibility, and many of the same features offered by Elgato’s EyeTV 3 software are supported.
Pricing and Availability
EyeTV Sat is now shipping and can be purchased at the Elgato Online Store for £179.95. It will be available at Apple retail stores and other local Mac resellers shortly.
Frankly we really can’t wait!
Expect a full review on site in the next few weeks.
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7 Comments
Ohhh – and with the satelite cable already coming in through the wall in the study right beside the Mac MIni, suddenly FreeSat is a possibility!
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This is shaping up to be a great summer. I’m thankful I’ve moved in to a house with a satellite dish already in place. Hope it works! Elgato are the El Gateaux of mac accessories.
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You have already been able to do this using the EyeTV-310 which can also pickup DVB-S and DVB-S2 signals. People have already been using this model to get FreeSAT, even ITV HD.
The only ‘news’ here is that the new EyeTV SAT being USB, will work with MacBook, and MacBook Air models that do not have any FireWire connection (the EyeTV 310 is a FireWire only device).
Unfortunately there is still no sign Elgato are going to support the non-standard EPG used by FreeSAT (which has already been cracked in the Windows world).
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Ordered it on the day it was announced and it works brilliantly, the only downside is that the beautiful HD picture on my iMac 24 puts standard definition in the shade.
Already owned a 250 Plus but due to poor signal strength it struggled to change channels …this ruled out using the timer to record. I thought it might be flaky software, but on this new model the EyeTV 3 software works without a glitch.
Highly recommended
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I ordered one last week that arrived yesterday. Unfortunately my Sat dish isn’t working, getting that fixed tomorrow.
Can anyone point me towards the method of getting ITV HD? I thought this was a red button feature, not a channel in it’s own right? Thanks.
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DigMo Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I haven’t had a chance to try it out as yet but the way it works on FreeSaat is through the Red Button, but on EyeTV there we have no Red Button.
However, on the occasions that ITV HD is broadcasting, EyeTV Sat shouyld be able to pick it up. It’s just knowing the right frequency to check, at th right time. It’s also not clear as the frequency changes (hence the Red Button thing).
I hope that helps, when I get my hands on one I will be posting a full how-to guide.
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Apologies in advance if you’re not supposed to post links here. I did find the answer to how to receive ITV HD, but it looks like a bit of a hack. I also can’t test this myself until I get my Satellite dish working properly!
http://forums.elgato.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1730
Look at the fifth reply, from user Macest.
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