Geniatech Elgato EyeTV Hybrid Digital Cable and DTT TV Tuner - White

(Note: This is a review for the 'new' Elgato EyeTV Hybrid Digital Cable and DTT TV Tuner, not to be confused with the old Hybrid product that had an analogue video-in facility. I believe Amazon seems to have mixed the two products reviews on this page (probably due to the confusingly same product name).)I have been hoping for a USB Mac / OS X DVB-T2 (UK Freeview HD) solution for a number of years and was hoping this would be a good choice for me. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way.I have a number of older TV tuners, TVs and set-top boxes, all of which get a very good quality and high strength signal from my roof-top aerial. But whatever I tried, I couldn't get the same signal strength on this device. When I tried to tune it it wouldn't pick up all the channels (both SD and HD) that all my other devices do easily. Many of those it did find would only work extremely intermittently, stuttering video a few frames at a time at 'best'.Perhaps there is a hardware or firmware or software fix possible for this problem, or perhaps I got a defective individual item, but I have read of other people with the same issue with this device online. So, sadly, I felt I had to return the item as it simply didn't do what it was supposed to. Others may have more luck than I did.The EyeTV software, which I had before buying this product, remains great - it was just this hardware that didn't work out for me. I recommend the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Connect product as an alternative (which is network/ethernet based rather than USB, but can be configured locally if you want to, and also works well with the EyeTV software).

I advise you to avoid this product. It is plagued by flaws, and there is no effective tech support behind it. EyeTV used to be a great name you could trust, but it's sadly not true anymore.I watch FreeView (DVB) in the UK. I already have a very old EyeTV DTT receiver (bought in 2005) which works great for non-HD. It's been incredibly reliable.Like most EyeTV users, for years I've wanted support for HD channels (DVB-T2 in the UK). Finally this product came out, so I bought it immediately (based on their excellent reputation and my previous experience with them).I found that a few HD channels work, but they have delayed audio so it's out of sync with the video. Other HD channels don't work at all. What makes it particularly useless is that NONE of the 50-or-so non-HD channels work at all. They show a still picture every ten seconds and an occasionally snippet of glitchy audio.I sent it back to them, they said it must be a one-off faulty unit and sent me another. By an incredible coincidence it has exactly the same problems as the first one. They said they'd "test" the first unit to discover what's wrong. Now they've gone completely silent and don't respond to emails, and it's too late for me to request a return through Amazon.EyeTV used to be a great vendor of products for getting digital TV on the Mac. Shame it's gone down the toilet.

This did nothing that I expected. I had a previous Elgato Hybrid that allowed me to watch cable TV on my Mac and record programs occasionally. EyeTV program was great. I tried to find a replacement when my Elgato failed afrer 5 years. I looked at this and the nomenclature was more than confusing. Deceiptive might be more accurate. This device takes broadcast Digital TV and allows you to watch it on your mac using the excellent Eye TV program from an antenna. (Or this is what I think it does, I have not done this.) It does not allow you to watch cable as the previous version did.I have not found a replacement for my previous Elgato EyeTV Hybrid. (What the heck does hybrid mean anyway.)

Having read the other reviews of this product, I decided to go ahead and buy as I wanted the Freeview HD channels on my Mac mini.It does this admirably and recording the F1 coverage on Ch 4 is now possible (C4HD left the Freesat platform recently).As for the SD channels and radio - forget it, they're useless on this device.Reading around the web of promises to fix this bug have so far proved groundless.In short - if you want HDTV only, go for it. If you want SDTV and Radio, look elsewhere.

Excellent HD on iMacBut oddly standard definition jumpy, so unable to watch local BBC news which not transmitted in HD.

This is clearly misleading from Amazon. Like another reviewer I also bought this to send TV to my Mac (from a VirginMedia TiVo). I had also had a previous Hybrid model that worked fine for a couple of years and this new model was to replace it as it had failed.I received the new version and it wouldn't find any TV channels.I contacted Elgato product support and this is their response:---------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you for contacting Elgato Systems.Current EyeTV Hybrid units sold in Europe are digital only.They cannot receive any analog signals.Thus, they can't work with a RF modulator, or any other type of analog signal.-------------------------------------------------------------------------Amazon - you have some explaining to do and I suggest you remove this product or amend its description.HOWEVER there is a more elegant, and cheaper solution. I bought a SlingBox 350 for less than the Elgato Hybrid costs. This sends the TV signal over the network so eliminating the coax cable, and has the massive added benefit that you can you watch your content on PC, Mac, Smartphone and Tablets - anywhere in the world - using their free SlingPlayer apps.

SD channels are ok but cannot watch HD channels with it . Picture is twitching all the time. useless tuner to me because HD channels were the reason I bought it and its not working

Work well but needs software up grade which you have to search for.