Reviews for Elgato EyeTV Diversity

I was a bit sceptical about how this device would work as we have rather poor reception where we live. In practice the 2 aerials work well together to give what to all intents and purposes are perfect pictures on our iMac. The software works well and recording is easy to set up. The final good bit for us is that conversion to other formats is easy to do so we can time shift programmes to our Apple TV.

I recently bought a TubeStick tuner but sent it back because the software "The Tube" did not match my expectations. TubeStick is cheaper and delivers really great video quality but the software lacks of few important features such as a overlayed program guide which makes it impossible to read it from the couch.

So I replaced it with an EyeTV Diversity.

First notice compare to the TubeStick is I was able to get few more channels (21 on with TubeStick and 29 with EyeTV Diveristy).

Second notice is the video quality EyeTV Diversity is much less than with TubeStick. I was really amazed by the DVD like quality of TubeStick and EyeTV was just like watching VCD lacking of sharpness and having compression artifacts. But it is still decent and unnoticeable if you watch from the couch (at a distance, which is usually how I watch it).

EyeTV Diversity includes two internal TV tuners and you can connect one antenna to each. In the preferences you can set how those two tuners are working together:
- in Diversity mode, the two tuners are set to the same frequency and a DSP will generate merge the two signal and generate a better signal. For me this is working inconsistently. Some channels were much better some others are just worse.

- in Dual Tunner mode, the two tuners are independent, which allows you to watch two channels at the same time either as picture in picture or with two separated windows. You can also watch one channel and record another one. In this mode I've noticed that channels that don't work on Diversity Mode have one tunner in 100% quality and the other at 0%. If I move the 2nd tuner's antenna to get 100% quality then the channels works perfectly in Diversity Mode.

- in Single Antenna mode, as its name indicates, only one tuner/antenna at a time is used. But it seams that the software will use the tuner that have the best signal quality which to my experience works much better than the Diversity Mode. I could set antenna one to get a really good signal for one channel and 0% on the other tunner. But that second tuner delivers 100% quality to other channels. In that setup I have an antenna pointing to one direction to be optimized for some set of channels and the second antenna is pointing to an other direction to be optimized to another set of channels, EyeTV then will pick the best tuner for each channel. I've now managed to get 65 channels (53 free ones)

Recording with EyeTV 3.
- one feature missing with EyeTV 3 that I would like to see is the one of The Tube software: as you watch live tv, you could rewind from the beginning and get the software to record from that moment. Sometimes you don't know if a program is good until you watch it and would like to record and watch again later.
- one hour recording is using 3.3GB of disk space
- recording quality is as good as what you see live
- scheduling future recording is just great with a good search feature

The program guide is just cool, especially the overlayed one, it's clear and readable. But I would love to see the software updated with a menu that is a bit like Freeview boxes: program guide on one side, small preview of the channel on the other side and a description of the selected program underneath it.
On the current overlayed program guide, you need to select the program which brings you to another screen where you can decide to view the description, record or watch it now. Would be cool to see the description as you navigate through programs.

The iPhone app is great, you can even watch live TV via 3G (need good signal though). You can view the program guide and add recording schedules. Image is sharp! But the quality is fixed so you need a really good 3G signal unless you buy their Turbo encoder hardware.

Subtitles are also very readable.

So far deeply unimpressed - absolutely zilch signal so no channels in Birmingham UK. Will be returning it to the Apple Store

This is not my first eyetv product. Hence why I bought again. But this is rubbish. The two arials that come with it are too small. And when plugged in to a house arial I can't watch and record different channels. The remote eats batteries with hours.
Stay away from this product.

I purchased this product to allow me to catch up on my TV viewing when I wanted to without the kids hogging the SKY+ with Tom & Jerry & The Simpsons!!

I have an loft mounted aerial which I plugged straight into the EyeTV Diversity USB Stick with the supplied Diversity connection allowing two channels to be viewed or recorded at once. I have to say within 5 minutes of opening it was up and running and the supplied EyeTV Software installed and configured. Fantasticly easy and great quality picture.

After a few minutes of going through the options I noticed the option to automatically convert all recordings and publish them on an internal website with no configuration to worry about. I altered the settings and clicked the option to convert for iPhone H.264 640x480 and to automatically convert when recorded and publish.

After a few recordings I then when onto both my iPhone and iPod Touch and over the WiFi browsed the advertised URL. Fantastic, I got a website with all of my recordings in a list which when clicked allow me to stream the recording to my iPhone with brilliant quality picture and sound. I then opened up a port on my firewall to direct external traffic to the website and then was able to view the same recordings over 3G on my iPhone from anywhere!!

Lastly, I already own another Elgato product called the Turbo.264 HD encoder which works with the EyeTV Software and decreases the time to convert a recording by approx 40%-50%. Highly recommended.

I've been using this product for about a year and have found it does everything it says on the box.

My only criticism is of the aerial cables.
Proportionally they are too heavy, for nearly all my requirements they are also too short.

Otherwise, it really is a fantastic product.

A fantastic piece of kit but only if you happen do not have a home. Indoors it simply does not work. I tried on three locations and on all it is the same: 0 channels found! Yet outdoors it picks some 80 channels. I bought this piece of kit to replace an older one I also got from Elgato, the EYE TV200, but the latter with a small indoor antenna picks up to 3 channels. Is Elgato moving backwards?
I know that info on the packet often exaggerates the abilities of the product but maybe they use the same outer packet for the UK and the US, where perhaps signal intensity is stronger. If so they really should have tested this around the UK before launching the product.

Doesn't work basically. Advertised as able to pick up signal indoors and in areas of poor coverage - but doesn't. Might work if connected to a roof/main aerial but that's not the point. Frankly, feel a bit ripped off.

What could be an excellent product has one or two issues. The supplied antennae didn't pick up any channels in my upstairs room. With the main aerial feed which is fine for other DVB-T receivers it couldn't find the multiplex carrying ITV and Channel 4, though it did find 220 other channels!
Changing channels with the remote control in full screen mode sometimes switched the display to thumbnail size.
After using EyeTV I was unable to use PreView to read a PDF document because the menu bar was completely screwed up and I had to reboot (Macbook Pro/10.5.5).
But for watching TV if you've got a good signal it's fine. I haven't tried the recording facilities yet.