Indeed, Pinnacle has two Mac-oriented products: the digital-only TV for Mac DVB-T Stick and the digital and analogue TV for Mac Hybrid Stick - both of which bundle a cut-down version of EyeTV, EyeTV Lite. They're priced at £70 and £100, respectively. EyeTV also works with Pinnacle's otherwise PC-only PCTV series of USB tuners.
Pinnacle's Mac DVB-T Stick: Freeview ready
Terratec likewise offers Mac versions of its Cinergy DT USB XS Diversity dual digital tuner; Cinergy T² external tuner; digital-only Cinergy T USB XS; and digital/analogue Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS, all bundled with EyeTV.
Hauppauge offers €20 off the price of EyeTV with its compatible hardware products, the WinTV Nova T, WinTV HVR 900 the WinTV HVR 950 and the WinTV Nova TD. Each comes with a code you can key into a page of Elgato's online store to redeem the discount.
Elgato itself offers are range of very similar products - most come from the same Asian manufacturers and are rebranded by the local suppliers - including the digital/analogue EyeTV Hybrid, the digital-only EyeTV DTT and the dual-tuner digital-only EyeTV Diversity, all USB dongles, and all HDTV compatible once HDTV programmed is broadcast over the Freeview network. You'll need a modern Mac to smoothly show the HD picture.
These, and similar products from the other suppliers, certainly work well with Macs, though while they all come bundled with one or more mini aerials, we'd recommend you use them with a standard roof- or loft-mounted antenna to pick up the largest selection of channels.
Hauppauge's WinTV Nova TD: two tuners to boost reception
Diversity-branded dongles come with two antenna and the ability to use both tuners as a single, stronger receiver. It certainly improves the reception, but, depending on your location, you may find the improvement limited. This isn't going to change until analogue transmissions are turned off and UK DVB-T signal strengths can be increased.
COMMENTS
Virgin Media and Elgato EyeTV 610 and
Minor correction to the article...
The EyeTV 610 does work with Virgin Media's DVB-C service in the UK (including the V+ HD broadcast). However, caution... using it won't be supported by Virgin Media! You also need a CAM... e.g. T-REX SuperModule 4.6
The Elgato EyeTV 610 can be ordered in the UK from the Elgato online store and, no, I don't work for Elgato.
There is an easier way
Get a spare Widows PC and set it up as a media server and then use the Mac as a dumb client. While there are some real world uses for a Mac (i have been told this, never seen one yet)
Mac's are just like a super car, nice to look at but rubbish to drive and useless for day to day use (just try speed bumps) where as you really can do anything with Windows PC and do it well
You can watch as many channels simultaneously as you want...
...if your CPU can handle it **and** if they are transmitted on the same frequency. What you can't do is watch two channels or more on different frequencies unless you have two tuners (e.g. the hybrid can record two different channels independently).
Why there isn't a built-in tuner...
Quote "...to fill the gap Apple has left, and if you want to watch analogue or digital broadcasts, satellite or cable transmissions on your Mac, you can..."
The gap is there for the very simple reason that there are so many different standards out there - does Apple include an analogue only, DVB-T only, DVB-S only, DVB-C only or mixture of tuners? And why bother when a) most people don't want a TV tuner for the computer anyway and b) there are great options on offer from third parties already out there, for people to pick what is just right for them?
Re: Matt
To view two channels at once, you will need two tuners connected to the machine. The safe way to do this is to get something like the EyeTV Diversity which has twin tuners built in. I remember reading something about EyeTV supporting two independant tuners, but I think it was more luck that it worked at the time :)
