Equinux Tizi iPhone TV tuner

TV network

The Tizi.tv app is very straightforward. With the iPad or iPhone held upright, the app displays the TV image in the upper half of the screen, with a scrolling list of channels in the lower half. Turn the device sideways into wide-screen mode and the TV image expands to fill the screen.

Video can be viewed full-screen when you rotate the iOS4 device

The image quality is perfectly acceptable given that it’s standard-def only, and you can record programs to watch later or to transfer on to a Mac or PC using iTunes. However, the Tizi records in MPEG-2 TS format, so you’ll need to look around on-line in order to locate suitable media player software for watching your recordings on a Mac or PC. VLC should do it, but the Equinux FAQ may save you some trouble on this and other matters.

The disadvantage of connecting directly to the Tizi wirelessly is that your iPad or iPhone can no longer use an existing network to remain connected to the Internet. Hence, it’s not possible to quickly switch over to your web browser or any other app that requires Internet access – although 3G Internet access is still possible.

Alas, no interfacing for an external aerial

The other thing that I found disappointing is that the Tizi can’t be connected to an external aerial. I tested the Tizi as I travelled around London over the course of several days. Its outdoor reception was generally pretty good, and I was able to watch TV inside a number of suitably trendy coffee shops, as long as I sat near the windows. Overall, the battery life matched Equinux's claims of around 3.5hrs.