DVB and ATSC (Digital TV / HDTV) on the Mac. DVB is a popular standard for performing Digital Video Broadcast, i.e. It's used for the transmission of Digital TV (including HDTV). It relies on MPEG-2 compression just like DVDs do. This page is dedicated to receiving and viewing DVB and all the streams it transports on the Mac.
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I haven't had a cable subscription or owned a TV for the last 5 years or so and I've never looked back. However, I still like live sports, a familiar story I know. I have been looking into getting some kind of USB TV tuner, but the problem I'm running into is there doesn't seem to be anything available for Macs.
Anil kapoor serial 24 season 2 watch online. I just want a simple USB TV tuner. I don't need to broadcast throughout my house, I don't even need DVR or anything. I just want to be able to plug a USB into my Mac and watch live TV. From what I've seen the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid TV Tuner Stick seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, but it looks like it was discontinued a few years ago and the very few I have seen for sale are $250+
It seems like most of the other ones available only work for PCs. Also, what about software? Does anyone have experience with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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If you want to watch free TV on your Mac, we’ve looked at the best TV tuner for Mac in 2019 which can receive analog or digital free-to-air TV channels.
Although streaming sites such as Hulu (Limited Offer: $5.99 per month) , Netflix, iTunes and Amazon video have become the dominant way to stream video content on Mac, using a TV tuner is still the only way to pick up free-to-air and over-the-air (OTA) ATSC TV channels in the USA and digital TV DVT-B digital channels in Europe.
With a TV tuner, you don’t need any expensive cables, Netflix, Hulu or Amazon subscriptions – you can receive all the same free TV channels you get on a TV on your Mac.
Unfortunately the reality is that in 2019, the market has reduced so much that there are only two TV tuners that work well on Mac anymore – the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun and ElGato EyeTV (although the latter is no longer officially available in the USA apart from via resellers).
Here then is an updated list of the best TV tuners for Mac of 2019 in order of ranking.
1. Silicon Dust HDHomeRun
The Silicon Dust HDHomeRun has rapidly filled the vacuum left by Elgato EyeTv Hybrid in the USA and is now easily the best alternative to ElGato EyeTV for Mac users in North America.
Even in Europe and other regions, the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun now poses a serious alternative to ElGato EyeTV. Silicon Dust HDHomeRun is different from a traditional USB TV tuner like ElGato EyeTV because it’s a box that sits in the middle of your home and streams TV content to all devices including Mac via DLNA.
In some ways this is better than having a USB TV tuner sticking out of the side of your Mac that has to be connected to a cable. You can just connect your cable or digital aerial to the box and put it anywhere you want in your home. The wireless nature of Silicon Dust HDHomeRun is why Silicon Dust call it’s users “cord cutters” for those receiving TV via Antenna and “cord shavers” for those that receive TV via cable as it requires far few cables than most TV Tuner setups to distribute TV to any device in your home.
There’s no need for an extra box or extra subscriptions – as long as your Playstation, SmartTV is a DLNA device, it can receive channels from Silicon Dust HDHomeRun which makes it a very cost-effective home entertainment setup for your Mac.
You can even pause a show on one device, and restart watching it on another which is really useful if you want to continue watching a show on the iPad or TV in the bedroom for example.
Like Elgato EyeTV, Silicon Dust HDHomeRun has an easy to use Electronic Programming Guide called “Slice View” and allows you to set series and individual programs to record to an external drive or Network Attached Storage (NAS).
Slice View is free but if you want to be able to pause, rewind and record with the DVR service, it costs a bit extra. You can also record programs remotely if your away from your Mac using the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun DVR mobile app.
There are even apps for devices such as Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV so that you can make your Silicon Dust box record from it. Managing recordings is really easy on the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun and arguably better and more intuitive to use than ElGato EyeTV.
However we strongly recommend using a large capacity external hard drive along with your Silicon Dust Box otherwise your Mac hard drive will get full very quickly, especially if you’re recording in HD. Check our guide to the best external drive for Mac for some suggestions.
Like with ElGato EyeTV Hybrid, you have to be careful that you buy the right Silicon Dust HDHomeRun box for your region. You must purchase separate boxes depending on your region including USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
Another bonus is that you can also use Plex Media Server with a Silicon Dust box. Plex is a free home entertainment software that keeps all of your video and media in one place and is popular with users that want an alternative to iTunes or want to stream to other devices such as from Macs to Roku.
There are three different versions of Silicon Dust HDHomeRun – Connect, Extend and Prime and pricing depends on what kind of channels you want to receive.
You can see a comparison of the different services available below but basically Prime is for those with a US cable subscription and Connect for free-to-air digital channels in the USA and Europe. Extend is the same as Connect with the additional possibility to stream video wirelessly in a format that can be watched on phones and tablets. This is definitely worth the money as it takes a lot of your Mac’s processing power to convert to a mobile friendly format.
There are some slight drawbacks to using Silicon Dust boxes on Mac rather than PC.
One of the biggest disadvantages is that DRM protected content is not available on Mac using Silicon Dust boxes. It also can’t be used to connect to satellite dishes or services.
In spite of this, the fact remains that Silicon Dust HDHomeRun is still our favorite device to receive and watch free TV on Mac.
2. ElGato EyeTV Hybrid Europe / ElGato Eye TV Hybrid USA
Elgato EyeTV Hybrid is easily the most established TV Tuner for Mac on the market although since 2016, ElGato has stopped making TV Tuners for the US market.
ElGato EyeTV Hybrid is therefore no longer officially available in the USA and the product has been sold to German company Geniatech which now focuses EyeTV on the European market.
For European users therefore, ElGato EyeTV Hybrid is still a valid option. US users can still get older ElGato EyeTV Hybrid Tuners via resellers on Amazon that still work in the USA but as they are increasingly hard to find, they are expensive currently selling for anything up to around $500.
However, it’s still one of the only decent TV Tuners for Mac on the market and if you’re serious about a home entertainment solution without on-going expensive subscription fees, it’s still worth looking into, especially if you can get one cheaper.
The US version of ElGato EyeTV can receive analogue, digital and satellite channels although the European version no longer supports analogue.
In Europe, the EyeTV 3 DVR software costs an extra €79.95 and allows you to watch, pause and rewind live TV, schedule recordings, edit content and share content instantly with other Mac users on the same network.
However, it seems this software is no longer available to users in the USA meaning you can’t enjoy one of EyeTVs best features unless you’re in Europe.
The EyeTV 3 software gives a very TiVo like experience but in a familiar iTunes style interface with added touches such as Smart Series Guides, Playlists and the ability to view content on the iPhone.
It definitely feels a bit dated compared to a TiVo EPR or the one included in Silicon Dust HDHomeRun though.
One thing that shows extra consideration for Mac users is that Elgato EyeTV Hybrid exports recordings directly to iTunes making it easier to keep all your digital recordings in one place.
This makes it very easy for example to record your favorite TV series on your Mac and then watch it on your iPad in iTunes via iCloud – something that costs a bit extra with Silicon Dust HDHomeRun.
There are some big drawbacks to ElGato EyeTV Hybrid however.
The biggest for North American users is obviously the fact that it’s now very hard to get hold of and no longer supported by ElGato. For European users, there are also some issues to be aware of.
For example, ElGato EyeTV Hybrid it is not compatible in Europe with analogue TV signals, Freeview HD, and encrypted channels.
There are also specific DVB-T2 incompatibility issues including lack of support for certain DVB-T2 formats such as DVB-T2 HEVC and DVB-T2 h.264 in Austria (although other DVB-T2 h.264 broadcasting countries are supported).
One other thing we’ve found is that the ElGato EyeTv Hybrid USB stick tends to get quite hot during operation although it doesn’t seem to affect the quality of the video. There were however some stability issues after prolonged use which required force quitting the EyeTV software in order to get it working again.
You can also only record the channel you are watching – previous editions of ElGato EyeTV supported both analogue and digital which meant you could record one channel in analogue while watching another channel in digital but that’s no longer the case.
If you want closer integration between your iTunes collection and DVR and want a cheap alternative to TiVo on Mac, ElGato EyeTV for Mac is still the best out there – at least for European users but no longer in the US unfortunately.
3. SlingBox
SlingBox isn’t strictly a TV Tuner but it does allow you to watch TV channels on your Mac although the device has gone downhill somewhat and should be considered a last resort to watch TV on Mac.
Slingbox is a simple device which attaches to your receiving device – such as your cable provider or satellite box – and allows you to “sling” the channels it receives to your Mac and other mobile devices anywhere in the world.
You can even control your DVR remotely sing Slingbox meaning you can watch your home TV channels anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet.
The drawback is that you obviously need either a cable box from your cable provider or a satellite box to receive channels in the first place.
Slingbox then connects to these either by an Ethernet cable or a WiFi connection which it then uses to sling the channels anywhere you want. To watch Slingbox on your Mac, once your Slingbox is connected, you simply go to a URL provided by the Slingbox and you can start watching channels immediately on your Mac.
In older versions of the Slingbox M1 and M2 there was a Mac desktop app but that has now been discontinued and no longer needed. The Slingbox 500 is now the company’s main product and retails for around $299 although you can usually get it discounted either new or refurbished on Amazon.
Unfortunately, Slingbox isn’t quite the product it used to be.
Although it claims to be easy to setup, there are often problems and there seems to be no support.
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In addition, the company has now started injecting ads into the programs that it slings to your Mac which is extremely annoying, especially if you’ve already paid a few hundred dollars for the device.
However, as a last resort, if nothing else has worked for you, it is a way to watch TV channels on your Mac.
TV Tuners For Mac: What You Need To KnowDvb T Tuner Software Mac Pro
Most TV tuners are more than just receivers nowadays – they allow you to record, edit and share digital or analog TV channels with intelligent Electronic Programming Guides (EPGs) and provide almost all the benefits of TiVo or cable services.
Some TV Tuners even come with remote controls and if you connect your Mac to a sound system, you can create a low-cost home entertainment system without even having to buy a TV or subscribe to anything.
However, the market for TV tuners on Mac has changed significantly over the past few years and it can be confusing which still work on Mac and which countries they support.
Long gone are the days when there were lots of TV Tuners for Mac available.
In 2019, the market for TV Tuners is now considerably reduced as less users choose to watch TV channels on their Mac, preferring instead to stream movies and TV series from services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime instead.
Streaming content offers other advantages over TV Tuners too such as the ability to watch content not available in your region by using a VPN on your Mac.
However being able to watch TV on Mac is still a great way to bring your iTunes and TV recordings collection closer together and avoids the expense of expensive cable subscriptions or even the cost of buying a TV if you’re limited in space or budget.
To complicate things further, the TV tuner market has become more complex over the past few years with different broadcasting technologies emerging, TV tuners being restricted to specific countries and regions and industry leader ElGato dropping support for TV tuners.
Dvb T Tuner Software Mac Os X
Here then are some important things to consider to avoid disappointment when choosing a TV tuner for your Mac.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, traditional TV tuners have become virtually obsolete on Mac. The death of ElGato EyeTV in the USA was a big blow for North American users although it’s still a very good option for Mac users in Europe.
However, although not a USB TV Tuner in the traditional sense, the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun is easily the best solution for watching TV channels on your Mac for users on both sides of the pond. It’s easy to use, is still widely available in the USA, Europe and other parts of the world. Slingbox remains a last resort and seems to be another TV viewing solution on Mac that’s dying a death.
Dvb-t Receiver
We hope this article has helped you find a way to watch TV on your Mac but if you have any questions, problems or experiences with the products featured here, let us know in the comments below.
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