Elgato

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elgato Systems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Apple Macintosh family of personal computers, including internationally acclaimed EyeTV software. Founded in 1992 by Markus Fest, also known as the creator of the Toast CD-burning software for Macintosh, Elgato is a privately held company based in Germany with US offices in San Francisco, California.

Contents

[edit] Products

[edit] Hardware

[edit] EyeTV Models, Past To Present

[edit] 1st EyeTV (aka EyeTV USB)

Elgato's first EyeTV product was unveiled on September 29th(?) at the 2002 Macworld Expo in New York. Made of white plastic and roughly paperback-book in size, the $199 device was USB 1.1-based and had an analog NTSC TV tuner. While it could only record in the lesser-quality MPEG-1 format, the EyeTV was the first Macintosh-based TV tuner to offer the highly-coveted TiVo-like ability to 'pause and replay' live TV. It was also the first Mac-based TV tuner to partner with TitanTV, a free online TV-programming guide, to permit the scheduled recording of upcoming TV shows. The EyeTV's (same-named) software was easy to use and configure, letting users choose different recording settings, and different viewable-TV window sizes, including full screen. And because virtually any recent (G3 or better) Mac could process the MPEG-1 format without difficulty, even the EyeTV's lesser-quality capabilities worked in its favor. Now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 300

For free-to-air digital satellite television, or DVB-S, in the European/UK market, released in November 2003. Now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 400

Released in November 2003, EyeTV 410 enabled European and UK Mac users to watch and record unencrypted Digital Terrestrial Television, or DVB-T on a Mac. Now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 200 - FireWire D.V.R.

Elgato's second-generation EyeTV product. Unveiled January 6, 2004 at the Macworld Expo, San Francisco. Whereas the original EyeTV used a 12Mbit/s USB 1.1-connection and was thus limited to MPEG-1 only, the EyeTV 200 featured the much higher bandwidth of 400Mbit/s FireWire, and could easily support recording to DVD-quality MPEG-2. In addition, the EyeTV 200 possessed much-expanded D.V.R. (digital video recording) capabilities, aka PVR. The EyeTV 200 also featured a new, trade-size silver housing with a red IR lens on the front for the included remote. Among its many accolades, on December 13th, 2004, the EyeTV 200 won Macworld's Editors' Choice Award for Hardware of the Year. Now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 500 - HDTV P.V.R.

Unveiled June 29th, 2004 at the Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The EyeTV 500 was identical to the EyeTV 200 in most respects, but featured ATSC HDTV capability instead of the 200's standard-definition NTSC. While the EyeTV 500 could display an HDTV signal on a G4-based Mac, a G5 or better was required for hi-def recording and advanced DVR/PVR functionality. Now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 310

Released in June 2004, the EyeTV 310 replaced the EyeTV 300. It enables European and UK customers to receive unencrypted Digital Satellite Television, or DVB-S, on a Mac, and includes a Common Interface (CI) for PayTV.

[edit] EyeTV 410

Released in September 2004 at Apple Expo Paris, EyeTV 410 replaced the EyeTV 400. It is a DVB-T receiver for the European and UK market, and includes a Common Interface (CI) slot for Pay TV. EyeTV 410 has won a number of awards, including MacUser UK's 2005 Best Video Device, MacWorld UK's Reader's Choice award in both 2005 and 2006.

[edit] EyeTV 610

In November 2004 Elgato released EyeTV 610, the world's first digital TV recorder for digital cable television, DVB-C) and PayTV on the Mac, for the European/UK market.

[edit] EyeTV Wonder

A joint venture between Elgato and ATI Technologies, using a USB 2.0-based ATI external analog tuner plus Elgato's EyeTV software. Released in January 2005, now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV EZ

A joint venture between Elgato and TerraTec, using a USB 2.0-based TerraTec external analog tuner plus Elgato's EyeTV software. Released in September 2005, now discontinued.

[edit] EyeTV 250

A smaller-sized, analog TV tuner with hardware encoding to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. Can also be used to digitize VHS videocassettes or connect video game consoles (i.e. Nintendo's GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, etc.) Released in April 2006 for US $199.

[edit] EyeTV for DTT

Originally released in 2005 in a small TV-box format, EyeTV for DTT switched to a USB stick format in July 2006. For the reception of free-to-view DVB-T (or in the UK, Freeview). Winner of the MacUser 2006 Reader's Choice award for Best Video device.

[edit] EyeTV Hybrid

An external USB 2.0 stick, it is a 2-in-1 device with ATSC HDTV capability, plus NTSC standard-definition analog. Also available in DVB-T/PAL for the international market. Software encoder - uses the Mac's processor to encode the signal. Released in October 2006 for US $149 and 149 euro.

[edit] EyeTV Diversity

Released in October 2006 at MacExpo London, EyeTV Diversity is the world's first application of Antenna Diversity technology in a TV tuner for the Mac. In Diversity mode, the device can receive DVB-T signals deep indoors and at speeds of up to 160 km/h. In Dual-Tuner mode, the device becomes two conventional DVB-T tuners, enabling the user to watch two different TV channels at the same time Picture-in-Picture, or watch one channel and record another simultaneously.

[edit] EyeHome

Elgato's EyeHome is a hardware- and software-based digital media player that allows users to view their music, photos and video (including EyeTV content) on their televisions or home entertainment centers.

In implementation, the EyeHome hardware connects via composite, S-Video, or component jacks to a TV or stereo, and then "bridges" to a Mac via 10/100 Ethernet, either directly by cable or by using an 802.11g wireless router (802.11b can be used, but only for audio files and pictures - no video). The software then installs on the Mac - or multiple Macs, with a separate installation of the software needed for each. Supported media formats include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, AAC, MP3, JPEGs, GIFs, and even DivX with subtitles.

The EyeHome was unveiled January 6, 2004 at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, and is basically identical in appearance to the EyeTV 200, even featuring the same IR lens on the front for an included remote. Initial reviews of the device were mixed, but focused mostly on the shortcomings and limitations of the software. The device continues to sell, however, and as of mid-2006, the EyeHome software stands at version 1.8, including support for iLife '06 as well as Universal Binary coding for Apple's new Intel systems (see external links). Now discontinued.

[edit] Turbo.264

Elgato announced a new hardware for mac that helps you to encode your movies for your iPod, Apple TV or the upcoming iPhone. The Turbo 264 is a USB stick that is very easy to use. Plug it in your mac, install the software and you are ready to go. The stick is a H.264 video encoder hardware that helps you to encode movies in H.264 format that are playable on your iPod, Apple Tv or iPhone. Of course you could play this files also in Quicktime or iTunes and other devices as Sony's PSP or various other mobile phones. The stick speeds up encoding by two up to four times the speed and takes the encoding process from the CPU to the stick so that you could work on your mac unrestricted. The stick could be used from any appilcation that uses Quicktime to export to H264 format for example iMovie HD or Elgato EyeTV. To use it with Quicktime you will need Quicktime Pro but Elgato also offers a simple application that comes with the stick to encode movies. Elgato hopes to release the stick at the end of April 2007 for 99 Euros. First info found on iPhone-scene.

[edit] Software

[edit] EyeTV

Elgato's EyeTV 2.0 software is (arguably) among the best, if not the best, TV viewing and recording software available for the Mac. Over its lifetime, the software has received numerous above-average to stellar reviews (see external links) for its ease of use, advanced TiVo-like PVR functionality, and seamless integration into the Mac platform. Now in version 2.3.3, the software currently retails for US $79 and can be purchased alone for use with separate hardware, or together as one of many hardware/software combo packages, from sellers including ATI, Plextor, TerraTec, or Elgato itself (see above).

[edit] EyeConnect

EyeConnect is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) software which allows users to stream media content, including Apple iLife files and/or EyeTV recordings, from a computer to a separate TV or stereo system.

[edit] Toast

Toast, although owned by Roxio, is developed by Elgato.

[edit] See also

Regarding the EyeHome: Apple's new "iTV" project, set to debut in 2007.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/l/g/Elgato.html"