![]() ![]() But when I hopped into a cab and watched WNBC for a good 20 minutes, the reception on the EyeTV Mobile was rock-solid (or, at least, no worse than when I was stationary). It works in a vehicle: Supposedly, standard ATSC TV reception doesn't work very well when you're in a vehicle in motion. Again, though, the zoomed video often accentuates the lackluster video quality on many of the channels we tried. Sarah Tew/CNETĪspect ratio control: Zoom control is available, so it's always possible to fill the screen. And EyeTV Mobile does support it.Ĭlosed captioning works well. So you can pause, rewind, and fast-forward the last few minutes of action.Ĭlosed-captioning support: Captions are important for the growing number of viewers who are elderly or hard of hearing or both. Pause and rewind live TV: While EyeTV doesn't have the capability to record specific TV shows, it does buffer what you're watching. (You'll need Net access for the EPG, however.) Among other things, that could make the EyeTV Mobile a good way to get TV during weather- or disaster-spawned power outages - assuming, of course, your mobile device and the EyeTV are juiced up ahead of time. As long as you're in an area served by Dyle Mobile TV, you can watch the available channels. No Internet needed: For all other streaming video services - Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, Slingbox - you need to be online not so with EyeTV Mobile. Don't expect a crisp HD picture instead, think "old-school YouTube" - or maybe Skype or FaceTime during a bandwidth-challenged day. On the iPad, the flaws were magnified: the picture generally appeared blocky, with noticeable square MPEG artifacts, especially during high-motion sequences and during transitions (fading in and to black, for instance). Dyle's picture size appears to be optimized for the small screen, which is why it generally looked better on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Picture quality was not particularly impressive, especially on the iPad. Watching TV on an iPhone or iPad worked well enough, but it was far from flawless. Unfortunately, it took a few minutes to load, and only seemed to work for some of the channels. The EyeTV Mobile also includes a built-in electronic programming guide (EPG), so you can see what's on. ![]() As mentioned above, I was able to receive the promised channels in both the New York and Philadelphia areas. There's an annoying survey to fill out (why do you need to tell them your gender and year of birth?), but the EyeTV will then begin scanning for available channels. Just plug it in to the 30-pin port of an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, and you should be immediately prompted to download Elgato's free EyeTV Mobile app from the App Store. ![]() Setting up the EyeTV Mobile is pretty simple. You can set the app to draw from the battery of the dongle or of the iPad/iPhone while in use. Yes, the EyeTV dongle has its own battery that needs to be occasionally charged (using a spare USB charger or your PC's USB port). I wouldn't expect this thing to survive much abuse, such as being stepped on. In fact, the EyeTV Mobile as a whole feels rather brittle. It'll stay in if you don't fiddle with it, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence. The portable telescoping antenna just pops into the port on the EyeTV's back. Compatibility appears limited to a handful of Samsung Galaxy devices and the Nexus 7. The Micro, which costs 60 pounds, is basically just an Android iteration of the European/Japanese EyeTV Mobile described above, with a Micro-USB dongle replacing the Apple 30-pin connector, and a corresponding free Android viewing app. The second international EyeTV version is called the EyeTV Micro. (This one, of course, will not work in the U.S.) It retails for 90 pounds in the U.K. The first, also called EyeTV Mobile, "has been confirmed to work in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as any country that broadcasts standard definition MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/H.264 video," according to Elgato. That said, there are two very similar versions that work specifically for the many markets that offer the DVB-T (Freeview) or ISDB-T digital TV standards. If you bring it overseas - or even to Mexico and Canada - you won't get any channels. International readers take note: the EyeTV Mobile is a U.S.-only product. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |