“Avid Technology today announced that its consumer division, Pinnacle Systems, is entering the market for Mac peripherals with three new USB TV tuner devices: two for the European market and one for the US market,” MacNN reports.
“The new portable Pinnacle TV for Mac Sticks are designed to turn any Mac into a full-featured TV receiver/recorder with a remote control. The Pinnacle TV for Mac DVB-T Stick enables European users to watch, “TimeShift,” and record digital TV and radio (DVB-T) programs, while the Pinnacle TV for Mac Hybrid Stick delivers the same functionality along with analog TV reception and the ability to act as a video capture device,” MacNN reports.
MacNN reports, “The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick offers U.S. users access to ATSC HDTV directly on Mac systems while also supporting standard analog TV. The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick is due to ship in March in the U.S. for $130 (pricing and availability of the European models was unavailable).”
More info and links in the full article here.
Related articles:
equinux introduces TubeStick, digital TV for your Mac – March 01, 2007
How do Apple TV and Elgato’s EyeTV work together? – February 16, 2007
Review: Elgato EyeTV Hybrid USB TV tuner for Apple Mac – September 25, 2006
Mac Sticks? Mac Sticks?!?
I got yer Mac Stick right here.
Are these things for broadcast TV? If so, does anyone still watch that?
I’m waiting for a REAL replacement for my 3 networked ReplayTVs. ReplayTV was an excellent device (much more “Mac-like” than TiVo in it’s ease of use).
Still waiting for the true convergence of the Mac and TV (cable, PPV, etc.). And no, Media Center doesn’t even come close!
A lot of people still watch digital broadcast because HDTV over broadcast usually looks better than HDTV cable, and IPTV…and always better than HDTV satellite.
I still expect one of these devices to eventually work with the iTV. If iTunes is able to offer bi-directional video synchronzation, this should be easy as the Apple TV is basically a Mac.
i still watch over the air TV. Cable is too expensive and i don’t watch more than a couple of hours of TV a week so the 6 channels i get with the rabbit ears are good enough for me.
I have a small TV in my bedroom as well as an old G4 iLamp iMac. With this product, i could get rid of the TV, and just use the iMac to watch South Park in bed. $130 seems a but much tough, i’ll have to investigate the product further and see if there is any further value in it.
People still watch TV? I download anything I want to watch.
Pre-Avid Pinnacle products were very flaky! They were of the not-quite-working-but-good-enough variety. Many of my video editor friends would say I was being too kind.
I hope a company like Canopus comes up with something like this.
mike k.: $130 seems a but much tough
drunk at 12:30 in the afternoon is no way to go through life … that should have read “$130 seems a bit much though”
“The Pinnacle TV for Mac HD Stick offers U.S. users access to ATSC HDTV directly on Mac systems while also supporting standard analog TV.”
ATSC is “over the air” HD TV, very limited channels and requires a rooftop antenna.
You cannot watch digital/HDCP/ACCS/ClearQAM signals/HD Cable TV with this device.
You can watch analog cable (NTSC/PAL), but analog will be phased out in the US by 2008.
Apple created the iTV and sells video content through iTunes because of this change to all digital/HD/DRM content.
got an EYETV hybrid hooked to a Mac mini. 18 digital station of which 10 are HDTV capable. The rest are side band channels that carry delayed news broadcast or 24/7 weather channels. The Nature series, travel series, History series, and cooking shows on PBS 24/7 HD channel are outrageous. Every football game and baseball game that I watch in HD is phenomenal. As for basketball … it’s like you are at the game live. With March madness just around the corner I’ll be in hoopster heaven. WNET just recently announced that cable stations in the NY metro area will decline to carry their HD channel due to lack of bandwidth so people with cable will only get to see the SD sideband variant of their programming which is the same as the analog stuff. I put an HD UHF antenna on the roof of my building from antennas direct. I had to boost the signal by about 67dB to compensate for old RG56 wiring. I can tell you it was well worth it to see a crystal clear picture on my 50″ plasma. I use the Mac Mini’s dvd player to play DVD’s in the true letter box format when available.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots
Can’t download a sporting event until after it has happened.
IdiotSkullBuster wrote: People still watch TV? I download anything I want to watch.
At $1.99 an episode from the iTunes Music Store, the Mac Stick is paid for after about 65 episodes. Or are you stealing the episodes via BitTorrent?
I bought an EyeTV hybrid. I also bought a Terk antenna, but found that I could just stick a short length of bare wire (about 6 inches) into the RF connector of the EyeTV hybrid to serve as my “low cost” antenna and still receive every HDTV channel in my city.
My experience has been that the EyeTV hybrid works great and does everything it says it will.
Cable companies suck. Satellite companies suck less. ATSC over the air provides great quality. Everyone should watch less TV…
Something bothers me about these tuner sticks including Elgatos TV hybrid stick: once you connect the coax cable won’t it strain against the USB port? Coax cables tend to be a tad unwieldy and I can see it pushing down on the stick thu putting pressure on the usb port. Of course, not owning one I could be completely (and glady so) wrong.
People still watch TV? I download anything I want to watch.
Repeat after me… T i V o, it’s all you’ll ever need
You are very right Frank
the stiffness of the core of the rf cable ruined my usb ports in my g4 powerbook – it was like using a crow bar to open a beer , – my fault
manufaturers should put a soft wire pigtail to this devices – but don’t hold your breath.
Frank,
The EyeTV Hybrid includes a USB extension cord, so you needn’t plug it directly in the computer. Mine is hanging up high because I also have the eyeTV remote control and that placement is more convenient.
Very cool – I’m in a location with good digital TV coverage, already have an antenna in my attic and a distribution amp feeding three TVs. A Mac with a 20″ widescreen monitor sits in our guest bedroom, which doubles as my wife’s office. This is a quick and easy way to put HDTV in that room with no additional clutter.
Don’t knock off-the-air HDTV until you’ve tried it. When watching sports or anything important, I always prefer the antenna to the cable. I’m not sure it looks better, but it’s a whole lot more reliable. I don’t want to tell you how many times I’ve had to reset my cable card on a Sunday afternoon during football season.
Of course, the analog capability will be obsolete in 2 years, I wonder if they could make it cheaper by leaving that out, or if it just comes on the chipset for ATSC.
bobchr-
I have been debating the Mini vs AppleTV, and will probably go Mini.
I’m curious what kind of TV and hookup you have.Thanks
FG-
‘Of course, the analog capability will be obsolete in 2 years, I wonder if they could make it cheaper by leaving that out, or if it just comes on the chipset for ATSC.’
Most cable is still analog, so that allows you to hook that up via Pinnacle or, in my case, an EyeTV 200.
@ Wiseguy: “ATSC is “over the air” HD TV, very limited channels and requires a rooftop antenna.”
Nonsense. Most metropolitan areas that can receive analog signals via “rabbit ear” indoor antennas, can receive over the air HD with them as well. The idea of an “HDTV antenna” is nothing more than a marketing scam- that is well documented. HDTV is received over VHF and UHF same as analog. No special antenna is required. It totally has to do with your distance from the broadcast towers- if you are 20+ miles away, yes, you will need a rooftop antenna- as you would for analog.
It is also true that over the air HDTV is better quality than HD cable or satellite – the former is not compressed at all, the latter are highly compressed to fit the “pipe”.
If you want to learn more about this subject, and dispelling some of the marketing hype and hyperbole, check out :
http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
You can plug in your zip code, see how close your broadcast towers are, and find out what kind of antenna you would need for HDTV based on your location.