EyeTV Lounge • View topic - New DVB-C tuner from Elgato?

by **oculus** » January 17th, 2008, 3:29 pm

Currently I cannot find DVB-C compatible tuner from elgato. Will there be a new model, replacing the 610 perhaps any time soon or should I look elsewhere?

by **groovebuster** » January 18th, 2008, 7:46 pm

I think it is really bad for Elgato that they pulled the 610 without any comment and leave their faithful customers in the dark about the future plans.

I was in the market for a 610 too, but if there is something new in the pipeline I want to know it. And I also want to know if not.

I think the problem is the HDTV support of the 610. It can't decode the HDTV streams, only the audio. Maybe the hardware is not powerful enough or whatever...

I want to use my Mac mini as HD media center in the living room and I want HD support (Cable TV), otheriwse the HD LCD doesn't make sense at all...

I am using 2 DVB-T sticks with eyeTV at the moment. But this 'Apple like' attitude (secretiveness) really is getting on my nerves! Unfortunately there are not many alternatives...

groovebuster

by **realityking** » January 19th, 2008, 12:26 am

groovebuster wrote:I think the problem is the HDTV support of the 610. It can't decode the HDTV streams, only

There's currently no DVB Receiver with decoding capabilities, neither for Mac nor for Windows/Linux.

by **groovebuster** » January 19th, 2008, 7:37 am

It still doesn't change that they pulled it quitly (and that right before X-mas!!!) and never talked about it again...

And I don't care what the actual reason really is, it was just a wild guess. Why the decoding can't be done anyway by the computer like with the DVB-T sticks? I am not an expert I am a user. I don't need a bachelor in cable TV science before I am allowed to ask for a working product. We are talking about a Mac product. There was a working product before and now there is not anymore. Or am I missing something here?

Sorry, but I am really upset a little bit at the moment.

There is a market for DVB-C (here in Germany at least) and the customers should be informed about the future plans...

groovebuster

by **Wanderer** » January 19th, 2008, 9:22 am

There is a market for DVB-C-products here in Finland as well. I and certainly many others need to know whether a replacement for EyeTV 610 is on the way.

by **mac.gebruiker** » January 19th, 2008, 9:36 am

realityking wrote:There's currently no DVB Receiver with decoding capabilities, neither for Mac nor for Windows/Linux.

It is even worse: with UPC you can only use the decoder that UPC supplies (and controls!) no others do work.

by **Malesca** » January 19th, 2008, 6:17 pm

Hm. In this recent post:

Mike Evangelist wrote:
mac.gebruiker wrote:Will there be again a DVB-C device?

It's something we're working on, but I can't predict the timeframe.

by **Tombo** » January 19th, 2008, 6:32 pm

Hi,

There is also a market in Denmark. Both YouSee (former TDC) and Stofa is working with the 610.

Would it be possible for Eyetv to support FireDTV C/CI, which I believe is the same HW as the 610 but with a different Vendor ID?

Tombo

by **Wanderer** » January 23rd, 2008, 8:53 am

According to a Finnish importer, EyeTV 610 has basically been discontinued, but a final patch of a hundred sets will still be delivered to retailers within a few weeks. And that's that. No more deliveries, no replacement forthcoming. Apparently too small a market for DVB-C products.

I hope ths is not true! If it is, could Elgato please confirm it. It shouldn't be a secret.

by **bluebike** » January 23rd, 2008, 8:04 pm

I think (guess) that there is new hardware coming ...
in best case DVB-T/C hybrid (with CI)
or with some kind of H.264 decoder...
(maybe too much to hope).

by **martin** » January 24th, 2008, 1:50 am

Wanderer wrote:According to a Finnish importer, EyeTV 610 has basically been discontinued, but a final patch of a hundred sets will still be delivered to retailers within a few weeks. And that's that. No more deliveries, no replacement forthcoming. Apparently too small a market for DVB-C products.

I hope ths is not true! If it is, could Elgato please confirm it. It shouldn't be a secret.

If that's true... then I'm forced to go back to Windows or if I can figure it out, than Linux.

I really do not hope that Elgato discontinue DVB-C!

by **Wanderer** » January 25th, 2008, 7:58 am

I counted six threads on pages 1-2 alone where people ask about the future of DVB-C tuners and/or the fate of EyeTV 610. It would be really nice to get some response from the Elgato people.

by **VoxVox** » January 25th, 2008, 4:09 pm

I was also disappointed after eyetv 610 was pulled out.
I am waiting for a new DVB-C device and hope that it will come out soon.
I also can not understand the reason.

by **Mike Evangelist** » January 25th, 2008, 5:42 pm

We're not trying to be secretive about this at all.

It's true that the 610 is discontinued, and at the moment we don't offer a DVB-C solution.

We know that advanced users who have 610s really love them, because they understood in advance what it could and could not do. The situation is similar to Clear QAM in the US, where the channels you are able to get varies drastically from location to location and between different cable providers. A less sophisticated user is likely to be disappointed because they don't get all their channels.

So, we continue to look for ways to solve these problems. We have some things in the works, but they are a ways off. When we have any further developments, you'll hear about them here first.

by **Malesca** » January 25th, 2008, 7:15 pm

Mike Evangelist wrote:We're not trying to be secretive about this at all.

…

Thanks for addressing this.

Loving the 610. Dual tuners would rock, in the successor

by **corrado008** » January 26th, 2008, 11:54 am

There will be a new product from equinux - the "tubestick hybrid" in Feb 08. You can watch digital cabel (inc. HDTV), HDTV terrestric and analog cable with it. It's only available in the US. But I think Elgato has to deliver something like that if they don't want to lose costumers. I talked with Elgato in Munich in December and they told me the 610 is still available though evry retailer couldn't deliver it . . . It was a lie. This company - I don't know . . .

by **Wanderer** » January 26th, 2008, 3:19 pm

Thanks for the info Mike! Wish you luck with the forthcoming products.

by **Mike Evangelist** » January 26th, 2008, 4:23 pm

corrado008 wrote:There will be a new product from equinux - the "tubestick hybrid" in Feb 08. You can watch digital cabel (inc. HDTV), HDTV terrestric and analog cable with it. It's only available in the US. But I think Elgato has to deliver something like that if they don't want to lose costumers.

Both the EyeTV Hybrid and 250 Plus already do all that.

by **corrado008** » January 26th, 2008, 4:36 pm

Mike Evangelist wrote:Both the EyeTV Hybrid and 250 Plus already do all that.

So you can watch digital television DVB-C, h.264, HDTV over digital cable? That meanst the eyetv hyrid gives a h.265 HDTV signal from the cable directly to the mac? So why do people still want to buy the eyetv610? What is this one for then? And why is this not in the specs of the hybris and the 250 and not on the elgato webpage and noone at Elgato's mentions it?
So basically DVB-T and DVB-C is exactly the same? Frequncies, codecs? Really?
So you can buy a DVB-T Reciever if you you want to watch DVB-C? Really?

by **Mike Evangelist** » January 26th, 2008, 4:41 pm

corrado008 wrote:So you can watch digital television DVB-C, h.264, HDTV over digital cable?

No, but that's not what you said before. You said "You can watch digital cabel (inc. HDTV), HDTV terrestric and analog cable with it. It's only available in the US.", which is exactly what our tuners do. This applies to the US only and has nothing to do with DVB-C. (the TubeStick is NOT DVB-C capable.)

by **corrado008** » January 26th, 2008, 4:44 pm

so DVB-C and "Digital Cabel" is not the same?
What's the differance?

by **Mike Evangelist** » January 26th, 2008, 4:49 pm

corrado008 wrote:so DVB-C and "Digital Cabel" is not the same?
What's the differance?

Correct, sort of. In the US, it means QAM. Our US tuners handle Clear QAM, meaning they can tune the unencrypted digital channels on cable. In Europe, digital cable refers to DVB-C, which has technical similarities but huge differences in implementation. (I'm afraid a description of the precise technical differences is outside my expertise.)

by **corrado008** » January 26th, 2008, 5:12 pm

So now there is not one DVB-C product on the Mac market.
I have more than 60 digital channels incl. HDTV all unencrypted in southern Germany (over Kabel-BW) and cannot watch them. The Eyetv 610 is not available anymorte say the resellers (by the way 260 EUR for that box was too much). Elgato says they are still producing them. WHERE ARE THEY. That's very frustrating. (Euro Soccer Championship in summer).
Elgato keeps on making a lot of DVB-T stuff (too many sticks) but DVB-T still is not available everywhere and there will definitly be no HDTV over DVB-T in Europe. But HDTV is the future. What are you doing at Elgato? A new version of EyeTv with new buttons?
DVB-S and DVB-C is the only way to watch HDTV and digital televison in a good quality. But Elgato has no HDTV products only that a high priced DVB-S box which even cannot decode DVB-S2 for h264 HDTV. All the HDTV channels are h.264 now.
I wished I had a Windows-PC!

by **Mike Evangelist** » January 26th, 2008, 5:34 pm

The 610 is discontinued, as I said in this earlier post: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1056&st=0&sk=t&sd=a#p5953

We are very familiar with the advantages of DVB-C (especially in Germany, where we are based), but compared to the overall market for our products it is a tiny, tiny niche. That's why the 610 carried such a premium price; the volume was very small.

We are working on future solutions for DVB-C, but for now there's now answer.

by **bnz** » January 31st, 2008, 6:39 pm

Oh, i have a perfect answer: just support the FireDTV in the EyeTV software if you don't sell the EyeTV 610 any further. Their firmware is better at handling certain CAMs anyway. But then i would also like a possibility to patch my 610 to the firedtv firmware. I was annoyed in the first place that i had to buy a FireDTV and an EyeTV 610 although one device would have been enough for me.