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.
Here then is an updated list of the best TV tuners for Mac of 2019 in order of ranking.
1. Silicon Dust HDHomeRun
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.
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
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.
Here then are some important things to consider to avoid disappointment when choosing a TV tuner for your Mac.
- You will find there are many TV tuners out there but the vast majority designed for Windows PCs and will not run on Macintosh. Beware of sites that recommend TV tuners to Mac users that don’t actually work natively on OS X. The only way to make a PC TV Tuner work on Mac is to but this doesn’t always work and is an expensive and complicated solution.
- For a TV tuner to work on Mac, you’ll need to connect the device to your coax source i.e. a simple TV antenna or aerial cable, a digital cable or a satellite dish cable. Make sure that the receiver you buy supports the cable type you want to connect to.
- Older TV antennas attach to your roof will only receive analog channels but nowadays most TV channels require a digital aerial to pick up digital free-to-air TV channels. In fact in some countries such as the UK, analogue TV signals have been switched off completely.
- The terminology surrounding digital broadcasting can be very confusing but in Europe, free-to-air digital TV is known as DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-C, DTT or Freeview depending on the country so make sure the TV tuner you buy supports these. Note that DVB-T2 is the second generation of digital TV based on the MPEG-4 format and mainly available in European countries such as France, UK, Italy and Poland. In the USA, digital TV uses the ATSC standard (Advanced Television Systems Committee) and digital TV is usually simply known as Digital TV (DTV). It’s essential to make sure that the tuner you buy supports the digital broadcasting standards used in your country.
- The best TV Tuners for Mac allow you to watch, record, edit and even time-shift TV programs. This makes them a cheaper alternative to TiVo or a DVR box with the advantage that they are free of subscriptions. Some such as the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun will even allow you to record and instantly export TV shows in a format you can watch on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone and other tablets. Most manufacturers charge a bit extra for Electronic Programming Guides (EPR) Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and DVR functionality and most also have apps to integrate them with other devices such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire Stick.
- If you want high quality video, then you’ll need an HD or HDTV TV tuner on your Mac. Almost all TV Tuners nowadays support HD but bear in mind that you’ll need a fairly new Mac with Intel Dual Core or Core Duo processors in order to process HD video properly. There are also hybrid tuners such as the ElGato EyeTV Hybrid (Europe only – no longer available in the US) which support both Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) TV so if your Mac can’t handle HD, you can still watch TV in standard quality.
- You’ll also need to make sure that your Mac has at least USB 2.0 ports or higher to handle HD video although all Macs made within at least the past 5 years have USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports. Check this article for more on the often bewildering world of . As a rule of thumb, the better the Mac, the better picture and sound quality you’re going to enjoy from your TV Tuner.
- The ideal setup for Mac users is to use a Mac Mini as your media center to handle all recordings as the only problem with using a Macbook or iMac is that your hard disk will soon get full with recordings especially if they’re in HD. However, you can also transfer recordings to an external hard drive to avoid this problem. Most TV tuners allow you to record directly to an external storage solution too.
- Be careful what type of TV tuner you buy. If you’re in the USA, you’ll need an NTSC-ATSC TV Tuner to pick up free-to-air analogue or digital TV channels. If you’re outside the USA, you’ll need Tuner that supports DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-C or DTT. Note that DVB/DTT Tuners will not work in the USA and NTSC-ATSC tuners will not work outside the USA.
- If you want to be able to watch and record from analogue sources such as VHS players, DVD players or anything else with an S-Video or RCA Composite Analogue source, you’ll need to make sure the TV tuner has an analogue connector.
- For the best sound quality, look for TV tuners that at least support Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Even better, if it’s got a digital optical output, you’ll get the best sound possible.
- If the digital reception is poor in your area, you may also find that your TV tuner cannot pick up channels without adding an extended digital aerial adding to your roof or home. If you live in an apartment block, this could be an issue if you require permission from other residents or housing association.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.
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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There are a couple of ways to watch live TV on your Mac – one of which is to use a dedicated hardware-based TV tuner which plugs into your computer and receives digital broadcast TV over the air. Some of them also have coaxial or other inputs so you can hook them up to an external aerial or satellite feed at home. If you’d rather watch TV streamed over the Internet instead, then check out our for the best software-based TV solutions.
This article describes a few of the best TV tuners for the Mac – perhaps surprisingly there aren’t that many options available, especially compared to the amount that are available for the PC, but the following tuners should be more than sufficient for most people’s needs.
1. Elgato EyeTV Diversity
Link: Buy it now on Amazon
| Elgato website
Price:
$249 / £120 approx.
Elgato seems to make most of the TV tuners available for the Mac, and if you want to watch digital terrestrial TV (known as DVB-T), analogue TV and cable TV (DVB-C) plus FM radio, then the EyeTV Hybrid might just fulfil your needs. The tuner itself is a compact size that fits into a spare USB slot on your Mac, and the other end has a full-sized coaxial socket to connect to your TV aerial feed. It also comes with the EyeTV software, which contains a program guide and can also record programmes to disk for later viewing.
This is pretty much all you need to watch live TV!
Despite it’s small and convenient size, the EyeTV Hybrid may actually be more suitable to use on machines such as the iMac and Mac Mini rather than MacBooks, because it always has to be tethered to an aerial meaning that it’s not as portable as you might think.
The EyeTV adaptor is tiny and can receive DVB-T, DVB-C and analogue transmissions
2. PCTV nanoStick Ultimate Plus
Link:
PCTV Systems website
Price:
$92 / £59 approx.
The nanoStick is a compact little USB tuner that lets you watch digital terrestrial TV (normal or HD content), as well as the ability to record and timeshift (i.e. pause and rewind live TV). Bundled in with the package is a remote control, and the included software (Elgato’s EyeTV Lite) is quite easy to use. PC users can stream content to their iPhone and iPad, but unfortunately this functionality isn’t available with the Mac version. Nevertheless, it’s a good all-round package that’s relatively inexpensive.
The USB NanoStick lets you watch live TV on the Mac
3. Elgato EyeTV Netstream DTT
Link: Buy it now on Amazon
| Elgato website
Price:
$170 / £109 approx.
Another model by TV aficionados Elgato, the EyeTV Netstream DTT is firmly in the upper range of the price bracket, but with good reason. Rather than simply plugging into your Mac to provide live TV on just one machine, the Netstream box plugs directly into your antenna to receive the TV signal, but can also transmit the programmes wirelessly to other machines using your router.
Watch TV without any wires all around the house
This means that any computer (or iOS device such as iPads and iPhones, using the EyeTV app) within WiFi range can watch TV without needing separate USB dongles for each machine. Additionally, it has a dual tuner so that two people can watch different programmes at the same time. As an all-in-one TV solution that allows several people to watch TV all around the house, the EyeTV box is pretty hard to beat.
Send TV wirelessly all around the house to multiple computers
4. Elgato EyeTV Go TV Tuner Micro Stick
Link: Buy it now on Amazon
Elgato website
Price:
$108 / £60 approx.
There’s a reason that the Elgato products keep cropping up when you’re looking for live TV tuners – it’s because they make some of the best on the market for the Mac. The EyeTV DTT Deluxe is quite simply the smallest digital TV tuner that we’ve seen – barely larger than a USB connector itself, but perhaps the real knockout feature is that it comes with its own built-in telescopic aerial.
The EyeTV DTT Deluxe is incredibly tiny
If you’re using a laptop such as a MacBook Air, you’ll appreciate just how useful that is because it means you can watch live TV anywhere, and the connector won’t get in the way of other peripherals that may be plugged into your Mac. There’s also an infrared remote control provided and it’ll receive HDTV transmissions in areas where the signal is strong, but there’s also a larger portable rod antenna for areas where the reception isn’t as good. However, if necessary you can use the included adaptor to connect any type of aerial (such as a powered one or a rooftop model).
The built-in aerial provides decent reception
The EyeTV DTT Deluxe is recommended for anyone that wants the maximum portability in a sleek, unobtrusive design. It also comes with the excellent EyeTV software which lets you view programme guides (with a subscription) and record live TV.
5. AVerTVHD Volar MAX
Details:
AverMedia website
Price:
$50 / £35 approx.
AVerMedia’s AVerTV Hybrid Volar M may have a confusing name, but it’s purpose is simply to receive both analogue and digital free-to-air digital broadcasts that you can view on your Mac. Despite being a couple of years old now (and a little hard to find), the Hybrid Volar M has a compact design that can be easily transported around, and the rather good AVerTV player which sports a refined and easy to use interface (it even works with the Apple remote). There are a few novel features too, such as live picture-in-picture so that you can watch two TV shows at once, as well as an EPG and live recording.
Первые устройства для Маков не отличались высокой эффективностью, зато слишком дорого стоили. Еще недавно для яблочного ПК предлагалось всего два ТВ-тюнера, при этом они не пользовались популярностью. Все изменилось с выходом на рынок тюнеров AVerTV моделей Volar Go MВ и Hybrid. Эти две модели сочетают в себе функции ТВ и Радиоприемника. Причем вторая модель может принимать как аналоговые, так и цифровые сигналы вещания.
Почему стоит купить эти модели?
Если первые тюнеры для Мака отличались высоким ценником и низкой производительностью, то современные модели получили доступную цену. Кроме того, если вы приобрели , то эти тюнеры интегрируются с таким устройством. Также обе модели получили полнофункциональное программное обеспечение. Но главное, весь этот комплект и обновления к нему предоставляются бесплатно. Это позволяет использовать все возможности новых тюнеров в полной мере. Причем устанавливать их можно как на Маки разных модификаций, так и на компьютеры других производителей.
Схожесть и отличительные черты моделей
В комплектацию тюнера Go M входит антенна, диск с ПО, переходник и кабель USB и руководство. Внешне новая модель схожа в предыдущей версией. Количество разъемов и их расположение не изменилось. Чипсет тюнера может работать с двумя цифровыми и одним аналоговым потоком. Также он поддерживает работу комбинированного потока. Тюнер способен масштабировать и проводить регулировки, при этом оцифровка звука осуществляется 16 битным декодером. Функция автоматической регулировки поддерживается.
Модель Hybrid кроме аналогичной комплектации содержит еще пульт ДУ и включает не обычную, а телескопическую антенну. Чипсет тюнера – это модель Conexant CX23102-11Z, которая знакома по другим тюнерам из версии Volar, которые отличаются высоким качеством картинки и отличным звуком. Понятный интерфейс, отличное экранное меню, надежность сигнала – эти черты имеют оба тюнера.
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