For a big chunk of this week, I've been fighting to the death with an Elgato EyeTV Sat box. This is a nifty little gadget that lets you get Freesat on your Mac, including BBC HD in full high def quality, provided you
- Live in the UK
- Have a satellite dish and a spare lead from it somewhere
- Have £180 or so
The full review is going to be in MacFormat issue 212, so you'll have to wait until then for my full review of it. However, one of the issues I had was actually tuning it to receive all the Freesat channels, since the auto-tune failed to pick up big chunks of them (including Channel 4, More4, E4, Film4, BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 as well as their time-shifted siblings). Elgato swear this shouldn't be a problem, but it was.
Fortunately, after a bit of liaising with Elgato over the settings, I was able to get all the channels. Since Elgato doesn't seem to want to publish them on its web site according to my exchanges with them – and since MacFormat simply won't have the space to print all this – after the jump, all the settings an EyeTV Sat owner might need to get his or her box working properly.
I suspect I might get as many as 10 or even 20 hits on this page, but I figured it might be useful to some people. The rest of you? As you were.
First up, remember that some channels aren't 24/7 and so won't be picked up by the EyeTV Sat box unless they're broadcasting. So wait until after 7pm for BBC3 and BBC4 and say 9pm with ITV1 HD. ITV1 HD, incidentally, is 'frequency agile' and so may be on a different frequency every night, which means you'll have to retune it when you do – if you have a Freesat box, you'd have to press the 'red button' to do this, so it's not an EyeTV Sat-particular problem.
Secondly, bad weather and a poor signal can also stop auto-tune from working, so bear that in mind.
But if auto-tune doesn't pick up particular channels, even if they are broadcasting, you're getting a good signal, you've selected the Astra satellite and the weather is fine, you'll need to use the "Manually Add Channel" function to add in satellite transponders. To get this function:
- Click Channels in the left-hand side of the EyeTV software
- Then either
- Right-click in the channel list and select "Manually Add Channel" or
- Select "Manually Add Channel" from the Actions button in the toolbar
Now all you have to do is add in the correct frequency, polarisation and symbol rate settings for each transponder. I've done pictures of the settings for the relevant transponders: don't worry if you can't change all the settings to match – 'auto' should work fine.
BBC3, BB4
Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4
ITV2 and ITV4
ITV3
July 26, 2009 | Reply
[this is good] Have been trying to get my new Eyetv Sat configured to pick up HD channels for 2 days now, just cannot get it to picj up anything but SD channels!! What Satellite are you using, I assume its 28.2 E Astra 2A,2B,2D??? When I try your settings above it does not find anything?
July 26, 2009 | Reply
No, I'm on 19.2ºE Astra 1E,1F,1G,1H,1KR,2C. The BBC HD frequency is 10847MHz and since it runs a preview all during the day, should be available almost anytime; ITV1 HD is all over the place, so I can't tell you what it'll be today until 7/9pm or something.
July 28, 2009 | Reply
Just got my EyeTv today and am loving it. I had the same problem as you as the default satellite for the UK is set to the Astra 19.2E Astra bunch and I ended up missing loads of channels too, but if you just choose the 28.2E Astra group from the drop down box and re-scan you get everything autotuned to perfection including BBC HD, with no manual additions required
July 28, 2009 | Reply
"Just got my EyeTv today and am loving it. I had the same problem as you as the default satellite for the UK is set to the Astra 19.2E Astra bunch and I ended up missing loads of channels too, but if you just choose the 28.2E Astra group from the drop down box and re-scan you get everything autotuned to perfection including BBC HD, with no manual additions required
"
Thanks, but alas, I didn't have the option to get 28.2E Astra - only 19.2E and some other weird satellite offering African channels!
September 8, 2009 | Reply
[das ist gut] thanks very much. pity this info was not made available by the vendor. really helpful, cheers.
September 18, 2009 | Reply
Although I have found all the channels. BBC HD is very jerky and pixelates.
The signal strength is 100% is the Eye Sat faulty?
September 18, 2009 | Reply
"Although I have found all the channels. BBC HD is very jerky and pixelates.The signal strength is 100% is the Eye Sat faulty?"
Is the signal quality at 100% as well? They both need to be good.
If it is, it could be a problem with too much data coming through at one (if you've got a USB 1.0 device or another high-information device on the same port, for example). It could be you're using too many applications that access the hard drive at the same time and your hard drive can't cope.
November 9, 2009 | Reply
Thanks a lot for this - it works well and for BBC HD on 28e too.
December 5, 2009 | Reply
The main problem is that EyeTV Sat selects the Astra 19.2°E as its default: Freesat uses Astra 28.2°E (helpfully labelled Freesat). If one selects this by going to the EyeTV Programs list (top right on the on-screen remote graphic), then to "Service:" (bottom left of window) and select "Satellite Set-up" choosing Astra 28.2°E and then letting Autotune run then all the Freesat channels will appear.
This is what happens when one uses an international product which has to work in many countries with thousands of channels. I found the User Guide pretty much impenetrable for this very reason. Nevertheless this is milestone product which will further blur the distinctions between computer/tv/radio/video recorder even further.
December 5, 2009 | Reply
That option doesn't work for everyone though as you can see from the first comment. I didn't get that option at all from my list of satellites.
30 days ago | Reply
[das ist gut] Thanks, very helpful. Funnily, my EyeTV Sat did preselect the 28.2°E but found nothing, on 19.2°E its found over 200 channels and counting...
Must be relevant to your geographic location? Here in Kent, 19.2°E seems to work just fine.
26 days ago | Reply
I'm in Kent, too, and I didn't even get 28.2, only 19.2. So possibly!