If you’re old enough, like I am, you’ll remember when little portable 5-inch televisions were the latest thing. You could pull out this little battery powered thing, yank out the antenna, and tune in to whatever it was that you needed to watch while you were not at home in your living room, usually sports, and by sports I mean hockey.
Well, Elgato announced a new mobile digital TV tuner that will plug into your iPad 2 and allow you to receive Digital TV signals on your iPad 2 and watch live over the air TV signals. At the moment it’s only available in the European market, so before you rush out and order one, make sure that you live in an area where the tuner will work properly. Still, the idea is wonderful, and hopefully it will come to the North American market soon.
I’ve been using Elgato’s EyeTV Hybrid product for some time now, which connects to my Mac and lets me watch live TV, record to my hard drive, and stream to my iPad and iPhone over Wi-Fi (and remotely) using the eyeTV iOS app. It’s an excellent product, and the more I use the iPad to watch TV shows, the more I realize that it’s actually quite a good size for this activity.
Here are some of the features of the new EyeTV Mobile:
- An easy-to-use iPad 2 TV tuner for live, mobile television anywhere
- Provides a full range of TV viewing features including pause, rewind, and record
- Receives and even records DVB-T radio transmissions directly to your iPad 2
- Connects directly to the iPad 2 dock connector
- Receives a DTT (Freeview) television and radio signal from the miniature telescopic aerial
- No Internet connection required, so it doesn’t touch your data plan
What’s very nice is that the iPad 2 can serve as a DVR as well, giving you the ability to record shows and pause or even rewind live TV. The tuner works in conjunction with a free eyeTV Mobile iOS app, which lets you view TV listings and show info that is embedded within the TV transmission.
If you’re in Europe, and want a way to watch TV on the go, the EyeTV Mobile tuner sounds like a good option. It will sell for £99.95/€99.95. The shipping date has not yet been announced.
Via: TiPB
Source: Elgato
