Elgato Tivizen
+ Portable, battery powered, excellent picture quality
— No HD channels on iOS devices, no multi-casting, at the mercy of digital TV reception
www.elgato.com
RRP $229
SCORE: 8
If you've always wanted to tarn your iPad into a digital television to take on the road, Elgato's Tivizen could be your dream gadget.
The Tivizen is a tiny battery-powered digital TV tuner -around the size of a handheld Wi-Fi hotspot but with an external TV antenna. Fire up the Tivizen and it generates its own Wi-Fi hotspot, letting nearby devices watch or record live digital TV broadcasts.
Using Elgato's free app, the Tivizen works with iGadgets sporting an A4/A5 processor
such as the iPad 1 or 2, iPhone 4 and fourth-gene rat ion iPod touch. It also works with Macs and PCs using the supplied software.
Watching TV on SOS gadgets isn't new - Elgato's EyeTV Netstream DTT is a networked digital tuner which has let iGadget owners watch live TV around the house for a while.
The beauty of the Tivizen is that yon can slip it in your pocket to take on the road. Now you can flick through channels, record shows on the iPad and even pause and rewind live broadcasts just like a Personal Video Recorder.
The great thing about the Tivizen is that you can watch live TV on the road without chewing through your broadband allowance, unlike watching something like iView or YouTube. Using the Tivizen obviously means disconnecting from other Wi-Fi networks, but if your iGadget is 3G-enabled you can still get online while connected to the Tivizen. You're not stuck watching morning talk shows on your way to work, as the Tivizen lets you record shows on the iPad at home to watch while you're out and about.
Unfortunately you won't find the advanced scheduling options that you'd have at your disposal when running EyeTV software on a Mac.
There's no IceTV integration with the Tivizen - it relies on the electronic program guide embedded in the broadcast signal and you'll need to manually record any shows on the iPad that you want to save for later.
You can't switch to another application while it's recording. Recordings consume about 2GE per hour and you can drag them on and off the device via iTunes, AirPlay streaming to an Apple TV isn't available yet, but it'son the roadmap.
The Tivizen offers around 3.5 hours of battery life and recharges via USB, so it would be great for the daily commute -assuming you can get a reliable TV signal while on the move. A low-tech way of improving reception is attaching rabbit ears to the built-in antenna with an alligator clip - but you might get funny looks on the train. The Tivizen isn't just for commuters - it's a great way to catch live TV events such as the footy if you're lounging in the backyard, sitting in a cafe, waiting at the airport, riding in the back of a taxi or camping in the middle of nowhere.
The Tivizen's picture quality is excellent - even on the large screens of the on the iPad 1 and 2 it's very crisp and certainly on par with the picture from the ho me-based Netstream box.
While the results are quite impressive, the Tivizen does have a key limitation compared to the Netstream that potential buyers should be aware of. The Tivizen only features one tuner and it lacks multi-casting so, unlike the Netstream, only one device can access the Tivizen's tuner at a time.
As with the Netstream, you can only watch the SD channels on iOS devices - although Elgato tells us the HD channels might become available if Apple permits access to hardware acceleration. You can access the HD channels if you're using the Tivizen with a computer.
+ Portable, battery powered, excellent picture quality
— No HD channels on iOS devices, no multi-casting, at the mercy of digital TV reception
www.elgato.com
RRP $229
If you've always wanted to tarn your iPad into a digital television to take on the road, Elgato's Tivizen could be your dream gadget.
The Tivizen is a tiny battery-powered digital TV tuner -around the size of a handheld Wi-Fi hotspot but with an external TV antenna. Fire up the Tivizen and it generates its own Wi-Fi hotspot, letting nearby devices watch or record live digital TV broadcasts.
Using Elgato's free app, the Tivizen works with iGadgets sporting an A4/A5 processor
such as the iPad 1 or 2, iPhone 4 and fourth-gene rat ion iPod touch. It also works with Macs and PCs using the supplied software.
Watching TV on SOS gadgets isn't new - Elgato's EyeTV Netstream DTT is a networked digital tuner which has let iGadget owners watch live TV around the house for a while.
The beauty of the Tivizen is that yon can slip it in your pocket to take on the road. Now you can flick through channels, record shows on the iPad and even pause and rewind live broadcasts just like a Personal Video Recorder.
The great thing about the Tivizen is that you can watch live TV on the road without chewing through your broadband allowance, unlike watching something like iView or YouTube. Using the Tivizen obviously means disconnecting from other Wi-Fi networks, but if your iGadget is 3G-enabled you can still get online while connected to the Tivizen. You're not stuck watching morning talk shows on your way to work, as the Tivizen lets you record shows on the iPad at home to watch while you're out and about.
Unfortunately you won't find the advanced scheduling options that you'd have at your disposal when running EyeTV software on a Mac.
There's no IceTV integration with the Tivizen - it relies on the electronic program guide embedded in the broadcast signal and you'll need to manually record any shows on the iPad that you want to save for later.
You can't switch to another application while it's recording. Recordings consume about 2GE per hour and you can drag them on and off the device via iTunes, AirPlay streaming to an Apple TV isn't available yet, but it'son the roadmap.
The Tivizen offers around 3.5 hours of battery life and recharges via USB, so it would be great for the daily commute -assuming you can get a reliable TV signal while on the move. A low-tech way of improving reception is attaching rabbit ears to the built-in antenna with an alligator clip - but you might get funny looks on the train. The Tivizen isn't just for commuters - it's a great way to catch live TV events such as the footy if you're lounging in the backyard, sitting in a cafe, waiting at the airport, riding in the back of a taxi or camping in the middle of nowhere.
The Tivizen's picture quality is excellent - even on the large screens of the on the iPad 1 and 2 it's very crisp and certainly on par with the picture from the ho me-based Netstream box.
While the results are quite impressive, the Tivizen does have a key limitation compared to the Netstream that potential buyers should be aware of. The Tivizen only features one tuner and it lacks multi-casting so, unlike the Netstream, only one device can access the Tivizen's tuner at a time.
As with the Netstream, you can only watch the SD channels on iOS devices - although Elgato tells us the HD channels might become available if Apple permits access to hardware acceleration. You can access the HD channels if you're using the Tivizen with a computer.
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