eaglerock

Here's my theory. If, as Benoit suggests, EyeTV 4 "validates" its installed copy every time it's launched, then there has to be an authentication server at Geniatech confirming the validity of those activation codes. The "invalidated" message may not actually be triggered by a message from Geniatech after a check of the activation code; it may simply be a built-in error message because no affirmative message from Geniatech has come back confirming the code. What if the authentication server isn't working correctly, or is now located at an address other than the one EyeTV 4 is trying to contact, or the server isn't online at all? Then you'd get the error message, even though: 1) the activation key is perfectly valid 2) you the user have followed the EyeTV procedure accurately and in good faith 3) insertion of a different activation code (which Customer Support will not supply, because they never respond to email) won't change anything, as the authentication server isn't responding The error message is aggressive and blame-the-victim-y, but that's not unusual for tech companies outside North America, which tend to blame end users first. Customer hostile, they are. If my theory is the case, then there's nothing we end users can do to fix the problem. Geniatech has to do whatever they need to do to get their stupid authentication server/gatekeeper working reliably and confirming activation codes, or they need to patch EyeTV 4 to remove the authenticate-on-launch step, which treats their entire paid customer base as if we were all petty criminals. I would be less angry about this if Geniatech hadn't already demonstrated their own petty criminality, by failing on multiple occasions over the last seven years to provide the full 12-month term of the annual EPG contract due to failed intermediary servers, and then failing to reimburse defrauded customers for their unexpired time.

I appreciate the suggestion. But as of now, the server where EyeTV Reporter is stored is not responding, in spite of this statement at your linked page: So it appears that Geniatech is as reliable at keeping its promise here as it is at keeping all its other abandoned promises to its users. As for the idea of disconnecting/reconnecting from the Internet in order to install/authorize/run EyeTV: I use an HDHomeRun network tuner - I own several of them, as they're accessible to remote devices over wifi (not through EyeTV, as EyeTV ditched its iOS player application well before the Geniatech purchase/transfer; Channels is an iOS/iPadOS app which will connect to HDHomeRun tuners). Disconnecting the computer from network access is a pain, as that's the connection to the tuner. I could unplug the router from the WAN connection, but that's a real involved problem - more modern macOSes yell at you a lot if you don't have live Internet access. If I understand your description correctly, you can "activate" this application (which should never have been de-activated in the first place; I paid for this application several times, and I am entitled to use what I paid for), or you can be connected to the Internet, but you can't do both simultaneously. That is not an acceptable option. My fury at Geniatech's neglect, indifference and incompetence is about to make me rip EyeTV out by the roots from every system on which it's installed, walk away, and trash-talk Geniatch in every Mac or media forum I can find.

Wait - are you getting the "activation cade is invalidated" message preventing setup, or is EyeTV not launching at all? Lack of extension support has been the coming thing on macOS for several years, as Apple's security restrictions have gotten more severe. A lot of applications have become entirely self-contained, without installing any extensions in the user or system Library. Br John, what is the exact message you're getting? Don't leave anything out. If the application works better under an older operating system, then virtualization may be a usable option. If EyeTV works under macOS 14 but not under macOS 15, then you can use a middleware virtualization application like: Parallels (subscription-based) <https://www.parallels.com> VMWare Fusion (free for personal use) https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=315638 Oracle VirtualBox (free) <https://www.virtualbox.org> ...and a number of others. Macworld has an article covering several different options: https://www.macworld.com/article/668848/best-virtual-machine-software-for-mac.html The writer's concern is mostly with virtualizing Windows on a Mac, but it's also possible to install/run different versions of macOS (10.7 or later) within the virtualized environment.

The problem is: What if the reason you replaced your old computer/drive is because of data corruption or hardware failure? If you can't boot from the old computer, there's no way that I can see to de-register the original application. Frankly, I'd never noticed an option for de-authorizing an installation; with all the EyeTV 3 licenses I've accumulated over the years with hardware purchases, it's never come up before. I've been going through months of computers failing on me, and replacing them with somewhat less old computers. I am currently booting a 2019 16" MacBook Pro Retina from an external SSD with macOS 11.7.1 and an installed copy of EyeTV 4. The same drive worked when I booted an erratic 2017 MacBook Air with it, and EyeTV worked as one would normally expect. But booting the MacBook Pro with the same drive and launching the same copy of EyeTV 4 produces the "activation cod invalidated" message. I haven't tried reattaching the drive to the MacBook Air yet, to see if EyeTV will launch and permit me to de-authorize the computer. But if that's the procedure Geniatech insists we follow, they should put that in their "invalidate" pop-up message, instead of giving us a mail link to Customer Support, to which no one ever responds. I have now sent three emails to Geniatech, asking for some instruction/assistance in resolving this issue. As near as I can tell, the inability to get EyeTV to launch means that about 10 terabytes of .eyetv video files I'e archived over the the last 20 years are completely inaccessible. This is not OK. In all honesty: I do not understand why Geniatech bought a useful product with a loyal user base, only to let the product rot, and abuse their customers with clumsy interface changes and no visible customer support. It seems like a terrible waste of money. Did they buy the tech just to get the customer list? They don't seem to have any interest in keeping us.

Didn't quite make the edit time limit... In addition to installing 10.14/Mojave as a virtual OS, you can install macOS 10.6/Snow Leopard Server, and all client macOSes since 10.7/Lion. I discovered this almost fifteen years ago, when setting up a Wintel laptop with VirtualBox: I discovered that 10.6 Server was an installation option in VirtualBox's VM setup pulldown menu. I tried to install 10.6 on the Wintel machine several times without success; it worked when I installed the middleware on a Mac, and then attempted to install 10.6 using VirtualBox's VM install system. Apparently, the VirtualBox user interface is the same on all platforms, which makes sense for an Open Source application. I haven't tried this same stunt with Parallels or VMWare Fusion, but I'm guessing it will work the same way. Odds are, the user interface on the commercial applications includes OSX options when the base operating system is macOS (or the hardware is Apple hardware; there has to be some sort of platform sniffing when the middleware is installed), but the Windows/Linux versions leave macOS VM options out.

macOS 10.14/Mojave can be installed as a virtualized OS on newer macOSes using middleware such as Parallels (annual subscription), VMWare Fusion (free personal license available) or Oracle's VM VirtualBox (Open Source - free). I haven't tried setting up a 64-bit macOS + virtual machine + macOS Mojave environment + EyeTV 3.6.9 combination yet due to lack of boot drive space, but it sounds like an area worth exploring. Parallels: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ VMWare Fusion: https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html Oracle VM VirtualBox: https://www.oracle.com/virtualization/technologies/vm/downloads/virtualbox-downloads.html

HDHomeRun is a networked TV tuner (Ethernet connection for the Mac-compatible models; I think there may be a Windows-compatible model with WiFi built in) from the SiliconDust company near me in Livermore, California (the east side of San Francisco Bay): https://www.silicondust.com They have sites for the Canadian, UK, European, Australian, New Zealand and Brazilian markets, so presumably they have tuners available that will work with the broadcast systems in those countries. The tuners will connect to a cable/satellite feed or an over-the-air antenna. They encode the video feed and send an MPEG feed to a computer/handheld device through the LAN. I find that you need fairly fast WiFi (802.11ac minimum, 802.11ax is better) in order to transfer the video stream well; I normally watch on a laptop attached to the tuner through gigabit Ethernet. ElGato used to sell a bundle that included two EyeTV 3 licenses and an HDHomeRun HDHR-3 tuner, shortly before ElGato sold EyeTV off to Geniatech. EyeTV compatibility with some HDHR tuners was maintained through most of the late builds of EyeTV 3.6.9, with the conspicuous exception of Build (7524). With the pre-release betas of EyeTV 4, compatibility flipped back and forth through the build process. I was especially thrilled to discover that a late beta of 4 supported all four built-in tuners in my HDHomeRun Quatro, as EyeTV 3 will only recognize two of the tuners. But the final release of 4 eliminated HDHomeRun support altogether 😖 I complained long and loud, and got the usual Geniatech disclaimer: "We may consider this at some (unspecified) time in the future". In an attempt to get it working, I dug into the package of a late version of 3.6.9, copied out the HDHomeRun driver, copied into the analogous location in the 4 package and edited the .plist. Didn't work. Eventually, somewhere around EyeTV 4.0.0 (8514), HDHomeRun snuck back in. But now it only recognizes two of the four built-in tuners. Geniatech giveth, and Geniatech taketh away. HDHomeRun makes its own Mac-compatible software, but the interface is clumsy; the programming information appears in the main window, so it crowds what you're trying to watch. Their DVR function is a paid subscription service that stores the recordings on a server - not the sort of thing EyeTV users particularly like. I've got about 8TB of EyeTV recordings stored on hard drives, waiting for the time I finally get around to trimming them and exporting them as Quicktime or whatever. One upside to a network tuner independent of a media server is that you can access the TV feed with an iOS device using the Channels app. Typically, if I'm in my bedroom trying to watch something, I'll use Channels on an iPad instead of EyeTV on a laptop; Channels uses a downscaled feed that works better with WiFi.

Some more details would be informative. 1) Where are you located? I was turning my listing service back from ATSC/OpenCable to TVGuide (EyeTV3)/EyeTV Premium EPG NA (EyeTV 4) every few weeks from early September 2022 when the service went out to December 2022 when my EyeTV EPG subscription expired, and I never got a response from the North American server at all. (no credit from Geniatech for prepaid services NOT rendered has been offered, either) Every country has a different listing service; it's possible that Geniatech is paying some of them, but not all. Perhaps they're paying the service in your country? 2) Is it still working, 3+ months later? Has it worked consistently throughout the intervening time?

I note the last paragraph in their ridiculous excuse: This compensation is something I've now argued for several times since this current outage began. If this is Geniatech's policy for addressing prolonged failures of their service for which we paid in advance, why don't they communicate this offer to their entire affected customer base (which is all of us), either by posting an announcement to this forum (which they control), or by sending an announcement by email to their entire list of current subscribers (which they do whenever they want us to buy something)? Why do we have to individually complain in order to get a remedy for having our pockets picked?

You'd think so, wouldn't you? I got a Quatro several years ago, as my 2-tuner HDHR Connect started acting funny. During the very long EyeTV 4 beta phase, several generations of the beta didn't support HD HomeRun tuners at all; when we HDHR-using testers complained, we were told "we are deprecating tuners without many users", and we beta participants screamed. One of the last betas finally restored HDHR functionality, and I discovered that the late beta enabled all four tuners in my Quatro, although EyeTV 3 would only recognize two. The on again-off again support for HDHR (which, let's remember, EyeTV used to sell as a bundle with its software) persisted through several builds of the release version of EyeTV 4; one build supports the tuner, and the next one drops support :-( But I don't remember any release build of EyeTV 4 that supports all four of the Quatro's tuners. Yet another infuriating and arbitrary choice made by Geniatech, who don't seem to be making any effort to keep EyeTV functional at all. The North American EPG has been out for months; not only is there no notice of whether subscribers will be credited for the time when a basic function is out of service, there's been no general notice that Geniatech's even trying to fix the problem.

In the daily update of my US EPG listings yesterday, all my program information vanished. Further update attempts have not filled in any new information. I have cleared the EPG database several times without improvement; when that failed, I re-ran the setup assistant, also without improvement. As of now, I can see the title of the current program in the frontmost window - but only in EyeTV 3.6.9; EyeTV 4 does not provide that information. The program guide has no program listings whatsoever. I can still schedule recordings, but only by inputting all the information by hand. Is this a general EPG outage, or a US-specific EPG outage, or a US over-the-air EPG outage? Or is this just me? The veterans here may recall that all EPG listings vanished a few years ago, and were gone for over six months (even though Geniatech continued to sell EPG subscriptions, effectively accepting payment for a service they were not providing). Does anyone know whether this is what's happening now? If this isn't resolved in the next few days, I think that's the end of my days with EyeTV, after 16 years, seven tuners and twelve licenses. I can't keep pouring money and energy into an application that the developer won't make any visible effort to maintain or support. 😞 Software: EyeTV 3.6.9 (7530), EyeTV 4.0.0 (8526) macOS 10.14.6 Mojave EPG license current until November 2022 Hardware: 2015 13" MacBook Pro Retina i7/1TB SSD/16GB HDHomeRun Quatro (Ethernet connection)

When I finally resigned myself to resubscribing last November (after gritting my teeth about the utterly terrible maintenance; the EPG guide stopped updating yesterday - AGAIN), I found that it is no longer possible to renew your subscription from EyeTV 3 - you have to do it from an installation of EyeTV 4, although both versions will use the same EPG. I installed Mojave, which allows me to run both EyeTV3 and EyeTV 4; I do the troubleshooting from 4, and then do all my viewing/editing from the lighter-weight 3, which is much easier to use. Of course, at the moment, I have no program information at all; if the last outage (which lasted for months) is repeated, I may bail on the application altogether and just use HDHomeRun's native app that supports my hardware tuners. I don't like it much, but a TV app you can't use to schedule recordings without referring to an independent program source is a TV app that isn't worth paying for.

I was disappointed enough with the EyeTV 4 betatest cycle that I stayed on EyeTV 3 - easy to do, as my EyeTV computer was limited to High Sierra. After the long no-program-info debacle was finally resolved (sort of) last year, I transitioned to a newer computer with Mojave. I finally broke down and paid for an EyeTV 4 license six months ago, largely because it would provide program scheduling information that was less frustrating to use than OpenATSC. Surprise, surprise! While the EyeTV 4 license + login provided program information to both v.3 and v.4, the scheduling license was only good for one month. After which, they want another 30 euro for...what? What's the time period? They don't say. As of my check right now, there is no option on the Geniatech.us site to purchase an EyeTV 4 license at all, much less an extended license for program information. There is an over-the-air USB dongle with a license for EyeTV 3, and that's it. It's very difficult to invest energy in keeping an application running, when the people who own and presumably profit from that application don't seem interested in even preserving the features that used to work.

Because the signs suggest that Geniatech does not consider EyeTV to be an active product. There's little sign from them that they're trying to improve or optimize it, and they never talk to the user base. It makes you wonder why they bought the application from ElGato, if they didn't intend to do anything useful with it. If nothing's changed since the 4.0 beta development stage (and I'm betting nothing has changed), Geniatech doesn't actually have in-house programmers working on EyeTV. My understanding is that they hired a couple of contractors to do all the work, and they know little of the 15-year history of the application. Which is why: 1) The interface changed radically, forcing the existing user base to relearn basic functions 2) Many of those basic functions (export, program information) were broken or crippled, compared to EyeTV 3 Better export in Version 4 would be welcome, but I see no sign that we'll get it. Since EyeTV 3 and 4 can use the same file archive, I am sticking on Mojave for now, where I can use EyeTV 3 for export, even if I record in EyeTV 4.

True, but that's unacceptable in the same way that using a third-party program info app (TVGuide, TitanTV) to fill in all the program information stripped out in the 4.0 release was. If an application is advertised as an all-in-one TV viewing application (one that you've committed to by paying once for the application and once for a dedicated hardware tuner), then it should damned well work the way it's advertised. For example: If you were to use the trick of recording files in EyeTV 4.x and then edit in EyeTV 3.x, you'd have to either: 1) leave your computer on macOS 10.14/Mojave; 2) maintain a separate boot drive with macOS 10.14 or less, and reboot from that drive to use EyeTV 3; 3) maintain a dedicated Mojave computer and network the .eyetv files recorded in EyeTV 4 over for editing/conversion in EyeTV 3. That's a lot of excess burden imposed on customers who paid Geniatech money to at least maintain the elegant solution we had ten years ago, which they have utterly failed to do. The fact that Geniatech assumes that this level of performance is acceptable is a real insult to us. Unfortunately, they show no signs of improving their behavior.