EyeTy T2 Lite vs. T2

[emeff 0]

Hello,

what are the differences between EyeTV T2 Lite and EyeTV T2 regarding the hardware?

I understand T2 Lite doesn't come with an EyeTV 3 software license.

From the product description, the T2 Lite device is slightly smaller and weighs less. What else is different?

 

[thomaskud 13]

Hi emeff,

EyeTV T2 Hybrid supports DVB-T/T2/T2 HEVC and DVB-C

EyeTV T2 Lite only supports DVB-T/T2/T2 HEVC, no DVB-C

Another difference is the software license as you said.

Best regards

[gazon67 0]

Hi,

I already own and eye tv and eye tv software (3.6.9). May I use the software with the eye tv T2 lite, if i buy one, and does it work? Thanks

[madamasu 0]

Hi,

I live in Frankfurt/Main Germany and until March 29, when DVB-T switched to DVB-T2 I never had problems with receiving the TV stations. A week before the change I bought the EyeTV T2 lite and used this. Now I use the software-version 1.4.3 (7514), which is supposed to be the newest version, but what I get are frequent crashes, and if I have a picture at all, it is a still with sound. I sent a mail to the customer service of geniatech eyeTV, but haven't had an answer yet. As I meanwhile read, I'm not the only person who has these problems. I hope geniatech is working on it and will inform their customers soon.

madamasu

Edited April 2, 2017 by madamasu
typo

[ukerm 0]

Hi madamasu, 

I can confirm your problems with EyeTV T2 lite / Eyetv3 3.6.9 (7514) on OS X. Here in Berlin I have in particular problems with channels provided by ZDFmobile (frozen picture while sound is continuing) whereas channels from ARD seem to render more or less ok. What I found out is: with ZDFmobile CPU load is systematically going up very much (up to 200 % value) but with provider ARD it's only ~100%. On my small powerbook situation is even worse so that watching tv is impossible. GENIATECH experts should have look into that problem, either it's the underpowered EyeTV T2 lite stick or the eyeTV software has some serious problems. 

Best Ukerm

        

[madamasu 0]

Hi, Ukerm,

thanks for your information. I don't think this problem can easily be solved. At least not with 2.5 GHz processors. The same thing is true for the alternative freenetTV, which has recently provided a beta-version of their software for the Mac. You can read the test by Mac & i here:

https://www.heise.de/mac-and-i/artikel/DVB-T2-HD-auf-dem-Mac-Erster-Test-des-Freenet-Sticks-3672604.html
 

They used a Mac mini with 2.6 GHz, the CPU load was at 340% (!!!), the Mac got hot and the ventilator was noisy, just the same when I tried to use my eyeTV stick. You can hear the processor acting up and the ventilator getting noisy. The freenetTV also reacted very sensibly to problems with antenna reception. Same as with eyeTV. My dealer took the stick back, great thanks to him, and as I rarely watch TV and only non commercial stations, I'm contenting myself with using live streams.

 

[ukerm 0]

Hi madamasu, 

you're right. After some research I found e.g. here

 http://macandegg.de/2016/09/review-eyetv-t2-und-hybrid-fuer-dvb-t2-hevc-h-265-empfang-im-test/

that cpu requirements for the H.265 codec are much higher than for DVB-T H.264 codec, which explains the high cpu load albeit signal/quality is 100%. So it's my computer to blame :( That's another reason I'm going for a sat dish and DVB-IP, hope that's not a mistake, too.

Still strange for me that only certain channels are affected and others not. 

[jelockwood 3]

Yes H.265 aka HEVC will have greater CPU requirements because it is both doing a greater level of compression and more importantly at this point in time Macs do not provide any hardware assistance to off-load the processing. H.264 the predecessor to H.265 having been around longer is now able to be processed in silicon by either a component of the main CPU or the video card GPU chip.

As a related comparison Apple's AirPlay screen mirroring function only works on newer Macs, this is because it requires an Intel CPU chip new enough to include Intel's 'Quick Sync Video' feature. Yes it is possible to get a third-party AirPlay compatible tool to run on older Macs but anyone who has done so has seen that they are much slower than using Apple's tool on supported models of Mac precisely because of this issue.

So the same thing is currently the case with H.265. No Mac currently has any hardware assistance since most Macs have comparatively old generations of Intel CPU and equally old generations of video chip. On top of this Apple so far have themselves provided no support for H.265 even their flagship 'Pro' video editing package FinalCut Pro X does not support H.265. Thinking about this I think we can safely assume this is not because Apple feel there is no need for H.265 in FinalCut Pro X but because they know that all their current Macs are simply inadequate for the job and if they did it would merely show up how bad Macs currently are.

So, at the moment we have to throw lots of CPU at the problem since the H.265 processing is being done purely in software, if your using a Mac mini you simply don't have enough CPU resource to do it.

I do also suspect that currently the implementation in EyeTV might not be as efficient as it could be and hopefully Geniatech will continue to improve this.

[claire 0]

Hi gazon67，

The eyetv 3.6.9 software can be used with the eyetv t2 lite.

Edited April 25, 2017 by claire

[thomaskud 13]

On 2017-4-25 at 9:52 AM, claire said:

Hi gazon67，

The eyetv 3.6.9 software can be used with the eyetv t2 lite.

it must be 3.6.9(7514) or higher