My Current EyeTV4 Issues

[Cluttered 5]

Hi,

EyeTV4 4 is the largest pile of poo I have ever used, it is utter rubbish. I haven’t tried 8531, I may have a look later but I would suspect that geniatech have fixed nothing whatsoever. In the many, many years since I have been asking for help they have not responded at all. Indeed you will notice no response from geniatech in here either.
 

In the past they kept sending out an update saying it worked with the latest os, but in reality is was the same version number as the last one and the app was identical - as were all the faults. They just re-signed it or whatever so they could rake in more money.

As to people being quiet ‘so has geniatech fixed all the problems’…

…no, no they haven’t, I don’t even believe they have a support team, the reason we are quiet is because it is pointless trying anymore, I have raised numerous problems over many years and none of them, NONE OF THEM, have ever been addressed. I have probably found another few faults since I last posted but just can’t be bothered raising them it isn’t worth the effort.

High Sierra was good, I regret upgrading, my iMac is now on Monterey and cannot upgrade further, HS was better, from memory Catalina was absolutely dreadful.

I recently got Emby - it’s free, I am moving my iTunes library over to it and it is really nice. I purchased the lifetime premiere license (£100) it’s a one off charge, you can get a subscription if you prefer from £4/month but I hate those. You can do most things without a license but you need it to record TV… (Silicon dust do offer a subscription to allow you to record but there is no lifetime option so it would be a non-starter for me, you don’t need the Silicon dust subscription to record in emby they are totally separate so the emby license is all you need).

I bought an HD Homerun Flex Quatro £150, it has four tuners and when combined with emby it provides a wonderful replacement for eyetv (interestingly if you try using it with eyetv it will only allow you to use two of it’s four tuners! *typical*). I do still have eyetv on my mac but haven’t recorded much with it since. Emby works, I can record/view four streams at once, I can record programs as with eyetv but I can also record a series, unlike eyetv - which would then record everything which usually means you get a dozen copies of the same program & episode, emby only records new episodes not in your library - wonderful. Another difference is that eyetv has zero support, emby has an active support forum and the developers respond pretty quickly. Plus I got a free program called shotcut, I can open the recorded .ts files in there, takes a couple of minutes to edit out commercials and then export to .mp4 (emby can also automatically convert recordings to .mp4 and apparently there is a plugin that does commercials but I haven’t investigated that). EyeTV4 export is pitiful, most often it just does nothing.

All in all I would urge people to look elsewhere. Until now I hadn’t found anything I liked and just had to put up with the awful EyeTV4 but emby is for me the better option. EyeTV4 is expensive, has zero support and a huge number of bugs. It isn’t worth the effort. The only reason it sells is because EyeTV3 was brilliant, it was also developed/owned/supported by Elgato which is a reputable company. Geniatech is awful and doesn’t care a jot. 
 

Oh, and another benefit of emby over EyeTV4, I can watch live TV on my iPad, iMac, AppleTV, xBox, Oculus Quest and pretty much anything else if I had it. 
 

As you already have an HD Homerun then you are pretty much set, there would only be the subscription/lifetime license, I certainly couldn’t and wouldn’t recommend EyeTV4 to anyone. 
 

Hope that this is of some use, I will investigate the newer(?) version but I am not holding my breath, I seriously doubt it has any fixes at all, just a new number, I am currently using 8526.

Mark.

 

[Cluttered 5]

Just gone to the download page, they seem to have removed all versions other than 8528 (which they try and claim is updated for ventura and shiny and new - twaddle - same old junk).

No sign of 8531 on the main page. It is listed under their support/downloads page.

Just tried it and given a quick test, I can’t see any real change, the few bits I tried are still broken on my system. Did an update and the guide still jumps up & down as before. I opened a full screen live window on BBC1 then pressed 2 to switch to BBC2, it switched to BBC2 fine, but the info bar won’t close and it won’t respond to any other actions now, can’t change channels, can’t minimise it or switch it’s size, can’t close it, no menubar, nothing at all, my only option was to force-quit the app. Doesn’t give me any confidence that anything else has been addressed.

As ever, looks like they have tweaked the number and nothing else.

 

[OldTimer 0]

Thanks for the info on Emby!  I will definitely check that out right away.  🙂

[OldTimer 0]

I notice Plex also. The prices seem similar (according to Google, Plex is $4.99 per month, $39.99 per year, or $119.99 for a lifetime subscription, and Emby is $4.99 per month, $54 per year, or $119 for a lifetime subscription).

Anyone have experience on both for live TV?  Maybe even experience with a HDHomeRun receiver?  “SiliconDust HDHomeRun (all models)” compatibility is listed for Plex, but there is nothing like experience!  😊

[Cluttered 5]

Yes there are a few, jellyfin (fork of emby) and kodi are another couple.

Initially I was looking for something to use instead of iTunes, I tried all of those, can’t remember why I didn’t like Plex, but anyway I settled on emby, Plex is probably the most widely used though. They can all be tried for free so you can make up your own mind.

It wasn’t until I was mid-transfer that I thought about using it for TV, so I didn’t test the others with the TV functionality, I suspect they are all very similar. 

I would suggest that pretty much any of them will be superior to EyeTV4. It’s so weird, EyeTV3 was a wonderful app, really worked well, then Geniatech got hold of it and completely butchered it and produced the waste of space (and money) that is EyeTV4.

[ATSC-user 2]

As of 31 Oct 2023, EyeTV 4 (8531) can be found here, along with several other versions going back to (8521): 

At www.GeniaTech.eu under Support-->EyeTV 4 Software

I am running (8531) on an M2 Pro Mac Mini running MacOS 13.6.1 without issues.  I use an (ATSC, not DVB-T/T2) EyeTV Hybrid USB stick.

[OldTimer 0]

I thought I’d let you know what I ended up doing on my EyeTV.

To recap, I had a 2012 Mac mini working perfectly with Elgato’s EyeTV 3.6.9 (7520) on Sierra 10.12.  Then my hard disk crashed.  So, had to decide whether to get off that very old but stable OS, and if I did, what app I would use for my PVR.

A 2012 Mac mini is capable of 10.15 Catalina maximum (64-bit only), so I tried that.  Unfortunately it crashed and rebooted twice within a few hours when activating the monitors from power saver mode, and Catalina was the only thing installed.  So no Catalina for me.

Backing up to 10.14 Mojave, I found a stable OS.  So I tried EyeTV 4 (8531), but it was riddled with bugs.  I was able to find a workaround for most all of them, but then I ran into one that was a drop-dead issue for me.

You see, my main use for EyeTV is to time-shift the evening news.  I have a reminder set to start watching about 8 minutes into the broadcast.  That way I can skip all the commercials and finish the broadcast live.  I love doing that, and it worked a few times with EyeTV 4.  But then it crashed on an attempt, so EyeTV 4 had to go.

Being that I backed up to Mojave, I could now also run 32-bit apps.  So I put Elgato’s 3.6.9 (7520) back on it, and I have never looked back.  Runs great!

I am currently using over-the-air program guide, but I find it wanting.  I have to manually update it at least once a day, and it does not distinguish ‘new’ shows.  I was using xmltvlistings.com for a continuous and automated 2-weeks of listings, but their ability to distinguish new shows disappeared.  So I dropped them.  They never did mark a show ‘new’, but they used to mark the repeats.  So I was using a convoluted Smart Guide search to record all episodes that weren’t repeats, lol.  Worked on everything but SNL.  But that ability is gone now.

So if anyone knows of an XML service that marks new episodes, let me know!  😊

[Oz Mac User 0]

Hi all

Just started up EyeTV and was surprised to see another update - Ver 8532

I'm mostly using PLEX with my Diversity dongle these days so am feeling less and less interest in EYETV. Just thought I'd mention the update here. All appears working OK.

All the best

[Cluttered 5]

I installed 8532, opened a live window, went full screen, then used command-W to close the window - the entire app crashed as always. If this simple test fails then I suspect all the other problems are still there and I really can't be bothered testing them.

I don't believe geniatech actually do update the software any more, they update the VERSION NUMBER and sign it as usable on the latest version of macos so that they can rake in more cash but they don't bother fixing any problems, or if they do then they haven't fixed any of the dozens of problems I have raised.

I have a list of the MANY, MANY, problems that I have encountered, none of which have ever been addressed by the mythical geniatech support team(?), they have never bothered to respond to my numerous attempts to contact them. The only thing geniatech is set up for is taking payments.

A re-branded turd is still a turd, you can call it anything you like but unless you actually change it then it doesn't make a blind bit of difference.

EyeTV v3 was great, EyeTV v4 is a pile of sh*t.

If you need a TV solution and are considering EyeTV then DON'T, yes some people can get by with it but if you are unlucky enough to find one of the many problems then you're screwed, you won't find any help from the developer.

Instead look at something like KODI/EMBY/PLEX etc and a decent tuner like the HD Homerun series, I got the flex quatro which needs one aerial and has four tuners, works great, plus it's on the network so all my devices can watch TV from it, but the main thing is that the media servers and the tuners are from people who actually provide support and fix problems rather than ignore you completely and just grab your cash.

[lenn5 1]

This problemsis one of the main reasons I"m still using a 2013 iMac running High Sierra and Eyetv3. It just works. I have on OTA antenna and an El Gato Hybrid USB stick I've had for 10+ years. It just works. I have a show I want recorded everyday and Eyetv 3 records it everyday. I can't remember the last time it failed to record something.

When I finally upgrade my iMac to an M series Mac as my daily driver I will keep my current iMac around just so I can use Eyetv 3 with it. That is unless by some miracle they finally make Eyetv 4 usable.