i hav eyetv trouble

[sf14]

I have just purchased an eyetv for my family's imac. I have been trying to set it up but it refuses to play any chanells. If you could explain how to do this it would be most appreciated.

 

[bobtomay]

You now have a tuner.
You still need to connect an antenna, cable box, satellite box or some other device to it.
If you have something connected, what is connected and what type of cable are you using for the connection??

 

[Kash]

bobtomay makes a good point. You DO have a cable plugged into your tuner, right? I mean one that has shown to work (i.e. if you plug that particular cable into a normal TV, do you get channels?)

 

[NanoBite]

I have just purchased an eyetv for my family's imac. I have been trying to set it up but it refuses to play any chanells. If you could explain how to do this it would be most appreciated.

When you have everything set up properly, ie: tuner connected to iMac/aerial connected to tuner/software installed ..

Then next step, once you have entered your serial code, is to scan for channels. EyeTV does this in two ways, an exhaustive scan or a quick scan.

As the scan is underway, you will notice that as a channel is detected, there will be an indication of this below the scan bar. The more channels detected, the higher this number gets.

Now, at this stage the detection of channels means very little. You also need to be able to have the signal decoded/recoded whatever, into images on your screen.

The acid test is when the scan is complete and it is then you're going to find out if you need to do a Mr. Bean (you needed to have seen the episode where he is trying to improve his tv reception to get this) or if things are Hunky Dory!

If you have good reception, EyeTV will display the channel it's set on as soon as it's done scanning. Otherwise you might be faced with a blue screen (not unlike the M$ bsod) with some text on it .... "Channel Currently Unavailable" or "No Signal".

This isn't a death knell but just part of the fun ...

I have to move the little antenna all around my room until I get really good reception and even receive all the available channels here. You may be lucky enough to have your EyeTV tuner hooked up to an outdoor aerial or you may not. I have a 6' bamboo pole and I attach the little aerial to the top of it and add another USB cable to the loop before I can start to find the "Sweet Spot" in my room when that blue screen is replaced by the streaming audio/images.

I recently had a whole lot of trouble with my EyeTV usb device and the next 3 replacements the AppleStore gave me in my troubleshooting spree. It turned out that the USB 2.0 ports in my iMac were faulty enough to not allow EyeTV to function properly but also continued to power my digital camera/keyboard -mouse/printer/iPod etc etc ...

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any more questions you might have.:dive:

 

[bobtomay]

Also, once you have antenna hooked up, go here, and put in your street address (or a non-existant address on your street) and the zip code. It will provide you with a listing of your local channels and a map indicating the direction to point your antenna.

Have tried multiple indoor antennas (from $30 - $100) with varying success. Finally went to Radio Shack and spent $40 for a rooftop antenna which I have installed in the attic. Now have every channel available in the area.

If you don't have the option of an external antenna, I found this type of indoor provided the best all around performance. It is, however, highly directional and is only UHF. So, if you have one of your locals that is broadcasting on the VHF band (only ABC here in Dallas) you will not get it.

 

[NanoBite]

bobtomay, Is your rooftop antenna in the attic, or outside ... I too have tried various powered indoor aerials but they drove me batty with too many controls for my liking ... I just like to point and watch.

Here's my aerial set-up ...

 

[bobtomay]

I have it in the attic, not outside. Have lots of very big trees around here, so mounting it outside wouldn't have done a whloe lot more. Just hung it from the rafters with a couple of pieces of string, pointing towards the main tower arrays. Have no issue with reception except during very heavy rain. Not as bad as the satellite though and never goes completely out. Have it split running to 3 different rooms in the house. Just ran the coax across the attic, dropped it down inside the wall along with the satellite feeds. Double outlet at each location, one for antenna and one for the satellite. Almost looks like a pro did it.:bushman:

 

[NanoBite]

hmmm. Didn't think of that. Great job bobtomay, thanks for sharing! We're renting and I didn't want to shell out for an exterior aerial. I could do exactly what you have done but didn't think of hanging the antenna in the attic! Brilliant~ I'm directly in line with the transmitter with nothing but air between so I imagine that would fix my near perfect reception using the tiny aerial provided in the box ....:bone:

 

[sf14]

i do not have cable, but i hav connected a different antena to the tuner and i now have a couple channels. Is there anyway to improve the image?

 

[bobtomay]

i do not have cable, but i hav connected a different antena to the tuner and i now have a couple channels. Is there anyway to improve the image?

See my above post, the one at 6:00
All indoor antennas pick up more or less depending not only on which room in the house, but where it is placed in the room and which direction you have it pointed. Go to the site I have in post above to find where the towers are in your area, and then at best it is just trial and error with almost any indoor antenna.

I have tried at least the 6 best reviewed indoor antennas I could find in several locations over the past 3-4 years. I currently am less than 10 miles from the broadcast towers and the best one I found only works from fair (20 out of 40+ channels) to pretty bad (4 out of 40) depending on which room it is in. I can get it working good by running 100' coax out the window and putting the antenna at the back of the property line. My advice, if any way possible, use a rooftop style antenna. They're relatively inexpensive and will save a lot of frustration trying to watch that great HD picture.