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Smaller than a memory stick, but with more entertainment chops than Strictly Come Dancing, the Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe squeezes Freeview into any PC or Mac. It’s a beautifully tiny bit of kit, but can it live up to expectations? Read our full Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe review to find out.
The Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe is stupidly small. It’s tinier than a 10p coin, and it could be argued there was never any need to make a TV adapter this miniscule. The fact that Elgato have managed it, however, is testament to its ingenuity. And the size really does matter.
The Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe is small enough to slip into your wallet and take everywhere. The neat collapsible aerial is smaller than the stylus of a Nintendo DSi. You could never claim this wasn’t portable.
Pop it into a Mac or PC and it’ll instantly start scouring the skies for broadcast signals. It’ll pick up anything your Freeview box can, bringing live broadcasts to your laptop, no matter how cramped its USB ports are. MacBook Air, we’re looking at you.
Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe handson photos!
We tested the Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe with its tiny telescopic aerial in North London, and it struggled. That’s not surprising, but a little disappointing. To get the full range of Freeview signals, you’ll need a better antenna, or a house next to the broadcast base. When hooked up to a household roof aerial, the Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe scooped the full gamut of stations and delivered pin-sharp pictures.
Hardware aside, it’s Elgato’s EyeTV software is what really makes the EyeTV DTT Deluxe really special. It’s a brilliant package that works as well in full screen mode, turning your computer into a bonafide TV, as it does shrunk down and tuned into Sky News, or any of Freeview’s radio stations, while you work.
The EyeTV software can record broadcasts too, using a fully-featured EPG to plot in shows you want saved. It’ll even work with multiple tuners, so you can record one show while watching another.
Got an iPhone too? The EyeTV software can send a live TV signal to it from the EyeTV DTT Deluxe as well as letting you stream recordings. If there are other PCs or Macs in the house running EyeTV, they can tap into shared recording libraries too. Never has such a small device bought square eyes to so many. We love the Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe, it’s simply astounding.
