The World Cup doesn’t just mean a battle between the world’s greatest ball-kickers. It also heralds a battle for the TV remote.
Expect arguments, bargaining and low-down trickery as your family squabbles over the big screen. Of course, you could enter the fray and hope to catch the second half of a crucial quarter final, or you could guarantee you see every World Cup game in peace and quiet, using your iPhone or iPad.
Stream from the terraces
Securing yourself uninterrupted viewing of every World Cup game is easy with Elgato on your side, and all you’ll need is a Mac and a TV tuner.
Simply hook up an Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe to your Mac’s USB socket, connect your TV aerial and install the EyeTV software from the included CD. If you don’t have an aerial socket anywhere near your Mac, use an Elgato EyeTV Netstream DTT to get signals from the main household TV aerial to your Mac.
Make sure your Mac is connected to the home Wi-Fi network, and open the EyeTV software’s preferences window.
Click on the iPhone tab and tick the boxes to “Enable access from EyeTV for iPhone/iPad” and “Use My EyeTV.”
Lastly, follow the on-screen instructions to set up a free My EyeTV account. Remember the login name and password you choose, as this is your key to hassle-free footyvision, no matter where in the house you settle down to watch it.
Close the EyeTV software’s video window, but leave the software itself running. Leave the Mac running, and even invite other members of the family to use it, as long as they leave it switched on afterward. If EyeTV is running, and your Mac is switched on, you’ll be able to tune in to live TV streams through an iPhone or iPad.
Fire up the portable
Now your Mac is primed and ready to beam live TV signals around the house, you’ll need to get your iPhone or iPad up to speed too.
To get started, simply connect your Apple device to the same wireless network as your Mac. Download the Elgato EyeTV app from the App Store and open it.
Tap the Edit button followed by the green icon and “Add EyeTV”. Next type in your My EyeTV login details.
In a few seconds, your iPad or iPhone will make a connection to the EyeTV software on your Mac. EyeTV will receive instructions from your portable device, change channels and compress the TV signal for optimum streaming to your iPhone or iPad.
If for any reason you’re unable to install an app on your iPhone or iPad, help is at hand. You can also tune into your Mac using the iPhone or iPad’s Safari web browser. Just open it up and head to https://live3g.eyetv.com.
Log in using your My EyeTV details, and you’ll be able to see live TV streams. It’s particularly handy if your iPhone or iPad is supplied by an employer, or if you’ve borrowed one for the purposes of watching the World Cup, and don’t know the owner’s login details for the App Store.
Stream if you wanna go faster
When watching a live TV stream through the iPhone or iPad, the EyeTV software on your Mac works hard to compress the TV signal so it reaches your portable device as quickly as possible. For that reason, there’s a slight delay when changing channels, or first tuning in.
If you’d like to speed things up a little, invest in Elgato’s Turbo.264 HD add-on, which can speed things up, and improve quality too.
It’s a simple USB device which decreases the amount of time EyeTV takes to compress broadcasts, and lets it adapt to any problems with the speed of your home network. It should also improve the picture quality you see on the iPhone or iPad, by using the very best video compression technology.
