The television revolution is upon us, and the space is clearly still being defined. Elgato thinks that they might have the answer. The EyeTV Netstream Sat takes your normal cable feed, converts it into an iOS compatible stream, and then wirelessly streams the content to your Mac or iPad. The catch? Currently it only supports the UK’s free-to-view satellite system. So most of the world shouldn’t be expecting it any time soon. The device costs 199,95 Euro, which isn’t exactly cheap.
If you have access to a free-to-view satellite system, you’ll be able to get away with using the device.
Here’s some note from their release
- The newly announced version 1.2 of the EyeTV App enables both EyeTV Netstream Sat and EyeTV Netstream DTT to stream SD channels over the local Wi-Fi network directly to iOS 4 devices (requires iOS4.2).
- You can stream live TV, surf the web, and send email all at the same time. An intelligent device, EyeTV Netstream Sat offers centralized configuration via web browser and auto-discovery via UPnP & Bonjour.
- EyeTV Netstream Sat ships on November 22nd at a suggested retail price of 199,95 Euro (£189,95 GBP) including VAT. EyeTV Sat Free ships in January 2011 at a suggested retail price of 99,95 Euro (£89,95 GBP) including VAT. The EyeTV app version 1.2 is available at the App Store for 3,99 Euro. The app update is free of charge.
Device of the Future?
But, the Netstream Sat may be cheaper in the long run, than say, relying on Netflix as your primary television content provider. For those of you who have been keeping dibs on the Netflix.ca release, you’ll know full well that the Canadian market is not ready for streaming television in any capacity. During the first month, in which I averaged a video every couple of days (and about a movie per week), I managed to push my bandwidth over our allocated “resources.” During that period, we blew past 90GB of data in no time flat. That has me worried for the future. Elgato may be on to something with their Netstream box. If they can eliminate the need for transferring video across the internet, they could be sitting on a gold mine.
They will need to figure out the most cost effective way of giving users the content they want in a format that works best for them. Gone should be the days of cable carriers controlling the devices their cable streams are viewed from. If we don’t figure this out quickly enough, we might start to see our bandwidth prices increase rapidly, despite the already steep prices.
Don’t think for a second that the television providers of the world aren’t already paying attention to this and looking for ways exploit the situation for more profit.
I’m not a television person. I’d say during the course of a month I might watch 4 or 5 episodes of a television show on cable, and that’s an extremely liberal estimate. Streaming video works for me because I can watch the content when I want to and how I want to, but when someone like me blows past 90GB in a month, there’s something to worry about. Rogers is already pushing me to max out my bandwidth pipe, in addition to already paying them for my cable.
I never thought about it in these terms before, but this week things looked a lot different than they have in the past for me. I’m paying for television twice. The networks know it, and the ones who control both mediums, like Rogers, are fine with it. But they’re in for a rude awakening when other Canadians cancel their cable entirely, and rely on their internet connections to get television.
But that takes us full circle. Once Rogers and others see that happening frequently, don’t be surprised if they manage to roll the cost of cable directly into your internet bill. It’s because of this that something like the EyeTV Netstream Sat might have a future.
Article Via Mac News Daily
