Chances are if you’re reading this you are in Japan, own a Mac, and want to watch some free HD channels over UHF. The GV-MACTV is one of the few devices made for this purpose.
*WARNING* This product will not work with the Mac Mini or Mac Pro!
Device Info:
The GV-MACTV is made by I-O DATA and is a compact device that uses USB for power and to interface with the Mac. The device features a B-CAS card slot, which takes the included B-CAS card. This card is needed to watch HD TV channels over UHF, because even though such channels are free to view, all HD content over-the-air is encrypted for copyright protection purposes. The GV-MACTV features a single F-connector plug for use with a UHF antenna. It is recommended to use this device with a high quality indoor or outdoor antenna for best possible reception.
Installation:
During installation, you’ll need to type-in the serial number found on the bottom of the device for the software to activate. Once this is done, M2TV viewing application will ask you to input the prefecture or city you reside in before scanning for available channels. These locations are written in Kanji!
M2TV Software Upgrade
The CD that came with my GV-MACTV featured an old copy of the M2TV software, so right away I wanted to upgrade to the latest version. Unfortunately, the upgrade found on I-O DATA’s website caused my GV-MACTV to stop responding! After some initial panicking, I managed to hunt down a fix, which I found here. Apparently, you can’t upgrade the M2TV software if you’re running OS X Snow Leopard; you’ll first need to completely remove the older copy of M2TV with a removal tool. After I did this, I was finally up and running with free HD channels over UHF!
UPDATE: After installed OS X Lion, the GV-MACTV appeared to stop working; even it’s white LED power indicator would not turn on! The problem is, the latest version of the software (currently 1.70) is only compatible with Lion in 32-bit mode. You’ll need to hold down the ’2′ and ’3′ keys on your keyboard when booting up your Mac to kick it into 32-bit mode. The unit should light up and begin working, BUT you might want to use an older version of MacTV (1.50) for stability. I’ve yet to do much testing…
Software and Restrictions:
Although the M2TV software is rather modest in features, it does allow you to record content directly to your hard disk. Unfortunately, these files can only be played back with the M2TV software; this is for copy protection purposes. Similarly, moving the M2TV viewing window to my external monitor causes the video feed to go blank. Another thing I tried was using a screen capture app to record the entire screen to a standard video format. The M2TV app recognized the capture software and promptly shutdown!
UPDATE: You can screen capture the video, but you’ll need to open Activity Monitor and quit the MacTV processes that scan for screen capture software. It’s a bit of trial and error, but if it can work.
Conclusion:
Despite featuring strict copy protection controls, which is just how things are in Japan, the GV-MACTV and bundled M2TV software work exactly as advertised. Changing channels, updating programming guides and recording TV shows in stunning 1080i 17Mbps is a breeze. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone owning a Mac in Japan. But remember, this product will not work with Mac’s that rely on an external display. Also, the software tends to cause kernel panics because, I have to assume, it’s coded like shit and everyone seems to have this problem!
Capturing Japanese TV Shows to Disk:
If you’re interested in capturing Japanese TV content for playback on other devices, I would suggest getting a USB 1SEG turner. This will allow you to save video captures to disk, usually in MPEG4/AAC format, without DRM restrictions. The downside to 1SEG is that it’s limited to 320 x 240, 15FPS – it won’t look pretty on your large display, but it should look decent running on your mobile devices (iPhone, PSP, etc.).
If you’re wondering, I did manage to indirectly record some footage with the GV-MACTV outside of M2TV. I did this by quitting a few background applications in Activity Monitor that appear to scan for screen capturing software and other ‘offenses’ while running M2TV. This allowed me to screen capture video to a file on my hard drive. Unfortunately, this is a rather cumbersome way to get the job done, and the frame rate was not complete smooth (but not terrible).
Hey, thanks for that enlightening post!
I just bought the GV-MACTV on kakaku.com and was fearing that I wouldn’t be able to find any information that wasn’t in japanese.
Thanks to you, I’m not worried anymore!
Thanks for the great write up, this was exactly what I was looking for. There are some really nice capture cards and programs for HDTV back in the US, but unfortunately don’t work with the HDTV standards in Japan. Right now I’m leaning heavily towards the Pixma model, though I think that one doesn’t allow you to export to H264 either. That’s what I’m really aiming for.
Thanks for the very informational review of the GV-MACTV
product. Although it is not exactly what I’m looking for. We live
in Europe but are on famili visit to Japan once a year. We would
like to be able to record the local television shows and watch them
while back in Europe. I’ve searched high and low but not been able
to find any products allowing that while supporting digital
terrestrial tv. The closest I’ve come is the Eyetv 250 Plus, which
I have just ordered from amazon.co.jp at a ridiculous price – more
expensive than the GV-MACTV and only allowing recording of analog
tv. And as we all know, that stops July next year. So if anybody
has found a digital solution for recording japanese tv and watching
it abroad, I am extremely interested to know any details.
I bought this yesterday from Amazon.co.jp and it arrived this morning. I was thinking that it would be a great addition to my media center setup, which uses a Mac Mini hooked up to my Panasonic 51″ PDP.
So I tested it on my MacBook and it worked perfectly. Then I tried to connect it to my Mac Mini. After installing, I started the application and promptly got an error. It seems that you can’t use the digital audio out with this gadget. OK, so I unplugged the digital audio and tried again. I got a second error. Apparently, you also aren’t allowed to use this with an external display.
So, they made this device just for MacBooks? That seems really lame to me.
The MacTV will work on any Mac with a built-in display — the notebooks and also the iMac’s.
Copy protection is strict in Japan, but comparable elsewhere when dealing with digital HD television.
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