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.

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 highly 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 side of the device for the software to activate. Once this is done, the simple, but elegant M2TV viewing application will ask you to input the prefecture you reside in before scanning for available channels.

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 and installed the latest copy of M2TV, I was finally up and running with free HD channels over UHF!

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; I believe this is for copy protection purposes. Similarly, moving the M2TV viewing window to my external monitor causes the video feed to go blank. Perhaps this wouldn’t happen if I were using a HDCP monitor connector. 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!

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.

Capturing Japanese TV Shows to Disk:

If you’re one of those people that are interested in capturing Japanese TV content for playback on other devices, then 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.) or on sites like YouTube.