Elgato
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| Product type | Consumer electronics (computer) |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 2002 |
| Related brands | Hauppauge |
| Website | elgato.com |
Elgato is a brand of consumer technology products. The manufacturer, also called Elgato, was founded in 1992 by Markus Fest and is headquartered in Munich, Germany.
Elgato is best known for a line of video-recording products called EyeTV, which record video from over-the-air antennas, satellite TV, or mobile devices. The first EyeTV product was introduced in November 2002.
More recently, Elgato introduced a line of "smart" products, such as a key fob that track's the user's distance from their car or purse and provides notifications to help them find it. In 2014, it introduced a home monitoring system called Eve, which provides alerts to users regarding things like air pressure, temperature and water use. Elgato also developed light bulbs that can respond to programming on a mobile device and respond to commands over Bluetooth and it produces two Thunderbolt products: a dock for MacBooks and an external hard drive.
The first EyeTV hardware device was introduced in November 2002. It was a small USB-powered device that contained a cable tuner and hardware encoder in order to convert television video into an MPEG-1 format for watching on a computer. It also had coaxial and RCA plugs to connect it with a VCR or camcorder. A 2002 article in Macworld said it was the "first step" in bridging computers and television, but at this point still had "some kinks".
The next iteration was released in 2004 and called EyeTV 200. EyeTV 200 introduced a digital remote control and converted video programming into the higher-quality MPEG-2 format. A Macworld review gave it 4 out of 5 stars for "very good" and emphasized the video quality and ease-of-use. A story in the Washington Post said it was more expensive than some alternatives, but worked on a Mac and had good-quality recordings. Also in 2004 the first EyeTV product for satellite television was introduced with the EyeTV 310, which was later discontinued and replaced with EyeTV Sat.
That same year a home media server called EyeHome was introduced. It had recording features similar to other EyeTV products, but was also intended for streaming a computer display to a television. It connected Mac computers and televisions that share the same home network. A review in Macworld gave it three stars or a "good" rating, saying that it was easy to install and worked well with Apple applications, but some aspects were quirky or frustrating.Sound and Vision Magazine said it was "pretty darn cool" and an easy, inexpensive way to get media server functionality, though there were some user interface quirks. It gave the product an 89 out of 100 rating.
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