TerraTec S7 (USB DVB-S2, MAC, WIN, HD, int CI-Modul)

I use this virtually every day to record H.264 HD broadcasts from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 that are useful to teachers within the school where I teach; it records unencrypted HD beautifully. The EPG is also useful and I can set up recordings manually weeks in advance. I convert the H.264 TS files into HD MPEG2s with Videoredo. The pictures are detailed and very sharp and pupils really notice the difference in quality from SD. The software was easy to install; the satellites were located quite quickly; the breakout box works well with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The only quirk I have discovered is that, when setting up which audio track to record, if you select anything other than "No audio" (which I appreciate sounds counter-intuitive) you also embed in the TS file the audio commentary track for the visually-impaired. (Incidentally, ITV and Channel 4 broadcast at a consistently high bitrate; the BBC varies considerably.)Better still, I have found that you can record two BBC programmes at the same time: BBC One HD and BBC Two HD can be recorded concurrently because both channels use the same satellite frequency. This has proved very handy when fellow teachers have asked me to record programmes that are broadcast at the same time. To gain the most from the Terratec S7 you really need a fast laptop/PC with a powerful graphics card.March 2018 update: it also works superbly on Windows 10 (but not with Terratec Home Cinema software, but with the amazing DVBViewer Pro)

Please change your description of this item. The current versions are not Mac compatible (or Windows 10). Using Windows 7 it work well, but doesn't meet my needs.

I bought the receiver to watch free-to-air standard definition European satellite television. (My computer and monitor are too primitive to cope with high definition, even if I wanted it.)My system uses Windows XP Home Edition and has 1 Gigabyte of RAM. I have one dish pointing at Hotbird (13° East) and one at Astra 1 (19.2° East), connected by a manual switch.I can watch and record with no difficulty.The "manual" is not helpful.After scanning, go to "Options", "Stations";click the lower button in the middle to copy all the stations scanned to the favourites box on the right;use the buttons on the bottom right to save these stations.Until I did this I could not see any of the stations I scanned.After this, assign one of the four colours to favourite stations so they can be accessed from these four shorter lists of favourites rather than from the long list;use the buttons on the bottom right to save these stations.These is a red button for record, which works. I have not yet worked out how to distinguish record, timer record and time delay.I am glad I bought this receiver.

If, like me, you are buying this as it seems to be the only USB Mac compatible DVB-S out there, don't!It does not ship with any MAC OSX software. Nor does it it ship with Elgato eyeTV.I will now have to by that separately from Elgato and see if the box does anything at all...