EyeTV Hybrid works on M4 iMac

If you are using any Geniatech software (EyeTV3, EyeTV4¹) in support of that EyeTV U6 hardware, you need to ask them if that software is X86_64 (Intel) only - dependent upon Apple's Rosetta2 - or if it is Universal2 (both X86_64 and ARM64)? If Geniatech is not committed to making Universal2 builds of their software, then the loss of Rosetta2 in this Fall's macOS 27, will end your EyeTV euphoria, should you upgrade macOS.

¹ Intel only, not compatible with Sonoma or later

One thing you could do to see whether the EyeTV application is Apple-Silicon-native:

Open your Applications folder and select the EyeTV application icon. Then select the menu item File > Get Info. An information window will come up. Look at what it says on the Kind line.

If it says "Application (Universal)" or "Application (Apple silicon)", the program is already Apple-Silicon-native and won't automatically stop working when Rosetta 2 goes away. If it says "Application (Intel)", it is Intel-only and only will run on your M4 iMac for as long as Rosetta 2 is available.

TheOS2Guy wrote:

After migration, the Dock displayed the EyeTV icon, but with only 4 Thunderbolt ports, I figured I wouldn't be able to connect the EyeTV Hybrid thumb drive because it had a USB-3 connection.

The Thunderbolt ports on your 24" iMac are multi-purpose USB-C ports that support

• Traditional USB protocol, at speeds up to 10 Gbps (USB 3.1 Gen 2 speed)
• USB4 20 Gbps and 40 Gbps
• DisplayPort
• Thunderbolt

They adapt to work with any compatible device that is plugged in.

There are many ways to convert between USB-C and USB-A, as long as you are talking about traditional USB, at speeds of up to 10 Gbps. (The other protocols are too advanced for USB-A to support – which is why the USB4 standard calls for all USB4 host ports to have USB-C connectors.)

So there was a compatibility issue between your iMac and a USB-A device, it would most likely have to do with driver or application software for your device, not anything to do with the USB connection itself.

TheOS2Guy wrote:

Apple keeps sending me notices about OSX 28 and how it will not support EyeTV unless Geniatech offers an upgrade to their software. Here's the bottom line for me: I won't upgrade OSX beyond 27 EVER if Apple doesn't provide an avenue for Geniatech to offer a recompiled M update.

Apple does provide "an avenue for Geniatech to offer a recompiled M update." It's called Xcode – a software development environment that anyone who has a recent Mac can download for free.

While you can lead a horse to water, that doesn't mean that you can force it to drink. It is the responsibility of Geniatech to take advantage of the tools to recompile their software (and to make any changes to their code which might be required for compatibility with Apple Silicon Macs and current versions of macOS).

If Geniatech does not provide an Apple-Silicon-native version of their software, it will not be because Apple did not provide "an avenue for Geniatech to offer a recompiled M update." It will be because Geniatech refused to take advantage of the avenue provided.

Apple can upgrade OSX all they want but without EyeTV there is no point in owning an iMac M4 or beyond. I've turned to all my friends running EyeTV and they pretty much feel the same. We've all submitted requests to Geniatech to offer a solution and it looks as though they aren't interested.

So Geniatech apparently s not interested in supporting you, their customer. How is that Apple's fault?

Thank you, Apple — great job supporting Geniatech's EyeTV U6! BTW, it also works on my new MacBook Pro!

you got it in reverse, apple do not "support third party stuff, they do not make drivers or take measures to make eyetv products work, it's EyeTv developers who makes drivers and follow protocols to make sure their third party devices work with macOS same with the print drivers where you don't have to download from the printer manufactures website, because they are bundled with macSO but the drivers are still made by the manufactures still develop the drivers and send them to apple.

TheOS2Guy wrote:

Isn't that sad — and I was praising Apple when, instead, I have to stop upgrading from this point on.

You have to stop upgrading? Does that mean that Geniatech has abandoned you, and does not offer, or have any intention of offering, Apple-Silicon-native versions of their software? Have you asked them and gotten an answer to that question?

The end of Rosetta 2 support does not mean that all programs that run on Tahoe and earlier will stop working. It means that programs that were built only for Intel chips will stop working. I have some of those on my Mac that I would prefer not to lose – some 64-bit games (32-bit games died with Catalina), and a calculator app that I like better than others that Ive seen. But we are more than five years into the Apple Silicon era – and Apple has not had any new Intel-based Macs in their lineup since June 2023.

Vendors who want to support present-day Mac users really should be building native versions for Apple Silicon, even if they also want to continue building native versions for Intel for a while.

TheOS2Guy wrote:

I had an up-to-date TimeMachine back-up and figured EyeTV, like so many of my legacy apps, would be gone. After migration, the Dock displayed the EyeTV icon

Geniatech's EyeTV U6

So, this was migrated from an earlier installation. Do you recall what version of macOS was on your 2020 iMac when you installed EyeTV on the iMac? And when made your Time Machine backup?

What version of the EyeTV are you using? Is it EyeTV 4.0.0 (8532)? The US Geniatech website says it is not compatible with Sonoma or later ... but the EU Geniatech website says it is.

It would be a Geniatech issue, not caused by Apple. Apple's Developer documentation explains how to create Universal2 binaries for future compatibility with Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. I have created some Universal2 binaries and even Universal dynamic libraries that run on my Intel and M4 Mac Mini Pro. It is not rocket science.

TheOS2Guy wrote:

(I still own a non-working 2006 Quad Core Mac Pro Tower and two Apple Cinema displays.) A decent Mac Pro today with display would reach $10,000 and turned off by price or need for such power.

That 2006 Mac Pro would have had two Intel Xeon 5100-series ("Woodcrest") CPUs running at 2.0 – 3.0 GHz. Geekbench CPU charts show one of those with two 3.0 GHz dual-core CPUs, and running Windows, having a single-core CPU score of 326 and a multi-core CPU score of 971. A M4 iMac beats both of those benchmark scores by more than 10 times. Eighteen years of advances in technology does make a slight difference …

Appleinsider alluded that Apple has stated that Rosetta2 will be retained in macOS 27. Since that site is heavily rumor dependent, we will need to wait for WWDC '26 to learn directly from Apple about the Rosetta2 status.

VikingOSX wrote:

Appleinsider alluded that Apple has stated that Rosetta2 will be retained in macOS 27. Since that site is heavily rumor dependent, we will need to wait for WWDC '26 to learn directly from Apple about the Rosetta2 status.

No need to depend on rumors with regard to Rosetta 2 support in macOS 27.

About the Rosetta translation environment | Apple Developer Documentation

"Important

macOS Tahoe will be the last release for Intel-based Mac computers. Those systems will continue to receive security updates for 3 years.

Rosetta was designed to make the transition to Apple silicon easier, and we plan to make it available for the next two major macOS releases – through macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps. Beyond this timeframe, we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks."

So Rosetta 2 will be fully supported in macOS 27 – but not in macOS 28.