Elgato EyeTV Hybrid

The Elgato EyeTV Hybrid is a USB 2 TV tuner that can be used to watch regular analog (NTSC) and HDTV (ATSC) broadcasts on your Mac. EyeTV Hybrid comes with a copy of Elgato's EyeTV 2 software, which enables you to watch, pause, and record both HDTV and analog television. There's also a breakout cable which allows you to connect S-Video or composite video equipment so you can import analogue footage to your Mac.

The EyeTV Hybrid is about the size of a paclket of gum and can plug straight into a USB port or hub, or if that causes problems with ports which are too close together, plugged in using the supplied USB extension cable.The EyeTV Hybrid records HDTV losslessly meaning that the digital stream is captured unaltered and you get the full quality of the original broadcast. Watching and recording HDTV, however, needs a fairly powerful processor, either a Power Mac G5 dual processor or any Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo Mac. So if you have an older Mac and want to watch and record HDTV, now might be the time to upgrade.

The Eye TV 2 software has a built-in electronic program guide, which makes it easy to schedule recordings, and the iTunes-like interface allows you to create playlists of recordings, so for example, you could have one for movies, one for sports, and one for documentaries. EyeTV 2 integrates neatly with Toast 7 Titanium to allow you to burn DVDs of recordings and there's even a built-in encoder to allow you to encode recordings for your iPod at the touch of a button.

There's no antenna in the box, so you'll need to supply your own. If you live in a strong signal area you can use an indoor HDTV antenna, otherwise you'll have to use an outdoor antenna.

Hook up the EyeTV Hybrid to a MacBook or MacBook Pro and you have the perfect mobile HDTV.