Great way to add an analog/HDTV to your Mac

I bought the EyeTV Hybrid because I wanted to watch HDTV signals on my computer. I am using a Mac-mini with a PPC 1.42MHz processor and 512MB RAM.

This device is perfect for watching television on your computer. It picks up both analog and HDTV signals. It has an RF connector so you can connect it right to your cableTV jack. It also has inputs so you can connect a camcorder, VCR or game console.

Setting up was easy, as most Mac products are. Just pop the included CD into the drive. The installation program asks you a few questions and tells you to insert the device and connect the antenna. In about two minutes, you're watching TV on your monitor.

The included software comes with a program guide that updates itself over the internet. There is also an on-screen remote control that lets you change channels and perform other functions. The unit is pretty easy to use.

The performance on this is fantastic. I can't believe they put so much functionality into such a little USB stick! I am using an old "rabbit-ear" antenna and get plenty of HDTV signals. However, I live close to New York City. So, depending on where you live, you may need a bigger antenna.

The picture quality is clear. It is really limited by the quality of your monitor. Because I am viewing HDTV signals, there is no ghosting or other interference problems. My PPC Mac does keep up most of the time and does not drop frames or skip out on sound. What is great is that I am able to shrink the TV picture down into a small window and browse the internet or do other tasks in another window. Viewing a full-size picture while running another processor-intensive program may cause the Mac to hiccup a little. However, the newer Mac-minis with the dual-core Intel processors should have no problems. I have not viewed analog signals. So, I cannot comment on this.

Keep in mind that this device does everything via software. There is no hardware processor on-board. That is why you need a more recent Mac to use this. If you have an older or slower Mac, then use the EyeTV 250 that has a built-in processor. However, the eyeTV250 cannot tune HDTV signals.

I will also note that the EyeTV Hybrid does not convert video to MPEG files. It can record an HDTV signal to the hard drive since HDTV signals are already in MPEG format. However, it will not record analog signals.

I have also found that this device works better if you plug it right into one of the USB ports directly on the computer. The first reason is that this device is powered by the USB port and it takes a lot of power! If you must connect this device to a USB hub make sure that the hub is a powered one and that there are no USB 1.0 or USB 1.1 devices connected to that hub. I found that mixing slower USB1.X devices with faster USB 2.0 devices makes everything on that hub slow. Don't even think about connecting this to the built-in hub on the keyboard. Again, it draws lots of power and needs the full USB 2.0 speed in order to get the best video quality.