If you’re a frequent TV watcher and enjoy spending time on your Mac, why not combine two “hobbies” into one with the eyeTV Hybrid, a simple device which plugs into a free USB port on your Mac allowing you to watch, pause, and record live TV.
Included in the box is a remote control to operate the device from across the room. It also comes with a break-out cable for composite video and S-Video, enabling you to connect a set-top box directly to your Mac.
Depending on where you plug in the device, the remote might not operate correctly as the IR sensor is on the front of the Hybrid. If you’ve got it plugged into the back of a Mac Pro or iMac, don’t expect to be able to control it using the remote.
Setup Process
Initial setup wasn’t a breeze – which was entirely my fault. I opted to use the included aerial instead of plugging directly into a television port. Because of this, the signal was rather weak and wouldn’t pick up many channels. After plugging directly into the wall and doing another exhaustive scan it picked up ten channels, far more impressive.
After the unit picked up ten local channels. I dragged them into their correct order and named them appropriately. I could have left the settings as is, however decided to configure things correctly to make the recording and scheduling process easier.
Live TV Features
The main concept of the eyeTV Hybrid is to watch live TV – this feature is executed perfectly (as it should be). You can watch multiple channels at once – handy if you want to record a channel while watching another.
You can pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV. This is handy if you’re called away while watching a show you don’t want to record, just hit the pause button and click play when you’re back – you’ll even be able to fast forward through the ads.
I have had some frequent crashes while leaving eyeTV playing in the background, muted and hidden. When I go to open it, it has often crashed and the only way to force quit it completely is to..not. I have to restart the whole machine. I have run a few maintenance scripts on my Mac Pro and reinstalled the eyeTV software, however this still could be an isolated incident. It’s a minor issue for me given it’s such a great product.
Recording
My favorite feature of the Elgato eyeTV Hybrid is the ability to record live TV. With the click of a button, or the press of a button on the included remote recording of a show will begin. You can also set up an automatic schedule to record specific shows at specific times of the day.
You can set specific parameters including which channel, what time, how long before/after the show to record, and how often to repeat the recording – daily, all week days, weekends, weekly, or on set days. You can also choose to have recordings auto exported to iTunes after the show is finished.
Recorded files end up in a playlist in the main eyeTV window. From here, you can export with one click to iTunes using the iPod or Apple TV buttons, play them from directly within the eyeTV application, or delete them.
One feature I’d love to see added to the application is the ability to allow eyeTV to wake up your machine from sleep when a recording is due to start. As is, if your machine is on sleep it will skip the scheduled recording.
I was disappointed with the lack of a program guide for New Zealand. For those in the United States and many other countries, you’re able to see a full program guide which provides an overview of shows – letting you record a show with one simple click.
Conclusion
It’s fair to say I have a new favorite accessory for the Mac – the eyeTV Hybrid. It’s wonderful to be able to record the shows I like to watch and catch up with them all, completely ad free on the weekend. It’ll become even better when I pick up an Apple TV and can have recordings automatically exported into iTunes to watch on the big screen.
I highly recommend this product to anyone who enjoys watching TV. At $150 USD, you can’t go wrong.
As I’m away from home at the moment, I’d like to take a second to thank Paul Stamatiou for allowing me to use his screenshots of the eyeTV Hybrid software.