This past Tuesday, I had a “wow cool!” Mac moment. Like most “wow cool!” moments, it actually began as a conundrum. For my election night party, I needed a second television. I have a TV room with a nice wall-mounted HD television, but this room was simply too small to accommodate all my guests. However, upstairs, I have a 24” Intel iMac, which was the perfect size to use as a second TV in a separate room.
The various TV tuners I’ve tested for the Mac in the past have always let me down. The software was either wonky, the reception was bad, or the video ended up being pixelated and unpleasant to watch. However, I’d read good reviews of the EyeTV Hybrid USB receiver, and decided to give it a try. For only $135, the cost was far less than a second TV. Plus, if it worked, I’d have the ability to tune and record HDTV on the iMac—including shows I currently pay to subscribe to in the iTunes store. With EyeTV Hybrid, I could easily move these recorded HD shows to an Apple TV or iPod to watch on the big TV.
With some trepidation, I purchased the EyeTV Hybrid, along with an inexpensive antenna that supported both digital and analog broadcast signals. The EyeTV Hybrid itself is a small, aluminum stick with a USB port at one end and a full-size coaxial plug on the other end. You plug the USB port into your Mac (Intel Mac definitely recommended), and the other end into your antenna or analog cable connection. EyeTV Hybrid comes with a composite video and S-Video break-out cable to connect a set-top box or video game console.
EyeTV also receives free over-the-air (OTA) HDTV, Clear QAM, and traditional analog TV. When you plug everything in and install the software, you need to allow the EyeTV 3 software several minutes to scan the airwaves for analog broadcasting, and then again for digital broadcasting.
After this was accomplished, I was able to instantly begin watching live broadcast HDTV on the iMac. The image quality looked fantastic on the iMac’s widescreen monitor, and I was especially surprised by the HD video quality. The iMac was truly working as a LCD television. I was also impressed by the quality of the EyeTV 3 software. It was truly “Mac-like” in all regards.
The software gave me a list of channels with the strongest, clearest signal, but it was also possible to manually click through unlisted channels that suffered poor reception. I was able to tune four crystal clear HD stations, along with 13 other analog channels of varying quality. After years of having cable, it seemed odd to move the antenna around for better reception. For that particular night, I was satisfied to have the three HD channels.
As channels convert to DTV by 2009, reception should improve. Of course, a connection via cable would be best, but after initial hardware costs, it’s nice to have “free” TV again. Also, I am going to do some research and buy a really good antenna. I’ll set everything up in the office and let you know how it goes over the next few months. I’m also going to experiment with connecting the Mac to the cable with the EyeTV Hybrid.
Now my iMac is an HDTV and DVR in one. The EyeTV Hybrid works way better than I expected, and I am happy with it. This is a great solution for using a Mac as TV in a guest room, a dorm room, an office, or even a living room in a cramped apartment.
EyeTV hybrid also works as a pass-through device, so you can connect a VCR and convert all your old VHS tapes to digital format for editing, archiving, and burning to DVD.
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