Several people wrote in with questions about the EyeTV Hybrid review I wrote last week. Most people wanted to know about the difference between the EyeTV Hybrid (which costs $135) and the EyeTV 250 (which costs $185).
El Gato has a standard comparison page between the two devices, and even better, you can see an article detailing the comparisons here.
The main difference is that the EyeTV 250 Plus is a hardware encoder, so it does not use your Mac’s processor to encode analog video. This is mainly an issue for older Macs – newer Intel Macs should be able to easily handle decoding analog signals. El Gato says “EyeTV 250 Plus contains hardware encoders that offer excellent performance and recording quality. Because the processor intensive MPEG encoding is done in the hardware, you can use an older Macintosh to record high quality programming.” And later “Dual G5 and Intel Macs can handle the demand on the processor quite effortlessly, so an EyeTV Hybrid is a very suitable and inexpensive alternative for newer Macs.”
Note that both devices will allow you to import VHS tapes and convert them to digital – the guide is not clear about this. The EyeTV 250 comes with a specialized program for this, while the EyeTV hybrid requires you use the same software to record a VHS tape as you’d use to record a TV show. In my opinion, this is not a major distinction.
The EyeTV 250 comes with Toast 8 Basic, while the EyeTV Hybrid does not. EyeTV 250 needs to be plugged into the wall, while EyeTV Hybrid is bus-powered.