I just purchased the Elgato Hybrid for my MacBook Pro Core Duo. It works
great in the MBP. I would warn that the unit has no onboard decoding for
digital signals (other Elgato tuners do offer onboard decoding at a higher
price). This is strictly a tuner. The decoding is offloaded to the
processor in the laptop. As my MBP has two 2.17GHz cores, it has no issues
with full 1080i HD, but a lesser machine may not yield the results that I
have experienced (some initial complaints came from users using slower,
single core processors). The unit has impressive signal acquisition and
locking for the digital signals. It does require an external antenna of
some sort. It can tune unencrypted cable channels. I also like the fact
that the unit has an external dongle that provides s-video or composite
video inputs which can be used for gaming, camcorder or whatever. The
software (eyetv) is excellent, offering full tivo-like pause/resume on
digital signals and the same on analog when you are recording while
watching. The reason is that digital signals (mpeg2) can be spun to the hard
drive in real time, while analog has to be converted into digital (no way to
record analog to a hard drive) and the software does not convert analog into
mpeg2 format except when recording. When tuning a digital signal that has
subchannels, one of the subchannels can be watched in a PIP window. This
only works on digital channels since the tuner can only tune a single
channel at a time but the decoding of a single digital channel can result in
up to 6 standard definition subchannels and the digital decoding is done
within the laptop. The connection to Titan's online guide makes choosing a
show to watch or record a lot easier. Of course Titan access requires being
connected to the internet, but I have that covered with Verizon wireless
broadband service. There have been some complaints that the unit runs hot,
but I have not found the unit to get more than mildly warm after several
hours of continuous operation. The Elgato Hybrid does require a USB2 port
(will not work on USB version 1 ports). Elgato provides an extension cable
so as to allow the Hybrid to either plug directly into the laptop or at the
end of the extension cable.
We have a great 17" LCD TV that we share between our two A/Ss, but with the
MBP and the Elgato Hybrid, that TV will likely find a new home.
david
> Check out:
>
> http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvhybridna
>
> No personal experience (yet!) but is getting excellent reviews. Can
> use ordinary antenna or cable for signal, handles broadcast HD, on-
> line program info....
>
> Rob
> '73 Safari