#El gato eyetv 250 for free
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It works well enough-we were able to get most of our local broadcast stations in HD, plus a handful of decent cable channels like TBS. Instead, it's designed to work only with the unencrypted cable channels that are available by plugging the RF coaxial cable directly into the EyeTV dongle-that includes analog channels and so-called Clear QAM digital ones. The EyeTV Hybrid doesn't work with a cable box (for that, you want the step-up EyeTV HD box, which includes an IR blaster).

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The DVR software can be programmed to record and offers a fair amount of flexibility, but we're not wild about paying for the guide service.Д¬able is a less straightforward proposition.

#El gato eyetv 250 for free

The guide listings look and function like those on a DVR, but subscribing to TV Guide only gives Elgato users a one-year subscription for free after that, it's $20 a year. Users can also subscribe to a program guide with upcoming listings, courtesy of TV Guide. Using a standard UHF antenna, our EyeTV recognized over-the-air HD channels within seconds, and once setup was complete, we were able to channel surf with relative ease, using an onscreen interface or the included IR remote, which controls the USB stick. Then, the EyeTV 3 software begins mapping out channels. You'll need to supply an antenna or cable connection to the TV tuner stick, which in turn plugs into the Mac's USB slot.

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Software can be installed from the included CD or downloaded straight from Elgato (a registration code is included in the box). Setup of the EyeTV on Apple hardware was pretty simple. However, on a Mac, it's a different, and much more pleasant, story. It's hardly plug-and-play for Windows users, but it worked. But, once we started up Windows Media Center, it eventually recognized the TV tuner and was able to find over-the-air stations, as well as record shows using Windows Media Center's built-in DVR functionality.

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The disc wouldn't open on our Windows PC, and the EyeTV Hybrid USB tuner stick needed drivers downloaded from Elgato's Web site to be properly installed on a Windows PC. Though the EyeTV Hybrid says 'Windows/Mac' on the box, buyer beware: the USB tuner stick's compatible software that's included in the box, called EyeTV 3, is Mac-compatible only. That setup seems more ideal for a desktop computer or all-in-one like the iMac, or a small TV-compatible companion like the Mac Mini. And the computer itself can't be mobile-you'll be tethered to a coaxial TV cable. While a device like the EyeTV offers fewer restrictions-you're not restricted to streaming video within your home network, for instance-it also requires a small but awkward USB dongle to jut out of your computer. Services like Hulu and Netflix offer large libraries of content, and cable providers are increasingly offering online sites and mobile apps for accessing streaming channels and on-demand content. These days, computers and particularly iPhones and iPads are playing better than ever with TV content.

But, let's focus on the live TV function first. And it does more than that, too-the Mac-compatible EyeTV software can double as a programmable DVR (recording shows to the PC's hard drive), and stream video to an Elgato app available on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.

What it does, essentially, is allow you to watch and channel-surf live TV on that computer. It's compatible with over-the-air HDTV and unencrypted cable. The Elgato EyeTV Hybrid ($149 list) is an example of the former: this USB stick isn't much bigger than a standard thumbdrive, but it's a full-on TV tuner, complete with a coaxial jack on one end. If you wanted to watch TV on your computer-say, an episode of your favorite sitcom, or a news report-you'd need a TV tuner or a video capture device. Once upon a time-before Netflix, Hulu, and Slingbox-TVs and computers weren't great bedfellows.