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Provides: Watch HDTV and analog TV, convert analog video to digital, play console video games on your computer

Developer: Elgato Systems

Minimum Requirements: PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel Core processor, 256MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.4, built-in USB 2.0 port, Internet connection for Program Guide data. Note: 720p or 1080i HD features require a Dual PowerPC G5 or Intel Core Duo processor.

Retail Price: $185.00

Availability: Out now

If you're at all interested in watching digital or analog cable on your Macintosh, it's not really a matter of whether you should consider an Elgato product, but which Elgato product. They have numerous models available to suit your specific needs, including the EyeTV Diversity, the EyeTV Hybrid (see Applelinks review), and even the EyeTV 410 for Digital Terrestrial TV. I'm not even sure what Terrestrial TV is, but it's good to know I can get it on my Mac if I need to. I suspect it won't be long before Elgato offers Extra Terrestrial TV compatibility.

This time, I'm taking a look at the EyeTV 250 Plus, which specializes not only in bringing live HDTV and analog television to my desktop, but also allows me to convert VHS tapes and other analog recordings for iTunes and DVD burning. In my view, that's much more useful than simply having the ability to watch and record cable TV. Although there are now many options for converting analog tapes to digital files on your computer, having that functionality bundled with cable TV input is very handy.

The EyeTV 250 is a little larger than a pack of cigarettes...or so I can tell from the other end of the convenient store counter. The cable signal, USB and power ports are all located in the back, clearing your desktop of cable clutter. The analog video/audio port is located in the front, but this makes sense; chances are you won't want to always leave your VHS or analog camcorder plugged into the EyeTV, but you'll want easy access when you need it. Elgato provides a single adapter that allows you to bring either composite or S-video and your audio signal directly into the EyeTV unit. Very handy; it's nice to not have to rely on a third-party USB device or your Mac's audio input for capturing audio like some video capture/conversion tools do.

Of course, pretty much the entire process is handy. When you first launch the EyeTV player, you'll be asked if you're connecting an analog antenna, analog cable or digital antenna signal. After making your selection, EyeTV will search your system for available frequencies. Its success rate will vary depending upon your service. With Time Warner Cable, EyeTV grabbed channels 1 through 79, then 96 and 99, for some reason. My cable system goes well beyond that, though, so I was closed off from some mildly useful channels, such as VH1 Classic.

Once everything's set up, the EyeTV works pretty much just like a standard TV. You can scroll through the window to find the channel you want, and simply double-click to pull it in. You can also use the onscreen controller, or the remote control provided by Elgato. You may think a remote control wouldn't make much sense with a computer, but considering the size of iMacs these days, they really are starting to make sense as a second TV.

The trouble with that, though, is that the picture quality on EyeTV still is not that great compared to cable delivered directly to your television. As I've mentioned in similar reviews, watching cable on your computer via EyeTV vs. your television is similar to the difference between a DVD and VHS tape. It's certainly passable, especially if you keep the video small. If you're watching it full screen, though, you'll want to be backed fairly far away from your screen so you don't see all of the compression artifacts.

Note that the screen capture above is using a standard cable signal (and was shrunk for size restrictions). If you have an Intel iMac or a dual G5 and a digital video signal, you can get video at 720p or 1080i. However you're capturing the signal, the video compression is handled by the EyeTV hardware, freeing up your computer for other tasks. This causes latency, but that's not much of an issue when capturing video. If you're using the EyeTV 250 to play console video games on your Mac, however, you can shut off the hardware encoder via a menu selection to eliminate the delay .

Perhaps the best feature with the EyeTV 250 Plus isn't the hardware, however, but the software. The EyeTV 2 software allows you to search your cable system (after you tell it to which cable system you subscribe) for shows by title, actor, etc., then displays all the results. You can also search by channel and time, of course, and then set them to record with the click of a button.

At show time (or even before, if you tell it to turn on early), EyeTV 2 will launch, record the show, and save it to your designated folder. You have the ability to set up more shows than is healthy. This is a tremendous improvement over the previous version, which required you to go to the TitanTV website in order to program your recordings. EyeTV 2 still works in conjunction with TitanTV, but it saves you that step of having to open a browser window to do it. The system within the EyeTV software is also easier to search and navigate.

And finally, Elgato has made their hardware/software combo more useful by fully embracing Apple's digital hub. Presets for the iPod and iPhone are built into EyeTV 2, so getting your video from EyeTV to your portable device couldn't be much easier. If the analog video quality is less than stellar when viewed on the computer, I should point out that it looks just fine on the iPod. EyeTV and the iPod/iPhone are a perfect match. And if you throw in the Elgato Turbo.264...well, I'll get to that in the next review.

If you're looking to burn your videos to disc, no problem; Roxio Toast 8 Basic comes in the box.

The EyeTV 250 Plus is as complete a cable/analog video solution as I've seen. I've been making use of these devices since the days of Mac OS 9, and I have yet to see one as automated and powerful as this offering from Elgato. Any hit to picture quality is easily compensated for by the increase in functionality provided by the wonderfully intuitive and useful EyeTV software. Watching TV on the computer may still not be a logical alternative to your 46" Samsung, but if you're looking to burn shows to DVD or dump them to your iPod/iPhone, EyeTV 250 Plus is easily one of the best products available.