Enjoying digital terrestrial TV wherever it is available, receiving analogue or cable TV, or recording VHS tape recordings into digital format: it’s all possible with the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid. This hardware is a big USB stick with a coaxial connector at the top and a mini-USB connector at the side. It’s amazing what such a small device is capable of, but the most amazing is what the software can do.

The EyeTV Hybrid USB stick is capable of some very high quality digital TV decoding. The Elgato offering includes a non-amplified Digital Terrestrial TV antenna the size of half a fore-arm, yet I could receive all channels with a clear signal, except when I positioned the antenna behind the two LaCie monitors that I have. That’s about halfway my room --as reception of simple analogue radio is already problem in that location, I was impressed.

To test the EyeTV Hybrid’s capacities with regards to analogue TV signals, I hooked up the included female RCA-to-mini-USB cable to a VHS recorder and recorded the video through the EyeTV Hybrid stick in EyeTV. The signal was better than what I had experienced from my favourite video converter, the Miglia Director’s Cut Take II. Disappointing in a sense, because it makes me wonder why on earth I’ve been messing about with that device for all those years. But then again, I don’t believe Elgato makes these things longer than just a few years, and the Miglia is a lot older than that.

Industrial Design and Software Make the EyeTV Stand Out

My findings with the hardware were very promising, and I like the fact that the stick is so small. I also like its design. I am probably not the only one; Elgato even makes little colourful pouches for these sticks.

The true power of hardware, however, always lies in the accompanying software, and here I found EyeTV to really shine. I found the whole installation and set-up procedure to be very easy, with an assistant that guides you through the whole process. Your two-year old can set up EyeTV. Channels are neatly organised, and you can select different program guide providers --the system comes with a one-year free subscription to TVTV.

Recording is easy too, but I did need to go through the manual for the remote control in order to get to grips with the buttons and menu options that correspond with them --just like with my TV and video recorder.

If you have access to a program guide, you can use that to set up schedules. You can also set a schedule according to your own liking, manually, that is. The interface enables you to manage your EyeTV channels, recordings and schedules much like iTunes allows you to manage music, complete with Smart Playlists and Favourites. There’s a Quick look viewing mode when you’re on Leopard.

Integration with Other Software

More important in my opinion, is the ability to directly burn recordings from EyeTV to Toast Titanium (9 is supported), and to convert your recordings to iPod or Apple TV format. I tried all of these and they all worked wonders, with the exception of digital radio recordings that reveal themselves as digital video without video (!). These recordings cannot be burned either, but you can export them into a couple formats that iTunes knows, with an option to immediately dump the file in the iTunes Library --very handy, very comfortable.

The on-screen remote is better-looking than the physical one, but even that one is a comfortable addition. There’s Picture-in-Picture capability --only available when you have a recording and a live window open, at least with the Hybrid --some functionality depends on the type of EyeTV device you have.

Performance-wise I have nothing to add that would degrade my positive review of EyeTV. In European countries, where digital TV is on its way to become the standard by 2012, the EyeTV Hybrid was an eye-opener to me. While the quality is unparalleled, I found the whole system to be aimed at your comfort and pleasure --and succeeding at that in a big way.