Customer Reviews

EyeTV Hybrid (2010) - Hybrid TV tuner stick for Mac & PC

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought the EyeTV Hybrid as I had read a lot of great things about Elgato and the EyeTV products and I was intrigued. I wanted to get retire my cable bill as I was tired of paying Comcast so much money each month. So, I bought the EyeTV and a Terk antenna and I couldn't be happier. The product was very easy to set up and took just a few minutes before I was watching TV on my Mac. I used the set up assistant and within a few minutes it found 22 channels in my area. All of these are over the air (most in digital). I have the EyeTV plugged in to my Mac Mini and my 27" monitor and the quality of the picture is amazing. Not only can I watch live TV, but it has the Tivo functionality of allowing me to pause and rewind live TV. The EyeTV comes with a subscription to TV Guide and I schedule recordings the EyeTV to record programs and then watch them later. The EyeTV even has an easy to use editor to edit the commercials - this is really a convenient feature. I subsequently purchased the EyeTV App from the App Store for $5 and now I can stream live TV on my iPhone. I love this feature. I'm hoping they will release a EyeTV App for the iPad soon! I'm looking forward to one less bill each month and saving hundreds of dollars each year. I highly recommend this product.

I bought this for two purposes:
- digitize old VHS family videos to bring them into the internet age
- be able to watch TV in a room where there's a projector and computer but no TV tuner

It works great for the 2nd one and while I haven't gotten to the first project yet, it came with the necessary cables and I trust that (easier) task will go just fine.

The EyeTV software was able to find a few dozen channels on my low-end cable plan, identify the stations, and let me browse by channel or by the program guide. (It lists channels by the station FCC identification, but it would be more useful if it also showed any network affiliation; sometimes I want to say "show me the local ABC station" and not remember "KGO-TV".) This works out pretty well as long as I use the builtin program guide, which is free for the first year and $20/year after that; it'll probably get less useful if I don't pay to renew that subscription in a year.

It's nice being able to select shows from a menu, schedule them for recording, and watch a show after it's started and while it's being recorded (all this modern stuff that anyone who already had a DVR will take for granted, but it's new to me and works well here).

The only downside I've found is that the software is slow (it uses pretty much the whole CPU while watching video, and while the video window is onscreen, the rest of the EyeTV app is sluggish to respond to my mouse input). At times, the video stream will stutter or drop frames. FWIW I'm using this with a recent (2009 model) Mac Mini, with a Core 2 Duo processor running Snow Leopard, at 720p (1280x720) screen resolution. It works fine, but just barely; it feels like the machine is creaking at the seams.

I'll also note that it uses amazingly little CPU while recording TV in the background (I guess it just saves the encoded stream away, directly from the cable company, without decoding or decompressing it?), but as soon as I show the video onscreen, it uses most of the available CPU capacity.

A "computer-friend" of mine recommended this device to me which left me a bit hesitant because he tends to pick technical things that I can't stand to work with (still insists that I use ogg vorbis and flac files instead of Mp3s!) when I said I wanted to start making my video tapes into files for my computer. Sure enough the Hyrbid was less expensive than some of the other devices I looked into that transfered tapes so I bought it. I was really surprised at what a brainless process it was to make digital recordings from old tapes. I'm not that great with imovie but I have loads of stuff to work with now from my old tapes...it's a project I have been meaning to do for ages. I know this device is supposed to be for TV viewing but I just have found the analog to digital aspect to make it alone worth the purchase. a purchase I am very happy with.

To start, I own a Mac and this product, while PC friendly, is made for a Mac. Your experience on a PC may be very different.

I am ever trying to come up with a way to "cut the cord" and this little guy has brought me one step closer. In an effort to pinch every penny out of our budget, my family has often discussed getting rid of cable. For my wife, she wants to watch the "cable shows" and for myself I want to watch sports. We can solve my wife's issue with Hulu and Netflix. My problem, however, is not so easy. That's where the Eye TV Hybrid comes in. Most sports I want to watch will be broadcast by one of the major networks (NBC, CBS,ABC,FOX) and the Eye TV Hybrid allows me to watch all of these stations.

*** PLEASE NOTE - you will need an OTA digital antenna too. The Eye Tv Hybrid is NOT an antenna but rather a product which unscrambles the signal received from the antenna ***

The picture is beautiful and there are no "ghost" images at all. It is almost as good as my FIOS HD TV service - seriously, it is. The included Eye TV software is awesome. It gathers all the needed information and displays the signal in a guide very similar to that of a cable company. VERY easy to use. It is almost a complete replacement of the cable box . . . ALMOST

The first "problem"is that the Eye TV is not a dual tuner. That is, you can not record one show while watching another. Most every cable company provided DVR box has a dual tuner in it and most Americans want this option. As a work around, you could install two Eye TV hybrids. I have not tried this but I hear that it works. Regardless, this is a small issue. Eye TV has a product out in Europe which solves this issue and I assume similar products will make there way to the states.

The second "problem" is software related. To start, the Eye TV software is great. It displays the info in a very nice and easy to use format. It is WAY better looking than the FIOS menu and provides all the detailed information you could want. The "problem" comes in with the need to watch other video content - content not received from the Eye TV Hybrid itself. To watch content on Hulu or Netflix you must exit Eye Tv and open up those other programs. This is time consuming and confuses my wife. On a cable TV setup, we don't need to switch from one program to the other. the remote is all powerful and can access video on demand,live TV,and other such options all from the same setup. It is a very "lazy"way to watch TV, and one that all Americans enjoy. Using Eye TV with Netflix and Hulu takes more effort as you need to become more interactive with the system to find your shows. And this is where my only knock on the Eye TV comes in. While I will gladly move from one program to the other to see all my shows, my wife wants it all in one place. Eye TV needs to come out with a "plug-in" which would include outside signals IN the guide screen. So, when we open the Eye TV guide we see the OTA Digital channels the antenna picks up AND the content from Hulu and Netflix. This would make it an almost perfect replacement of the cable box. Since it does not do this, my wife has yet to let me cut the cord. While there are some software options out there, like Plex, none of them replace the ease of use of the cable box.

Like I said, it is almost what you need to cut the cord. The product works absolutely perfect for what it is advertised to do. Beautiful picture, VERY easy to use. BUT, it is not a cable box replacement. Some software upgrades to the TV guide feature could be a cable killer. Here is hoping for future upgrades in that area.

I already knew what this did... and I'm not using it "as recommended" - just getting a few channel's off the air/cable line - but it works great for those few channel's.

I have a friend that has a digital antenna and he gets LOTS of channel's.

Scheduling is easy, I'm using a manual schedule now to record to harddrive from VHS.

I purchased the Elgato Eyetv3 after a friend recommended it. I purchased the adapter to be able to play my xbox360 thru the computer. After waiting the two weeks to get the product. I read the instructions and began the plug and play process. To my surprise my computer didn't have the drivers (running windows 7). I reread the directions and tried again this time having the CD in the drive hoping the computer would search the CD for the drivers and install them. After waiting a period of time I look at the CD and found it to be blank. When the seller said it would have the program I would need on it. My next step was to install the drivers off the internet from the manufacture. That was even more interesting. What little documentation came with the product didn't tell me what I should down load. The manufactures website is basic and doesn't I have no clue if I even downloaded the right drivers. I am know waiting for the software to download and that takes a while on the internet when deployed.

This works perfectly using their Elegato software on Mac. You just plug it in, hook up an antenna or cable (Although I don't have cable), and scan for channels. Same process as setting up a new TV. I have a 27" 1080p monitor and HD broadcasts like primetime shows or NBA looks amazing. I would highly recommend getting this. I've also tried using it under Windows 7 - 64 Bit and it works with Windows Media Center.

I wanted to play my Nintendo WII using my Imac so I purchased the Eyetv Hybrid. It works. Took me a bit to figure out the settings, but it plays with no delay (who can see milliseconds?). The picture quality is kind of muddy but, I'm satisfied.

This product is a cheap piece of plastic. The connectors are all loose. The coaxial link is loose against the body. The USB is loose in any connection. It worked for 45 days, then I could only get reception by jiggling it. Before 60 days, nothing would help. Nothing. The elgato web "support" is useless. I doubt that I'll be able to get replacement or refund.

Obviously, I'm never buying from this company again. The others seem just as bad, so i guess live tv on the computer is over for the moment. If any company can make a solution for this, they'd make a fortune.

The eye tv is a great idea, but we had trouble getting it to record at the right time, change channels when two sequential shows are to be recorded, and the recorded shows didn't always download into Itunes