EyeTV Hybrid turns a Mac into a PVR

For those of us who have to have our TV no matter where we are, there’s the EyeTV Hybrid, a Mac-friendly (meaning it doesn’t do Windows) 2-in-1 digital TV tuner. Just hook up the tuner to your laptop’s USB port and watch the TV signals come flooding in.

The 2-in-1 part comes in the form of not only the tuner but also the recording element, which allows you to capture digital or analog signals and save them on your Mac, without losing format. (This is the so-called lossless variety.)

Better yet, you can use your computer as a true video recorder, pausing and rewinding live TV and even scheduling recording times for future programs. The EyeTV software integrates well with Apple’s FrontRow suite of multimedia applications.

The price tag on this tuner isn’t too bad, either. You can get one here for less than US$200.