During MacWorld this year, Equinux announced the release of their TubeStick hybrid. The small USB stick will allow you to watch digital and standard cable television on your mac. The TubeStick Hybrid unlike its predecessor was designed to work specifically in the United States. Prior to this only Euripeans and Australians were able to take advantage of the device.

The TubeStick hybrid includes the poplular, The Tube software, which boasts features such as timeshift, scheduled recordings, and pause and rewind live tv. The software all has some social network qualities with TubeTalk, allowing users to discuss the programs they are watching, and surf their buddies channels. They are also introduciing TubeToGo, an automated web upload service so you can view your recording anywhere with an internet connection. Not to shabby.

More information regarding the TubeStick hybrid is available at Equinux. Its currently not available for purchase, but is anticipated in February. If interested you an complete the interest form and get the latest on when its available.

Miglia's New TVMini² is the smallest avaliable digital TV available, and from what we can see it is. The slim design allows for neighboring USB port access. This DVB-T tuner is USB 2.0 powered and features a high performance tuner and demodulator able to capture HD resolutions (requires dual g5 or intel processors).

The Tuner and Demodulator technology was borrowed fro m the in-car entertainment market, translating to a much stronger signal, then the previous model. The TVMini² captures video in MPEG-2 digital quality, allowing for easy editing and video management.

Included with the TVMini² is the latest version of Equinox's The Tube software, which now includes Timed Recording, EPG, and open XMLTV standards, which we have covered before.

Unfortunately the TVMini² will do us Americans little good with limited DVB-T broadcasts, but Europe can take full advantage of this innovative product. The TVMini² sells for £59.99 or €78.99, and includes a 2 year manufactures warranty.

There are a lot of TV-Tuners designed for the Macintosh currently available on the market, each with their own benefits and draw backs. AMD introduced the ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo tuner for the Mac. Despite the long name the tuner looks extremely promising for AMD's initial introduction to the Mac market. The Wonder 650, first of all is a USB 2.0, dual tuner device that can recieve both Analog, and ATSC/HDTV broadcasts. Before you runout and buy one, the down side is, it will only handle one of them on each tuner.

The reciever features several enhancements to make optimize you viewing experience. The advanced 3D Comb filter, Edge Enhancement technology and Noise Reduction filters analog signals produce a pure image that is suppose to rival high-end HD sets. The ATI Theater Digital TV allows upt o 720p (1080i) broadcasts.

The hardware, however is only as good as the software that supports it. AMD provides ATI tvPortal to interact with the Wonder 650. The software is provides full PVR and time-shifting capabilities, allowing you to fast forward, rewind or pause live analog tv. TV shows are recorded in MPEG-2, while watching TV with the dual tuner functionality. An onscreen Electronic Program Guide provides you with the a listing of all the shows, as well as the ability to schedule recordings. We have not had the privilege to test this software, but from the screen shots and description its appears to rival EyeTV, with the exception of a full screen mode and FrontRow interaction, which for a media center is a major draw back.


The Wonder 650 requires a G4 processor or better with native USB 2.0, and 512MB of RAM. This is great for the older HTPC systems out there, or for those individuals on a budget. However for dual tuner support they recommend a Dual G5 or Intel processors combod with at least 1GB of RAM. This is great for those of you that adobted intel systems, but puts older G4 users out of luck for dual tuner support. It would be nice if the G4 could handle it, but there comes a time, when these systems need to be retired or turned into file servers.

The AMB ATI TV Wonder 650 is available for $150 now, and can be purchased through VisionTek

Elgato has brought HDHomeRun to our Macs via EyeTV. HDHomeRun is a Digital TV tuner that runs through your home network. The OTA / Clear QAM signals are decoded and sent out over ethernet, which can now be viewed on your Mac with EyeTV.

What we find more interesting is that with the dual tuners you can simultaneously watch and record separate channels at the same time. Dual Tuner support has been a previously unsupported and long awaited feature.

We haven't had any experience with the HDHomeRun device but we are curious about how it is effected by network traffic, and potential use over wireless-n networks. Device requirements do require a 100/1000base-T Ethernet network.

Highlighted features of the device/software include:

• Watch digital television on your Mac.
  
• Watch and record live TV simultaneously or watch two channels.
  
• Picture-in-Picture.
  
• Rewind, fast-forward, and pause live TV.
  
• Browse EyeTV menus in Full Screen mode.
  
• Record hours of favorite TV shows directly on a Mac's hard drive and edit out unwanted content.
  
• Find TV shows using the built-in Program Guide.
  
• Store your collection on an external drive, or burn it to disc.
  
• Export TV clips and entire episodes to an iPod®, iPhone™ or AppleTV™.
  

An HDHomeRun and 2 EyeTV license will set you back $199.95, and is available through Elgato's online store.

Just when your about to ask, where is Miglia's 2nd tuner they promised, the announced their next TV tuner for DVB-T / OTA Digital TV, the TVMini Express. This USB stick tuner includes a nifty antenna, usb cable and Miglia's new software, now called TheTube™ TV, but which nobody has seen.

As you may recall EyeTV was the supplied software until Miglia decided they would not renew their licensing agreement. Miglia has promised 2 tuners in the next week and now they have delivered with the TVMini Express and TVMax+.

Making good on their word, Miglia has introduced their latest Hardware TV Tuner for your Macintosh. Like most tuners on the market, TVMax+ functions as a DVR and allows your to export your recordings to your AppleTV, iPod, or iTunes. All this for £143.00 or roughly $270 USD.

This tuner is unique in the fact that it is design to stack under your Macintosh Mini. Sharing the same form factor the TVMax+ compliments your media center nicely. The included remote allows you full control of the PVR software, which is an excellent upgrade from the 6 button Apple Remote. This tuner also requires an external power source, as the USB2.0 interface probably does not provide enough juice for proper functionality.

The encoding behind the TVMax+ is the main difference between the it and the previous model, the TVMax. The new software takes advantage of the building in hardware encoder making transfers faster and less processor intensive.

Specs:

Host Interface: USB 2.0 (B Type connector)
TV Tuner: Analog Tuner, Cable TV ready, up to 125 channels
Antenna Connection: Antenna or Cable box
Video Inputs: Composite (RCA) and S-Video
Audio Inputs: 2 RCA Connectors, stereo 48 KHz, 16 Bits stereo capture
Recording Formats: iPod Good, iPod Best, Apple TV, DVD ready, Full size (Mpeg4) DIVX Portable, DIVX Home Theater
Power: External Power Supply
Warranty: 2 Years Miglia Warranty, return to base.

Miglia TVMax+ is unique in it design, however there are less expensive tuners on the market that can handle the same load. At close to $270, we believe they have over priced this device based on the markets average tv tuner pricing, and their previous version sells for $180.00

Pinnacle Systems is the latest to enter the Macintosh USB TV-Tuner market. Today they are announcing three new tuners. 2 are designed for the European markets and 1 for the US. The DVB-T stick is for Europe while a Pinnacle TV 'Hybrid' stick delivers analog and HD TV reception for the US. All three tuners will be ready to ship in March and ship with EyeTV.

Equinux, the developers behind CoverScout and MediaCentral have released their first hardware device. They are calling it TubeStick. This will compete head to head with other popular USB tuners. Tubestick allows you to watch and record television on your mac.

Tubestick includes, software, hardware, antenna and adapters. The tuner works well with MediaCentral, and includes a complimentary copy of the software.

The DVB-T (DTT) tuner is the popular standard used in Europe, Asia and other conenents. It is not available however in the US or Canada.

El Gato now has a multi tuner TV Receiver for your Mini, if you have DTT or DVB-T, in your area. They are calling it the EyeTV Diversity. The device is just as small as the Hybrid, which is killer. More information can be found at their website.

The devices is boasting up to 50% better reception and picture quality. This goes for indoors and outdoors. This would be exceptional for anyone that has to take the metro or trains for their daily communte or travel. The superior reception relies on two portable antennas to achieve the optimal reception. These two antennas can also act indepently in a dual-tuner mode. Check it out if your in the select countries where digital terrestrial television (DTT, or DVB-T) is broadcast.