Elgato puts TV tuner on the LAN

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 26 July 2007 03:25

Your IT - Entertainment

We're used to sharing printers, scanners and storage - now Elgato offers a network-connected TV tuner.

The HDHomeRun is only available in North America, but it solves the problem of not having an antenna or cable outlet close to your computer. On the other hand, if there's no network connection near the outlet, you'll still need some wiring.

Twin tuners mean two different programs on broadcast digital TV and unencrypted cable channels can be watched or recorded simultaneously on two separate Macs. The HDHomeRun comes with Elgato's well-regarded EyeTV software, licensed for two computers. Additional licences are available in three-packs. The free Internet-delivered TitanTV EPG can be used with EyeTV.

If a Mac is equipped with a directly-connected TV tuner supported by EyeTV, one copy of the software will control it and the HDHomeRun.

A dual G5 or Intel Core 2 Duo system is recommended for playing HD content.

At $US199.95, the HDHomeRun's price represents a modest premium over that of the $US149.95 EyeTV Hybrid USB stick.