[theokandroid]

Hi, I just got myself an intel imac 20" and im loving it so far, i need to consolidate space as im moving into a studio apartment next month, Im trying to decide whether I should purchase the EyeTV ez or the EyeTV 250, im not too sure the differences between the two. Thanks.

[slugslugslug]

If you click the comparison link on the product web pages, you don't see anything notable. But it looks to me like the difference is that the 250 has its own hardware video encoder, whereas the EZ uses the Mac's CPU to record video. Since you have a pretty fast dual-core machine, it'll probably handle the recording pretty well, so you might want to save the $50 and go with the EZ. Unless you think you'll often be recording TV shows at the same time as doing other processor-intensive work.

[Edit: I just noticed that EyeTV EZ can't pause/rewind live TV, which might matter to you. Check out this hardware FAQ page for add'l details.]

[SSharon]

Originally Posted by slugslugslug

[Edit: I just noticed that EyeTV EZ can't pause/rewind live TV, which might matter to you. Check out this hardware FAQ page for add'l details.]

I think it can, but only if you tell it to when you launch it. This will force it into doing compression on the desktop instead of displaying an unaltered feed. Could be wrong though.

[joe]

My vote - go for the EyeTV250. It has on-board hardware based compression which the EZ lacks. But the 250 also has a non-compressed (non-delayed) mode available in case you want to use a video game console. Bus powered is nice too for a device with hardware basec compression. Previously only Firewire tuners (w/compression) were bus powered.