[Pierre B.]

OK, the wife is interested in watching TV on her laptop(s). We are thinking about some solution from Pinnacle (PCTV USB stick). Here are the questions:

(1) Could a Merom 1.6 GHz handle the load? Does this kind of processing taxes the GPU too? How about a Core Duo at 1.2 GHz? Those two are laptops under Windows XP.

(2) Can such a PCTV USB stick work on a Macbook also? It seems you need to buy separately the Mac version.

(3) What about EyeTV hybrid? Will it work under Windows? I hear that with some software it will work. Is that true?

Thanks!

EDIT: it seems that Hauppauge offers some dual Mac/PC solution. Has anyone tried it? Or know how it compares to the Pinnacle or Elgato products?

[analogika]

*Nothing* compares to the EyeTV software.

Period.

[Pierre B.]

Cool, but will really the EyeTV work under Windows with the WinTV software? It would be nice to have one piece of hardware for any notebook. It is a USB stick after all.

[vmarks]

Originally Posted by Pierre B. 

OK, the wife is interested in watching TV on her laptop(s). We are thinking about some solution from Pinnacle (PCTV USB stick). Here are the questions:

(1) Could a Merom 1.6 GHz handle the load? Does this kind of processing taxes the GPU too? How about a Core Duo at 1.2 GHz? Those two are laptops under Windows XP.

More than competent.

(2) Can such a PCTV USB stick work on a Macbook also? It seems you need to buy separately the Mac version.

Or buy an elgato eyetv license.

(3) What about EyeTV hybrid? Will it work under Windows? I hear that with some software it will work. Is that true?

Yes, Elgato is repacking a hauppauge stick. Pinnacle uses the same chips, but perhaps different usb IDs. with a little modification of the inf file for the drivers in Windows, you can make the pinnacle also work with WinTv.

Thanks!

EDIT: it seems that Hauppauge offers some dual Mac/PC solution. Has anyone tried it? Or know how it compares to the Pinnacle or Elgato products?

Really, don't use hauppauge's software.

It isn't true that -nothing- compares to Elgato EyeTV - Equinux The Tube is very very good. But Hauppauge's software has been lousy for a long time.

[Pierre B.]

Great, thanks vmarks.

[kikkoman]

If your just going to be watching TV around the house consider the HDHomeRun. It has dual tuners and if you set it up on a wireless network you'll not need to plug anything into your laptop to watch TV.

[CMYKid]

I've a Hauppage WinTV HVR-Whatever stick that I got for about 80 bucks, it comes with the Pinnacle PC software which of course I dont use (this is all for my Vista Media Center PC).

However, just because I wanted to see how it worked, I dl'd the ElGato EyeTV app and plugged the stick into my MacbookPro with its included tiny antenna attached, and damned if it doesnt tune over-the-air HD better then my Samsung plasma.

Anyway, I mostly use Orb for watching tv on the go since it can tune cable and send it to wherever I am, but the idea works if you happen to have a use for it since the ElGato product is actually just a rebadged Hauppage WinTV

VMARKS covered most of the above already but one caveat: if you're buying this in a store, open it up and look at the actual tuner stick if possible. Later versionsof this have a Q appended to the end of the model #, though they're in the non-Q boxes, but these added support for Clear-QAM tuning.