Need Advice re TV Tuner for MBA revB

[ducatidoc]

im somewhat of a football nut, and regularly record my teams broadcasts on my dvr so i can watch them again after the game. since my dvr and mba are not set up to communicate, i rip the game to a dvd on my pioneer and then play it back or copy it to my mba. i recognize this is inefficient and stupid and am seeking a better alternative.

current setup is:

regular comcrap analog cable
mba revB 1.8/ssd + ACD 24" LED
pioneer device 80gb HD + DVR capability (like a tivo with a burner built in)

what id like to do:

skip the dvr, and import (analog) cable signal out of the wall and into my mac.
record the games on my mac in analog mode, and perhaps in HD when the game is on one of the major (free HD) national networks.
sell my pioneer hd/dvr to recoop space and $$$

also pertinent:
i am considering a dedicated mac mini in the future for tv/movie/torrent purposes once i can scrounge up some extra cash

so which tv tuner do i get? i had the pinnacle mini hd for mac device recommended to me, but have read great reviews on the elgato series of devices. on that avenue, it seems like the eyeTV 250 plus might be a better alternative to the hybrid given that it's less processor intensive and my wee mba has very little processor to spare. or am i missing something and hybrid functionality offers something different that the 250 (besides fm audio)?

 

[justit]

The 250 has a built-in hardware encoder so it doesn't use the MBA cpu.

 

[ducatidoc]

yup, that's what i had read as well. anyone actually use one of these? would love to hear from someone with personal experience before pulling the trigger.

 

[ducatidoc]

answered part of my own question, for those also curious see:

http://support.elgato.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1193

still hoping for a word from someone who owns one...

 

[Andre1980]

My wife owns the EyeTV DTT stick which is a cheap version of the Hybrid. Since she uses it on a 1.66 GHz MacMini CoreDuo and I tried it on my PowerBook without any trouble, the MBA should handle it fine as well. The signal is pretty good, software is awesome, and the whole thing is just fun to use. The export feature to many different formats is great and I happily convert recorded shows to watch them on my iPod Touch.
That said, I strongly recommend that EyeTV stick. Unless I overlooked some important features, I don't really see the advantage of the 250 over the regular stick. Signal reception can be pimped using a bigger or self-powered antenna and as I said video transcoding works fine without additional piece of hardware, like that funny white box.
Either way make sure you stick with Elgato's software!