Elgato releases EyeTV HD

Elgato on Monday introduced the EyeTV HD, a video-capture device designed to let you watch and record SD and HD programs from cable or satellite sources on your Mac.

The $200 EyeTV HD connects to the component video and analog audio outputs from your decoder box or DVR—or, using the included breakout cable, to composite or S-Video for capturing from a VCR or camcorder, say—and to your Mac via USB.

In order to control scheduling and recording using the included EyeTV 3 software, the package comes with an infrared channel changer—often referring to as an IR blaster—that relays signals from the EyeTV software to your set-top box. Like the EyeTV Hybrid ( ), it includes one year of free guide data from TV Guide, and costs $20 a year after that.

The EyeTV HD encodes video using H.264, and has a dual-format capture mode for recording video in iPad and iPhone formats simultaneously. Using the $5 EyeTV app and the newly released EyeTV 3.4 software update, you can also stream HD video to an iPhone or iPad.

The EyeTV HD is available directly from Elgato and from the Apple Store. It requires a Mac running a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better, and OS X 10.5.8 or later.