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Perhaps you're one of those Mac ultrafanatics who wouldn't be caught dead with anything less than Apple's finest, even if it means squeezing another year out your Civic hatchback. If so, prepare for your mouth to water, because Elgato's EyeTV 500 is a reasonably priced terrestrial (over the air) HDTV tuner that connects via a FireWire 400 port. It adds PVR software to schedule recordings, pause live TV, archive recordings to DVD and more. However, unless you're sitting pretty on nothing less than a dual-processor G5 and one of the new HDready, silver Cinema Displays, gorgeous HDTV on your Mac will remain a dream for now.
The enormous resolution of HDTV requires a high-end, HD-ready monitor, such as the Apple 23" Cinema Display, although we tested the EyeTV 500 on a lower-resolution 20" Cinema Display and still received beautiful broadcasts. Also, HDTV comprises a gargantuan amount of data for a Mac to handle, and a dual-G5 machine is required to watch full-resolution HDTV. The receiver will also pick up lower-res DTV programs that you could watch with a lesser Mac and monitor, but that would be sort of like using the fine china to eat fish sticks and tater tots. Don't bother. While you're making the shopping list, also add Roxio's Toast Titanium 6 ($99; www.roxio.com), which EyeTV 500 requires to archive shows to a DVD.
Setting up the EyeTV 500 is no problem: install the software, connect an antenna and connect the EyeTV 500 with the included FireWire cable. The software automatically checks which stations it can receive and adds these to your channel list. (Go to www.checkhd.com to see what's available in your area.) You can then watch EyeTV like any other TV, using the battery-operated remote control to flick through channels. With the remote (or keyboard keys) you can also pause live TV or begin recording. An hour of HDTV takes about 8GB of hard disk space, so it's nice that burning programs to DVD is wonderfully easy to do. Just open the Programs window--which contains a list of all your recorded shows and upcoming scheduled recordings--select a show and choose File>Burn DVD. Toast 6 then opens and has to downgrade the HDTV to the DVD video standard. This encoding takes a long time, but it's still very convenient. To save disc space, the EyeTV software also lets you edit your recordings. Again, this is a snap. You simply set marker points around the areas you want to delete and click the Compact button to have EyeTV render the recording without the unwanted parts.
An important component to using EyeTV is the program guide located at TitanTV.com. You register with the site for free when you register the EyeTV 500, and the Web site holds your local program schedule. You can create a favorite channels list, mark favorite shows, set reminders for shows to watch and best of all, schedule recordings with a click. You can schedule recordings from any computer, and by setting EyeTV to startup our Mac before recordings, we successfully recorded shows on our office Mac by scheduling them from home.
Scheduling recordings manually is easy as well. In the New Programs window, enter the channel and time and set it to record once or repeat daily, weekly, monthly, on weekdays or on your selected days. Should you schedule conflicting programs, EyeTV alerts you and lets you choose which program you want to keep in the queue.
Using the EyeTV 500 to watch and record HDTV on a Mac is a rare treat that we relish. Many HDTV broadcasts utilize 5.1 surround sound, so when we added our M-Audio Revolution 5.1 card ($100; www.m-audio.com; Panther required) and 5.1 speakers, we were about as happy as Mac lovers can be. Although the requirements are expensive and programming limited, the EyeTV 500 sits close to the top of the dream setup list.
-MARKKUS ROVITO
EYETV 500: 
Elgato | www.elgato.com | $350
Pros: Reasonably priced for an HDTV tuner, easy recording and editing of programs, excellent integration with Toast 6 for DVD backup and with TitanTV.com's program guide.
Cons: Huge system requirements for full HDTV, occasional stuttering problems when watching buffered TV, analog TV tuner not included.
Requires: OS 10.2.8 or higher, G4 500mhz or faster (dual processor G5 required for full frame rate HDTV playback), FireWire port, 256MB RAM, antenna
macHOME recommends: An Apple Cinema Display or other HDready LCD monitor, dual-processor G5, 512MB or more RAM, Internet connection for program guide, large hard drive for recording, Roxio Toast 6 Titanium for DVD burning
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