Elgato Launches Mac-exclusive USB 2.0 mini TV

With the exception of third party units, Elgato has always relied on hardware codecs to deliver superior image quality at a fraction of the CPU speed in a time when the Motorola processors reigned supreme. Now IBM is the dominant chip, and as such Elgato has released their first software-encoding tuner, the EyeTV EZ.

Priced at $149, the EyeTV EZ is the cheapest unit Elgato has ever shipped, and can record directly to MPEG-1/2 and export to Toast, DVD Studio Pro, iDVD, QuickTime, AVI, MPEG-4, and 3G. Antennas and coaxial cable can be hooked up through the TerraTec tuner, and camcorders through S-Video or RCA.

It should be noted that because the EyeTV EZ relies on software encoding, it is not subject to the 3 second latency found in the other members of the EyeTV family. As such, Elgato claims you can connect your video game console directly to the Mac, although we recommend trying this before you buy it.