In the market for a Mac-friendly USB TV tuner? Up until recently the market's been pretty much cornered by Elgato and Miglia. But last year Hauppauge announced that some of its popular TV tuners for PC were now Mac compatible. Or if none of those tuners are doing it for you, check out the new TubeStick hybrid from Equinox.

This $129 tuner can handle NTSC, ATSC, and ClearQAM signals. In layman's terms, that means you can plug in an analog cable, a digital antenna for over the air HDTV, or user the tuner to decode unencrypted HD cable channels.

The TubeStick hybrid comes with a portable antenna for watching over the air programs on the go, but we'd recommend spending a few bucks on a higher quality antenna if you plan to use this tuner at home. The tuner is also compatible with Windows.

[via Engadget]

Elgato has released the latest in its line of TV tuners for Mac. The EyeTV 250 Plus is a USB 2.0 HDTV tuner, although you can also use the $200 box as a standard def tuner should the need arise.

There was a time when Elgato and Miglia were pretty much the only game in town for Mac users looking to add TV tuners and PVR functionality to their computers. But a few months back, Hauppauge announced that its popular PC TV tuners were now Mac compatible. So should we read anything into the fact that Elgato is calling this new tuner the EyeTV 250? After all, one of the most popular Hauppauge cards is the WinTV PVR-250.

Name recognition issues aside, the EyeTV 250 Plus looks like a pretty good deal. For your money, you get the TV tuner, Elgato's PVR software, and Roxio Toast 8 Basic for burning CDs and DVDs.

[via Macworld]

Just days after news broke that Miglia will no longer be allowed to offer Elgato's EyeTV software, Miglia's busting out a new TV tuner/media hub for Mac users.

The Miglia TVMax+ includes a TV tuner and the ability to record programs in a variety of MPEG-4 formats, including H.264 and DivX. There are also RCA, coaxial, RCA, and S-video inputs for capturing video.

It looks like Miglia's bundled its own software to replace EyeTV, with support for electronic program guides from tvtv and TitanTV.

[via MacDailyNews]

It looks like there's some bad blood between Elgato and Miglia. The software company behind the popular EyeTV Mac-based PVR software said Monday that Miglia would no longer be authorized to bundle EyeTV with Miglia TV tuner devices.

No reason has been given for the announcement, but Miglia said it would put out a press release Tuesday.

This is bad news for Mac users, but it also seems like a bad idea for Elgato. Miglia is one of the largest companies producing TV tuners for the Mac, and without a TV tuner, customers have no real use for PVR software. It's possible that Elgato is preparing to announce a partnership with another company, or even to launch its own brand of tuners.

Elgato says customers who have already purchased Miglia tuners with EyeTV software will continue to receive support.