I'm testing out an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid on my iMac, and a Hauppauge HVR-1600 in my Windows Media Center. Both of these cards have ATSC tuners which receive free HDTV signal Over The Air (OTA). While I've not had the benefit of side by side comparing OTA to cable HDTV and Satellite HDTV, from what I've read on HDTV specific websites is that the quality of OTA can't be beat.

My TV is an old 35" CRT and is not capable of displaying HDTV, so I'm relegated for now to viewing the HDTV content on my computer. It's interesting how for so long people saw my 35" and would comment on how huge it was, many of these same people now have 42", 50", and even larger flat panel TV's. Perceptions change as TV's got larger.

The EyeTV Hybrid is an external USB tuner with both an analog and digital ATSC tuner, however, you can only use it as a digital or an analog tuner, you can't simultaneously use both analog and digital. The Hauppauge HVR-1600 is a PCI internal card with dual tuners, analog and digital ATSC which can both be used simultaneously.

I'm having fun testing out the two cards, in two completely different environments. I'll have more to say about them with more time under my belt. I'm doing a little live viewing and using them as DVR's to record shows and time shift for later viewing.

All this free HDTV testing sure has me itching for a new TV!