The wide base might block adjacent ports, but a short extension cable creates more room.
Turn a Mac into a TV with the TubeStick. This product’s driving concept is great for small spaces, travel, and recording favorite shows, but with the TubeStick, the execution falters. Its recording features are disappointing, limited by weak scheduling options, wasting much of the hardware’s potential.
At first launch, we were concerned that using the TubeStick required us to hand over access to our main Keychain, essentially allowing the software to do whatever it wants to OS X. Equinux told us that this is required to wake the computer from sleep for a scheduled recording, but we wish the reasoning were better explained in the software’s documentation. At best, the access struck us as a security compromise.
The rest of the setup progressed smoothly, and the software probed our reception for available channels. The small USB device is about the size of a cigarette lighter and fits a jack for its included antenna. We got the typical quality and number of over-the-air channels for our location; the TubeStick can tune digital (and HD) ATSC signals or analog NTSC. The older NTSC standard will be shut off in February 2009 in the United States. The TubeStick even includes a small adapter cable to capture analog S-Video and composite sources with audio; you’d find these on a VHS VCR, cable box, or older camcorder, for example.
With good reception in our tests, the digital TV signals were fluid and sharp—an HDTV show on a Mac easily looks better than it does on an older, standard TV. But those high-quality video broadcasts taxed our MacBook; the images stuttered occasionally when we multitasked, but stayed smooth if we left TubeStick software in the foreground.
TV broadcasters embed program details within the broadcast, and the TubeStick can read this data to display channel and show names. However, in our tests, the program details were incomplete, favoring prime time shows. And the data trickled in slowly; we’d much prefer an option to download TV listings over the Internet.
We recorded single shows without problem, and the software can pause and buffer live TV like a standalone DVR. However, the included software, called TheTube, can’t automatically record all of the episodes in a single series or perform comprehensive searches like DVRs can. We searched for and recorded single episodes in the guide, but browsing through the list was needlessly difficult, due to an unintuitive layout.
TheTube includes a few unique—if sometimes strange—features. iChat integration lets you start a video chat with a friend and then stream over the live TV signal. An in-software chat room lets you gossip with other people watching the same show via TubeStick, but in our tests we never found another chatter. TubeToGo options are the best extras, automatically exporting shows to iTunes for syncing to mobile devices and even uploading them for Internet playback. With the latter, we used iDisk to act as storage—Equinux doesn’t provide server space—and streamed video through a Web browser. We even connected through an iPhone, letting us watch recorded programs from anywhere.
Aside from the guide and recording issues, other problems inhibit the TubeStick. The interface gets you watching TV quickly, but some features feel poorly executed, such as an option to adjust the live TV buffer without explaining how much disk space the program needs. And the TubeStick automatically installs an add-on program, MediaCentral, sticks it in the dock, includes an icon in the main interface, and asks for $29.95 if you want to use it for more than 5 minutes.
While it’s sufficient for watching live broadcasts and analog sources, weak scheduling and recording options make the TubeStick limited as a DVR.
Tunes ATSC and NTSC channels. HDTV looks great. Tunes unscrambled analog and digital cable. Digitizes analog sources. iTunes export and streaming options move TV to portable devices. Pauses live TV.
No online episode guide. Weak recording options. Can’t tune two channels at once. Requires adapter for nearly all U.S. coaxial cables. Installs extra program and asks you to buy it. Requires Keychain access. Hardware gets especially hot. Magnetic antenna is a bad match for laptops. 