Many many months ago, I had the pleasure of getting a TubeStick from Equinux to review. Due to some unfortunate circumstances though, I was unable to provide the review when I was going to. But now, here it is.
If you are not familiar with TubeStick, let me tell you about it. TubeStick is a USB device that allows you to connect a TV antenna to your Mac and watch over the air TV on your computer using their software. You can also use the device and software as a DVR. It’s ready to go right out of the box. When you get the TubeStick, you not only get the device, but software, USB extension cable, a small antenna, and an antenna adapter for using with your cable or other digital antena.
Like I said before, I have had this device for a while now. The TubeStick it self is actually pretty small, just a tad bigger than USB jump drives when they first came out. The device can easily fit in your pocket. The software does have DRM protection, so you can install it on your computers, but it can only be active on one computer at a time. The antena that they send you is small, compact and has a magnetic base. It gets the job done, but is a bit limiting when it comes to reception.
I used the TubeStick with Cable, the antena they send, and my own antena. All worked wonderfully. The small antena picks up a decent amount of stations, but had issues getting all my local stations. This would be the perfect antena for traveling with though. Especially if you aren’t looking to channel surf a lot. The higher end antena which I attached was actually my preferred choice of all. I was able to get all my local stations, they all came in clear, and I didn’t have to wait long for a signal. Cable worked well too, but in my area I was unable to get the channel guide to work with the software, so cable became a bit of a pain.
The biggest downfall of this product is scanning. When you connect a new antena/cable, you have to rescan the channels. If you are just using an antena, then it’s no big deal. However, if you are doing this with cable, it may take a while to get through the channels. Overall though, I was quite satisfied with this product. I used it primarily on my Mac Mini that is connected to a 37″ HDTV and it worked wonderfully. I can see this product being great for someone always on the go with their laptop, or for people wanting to do more on their computers and having more of a media center instead of just a TV.
This product for me is a Buy for sure. If you want to get your hands on it though, you might have difficulties. According to their website http://equinux.com they do not ship to the US. Hopefully I will find more info and post it here.
If you are able to find a reseller in the US, please contact me or leave it in the comments.
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