I'm a long-time user of the MigliaTV box, which includes a hardware video compressor. That box died (Miglia's response to my inquiry was to ignore it), and I decided to replace it with a less-expensive TVMicro analog tuner. The TVMicro uses "The Tube" software as a controller.

My experience has been generally positive. "The Tube" installed easily. There were no problems activating it, and it automatically found all of the analog cable channels. It is inexpensive and it works. I'm able to watch TV on my MacBookPro, which is my main need. I've not yet tried to record anything.