OK, here we go again with the latest version (2.5.1) of this software. Sound has now returned on HD channels here in Australia. As for the rest of it- forget it. To give this software the fairest test it could ever hope for I started with a "clean sheet" on a brand new MBP with a clean install of 10.5.2 with a zeroed out HD and The Tube being the only third party software installed. From a fairness in testing point of view it never gets better than that.

Once installed the software seemed to work better than the previous rubbish with a very minor glitch of the default install sound setting is set at zero. Given the control freak nature of The Tube's inventors I was surprised to find that, yes, the volume control was actually user adjustable. It managed to find all the channels that it should for my area and picture quality is good. However, adjusting viewing size is not recommended, as this sends it off into a fit, and normal size cannot be obtained after that short off trashing the preference file.

While a manual recording works ok, doing a scheduled recording was a different story. I set it up to record while the computer was asleep which meant according to The Tube's preferences settings it would wake up the computer, launch the program then go back to sleep. Ah no. It didn't do that at all. On the first attempt it woke the computer, recorded the program, but didn't put it back to sleep. This failure to return to sleep has obviously had a profound effect on its scheduling ability. No longer does it wake to record. And even with the computer awake it does not record the channel you selected, but you get a different channel.

The only way to solve this is to do a complete re-install of everything, which means you use up another blessing from the tin gods at Equinux that allows only six lives to its products. Not sure why they feel a need to do this. No one is going to 'steal' their software. That would be like imaging someone is going to break into your place to steal the dog's crap from the back yard. It just isn't going to happen. Or if you did catch some lunatic trying to pinch dog crap, you wouldn't call the police, but you would call the folk in charge of mental health, as one of their clients has obviously stopped taking their medication.

In conclusion all I can say is that despite this version being four times the install file size of the original, it still fails miserably to make a scheduled recording. The software still rates, quiet deservedly too I might add, as the worse ever piece of software ever produced. AVOID!

Oh, BTW did I mention how bad it is at exporting recorded files? No you don't need to know that story for now, but it is bad.