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06 March 2007
Posted in
Hardware
When I was involved in computer sales, TV tuners for the PC were just starting to become affordable. That being said, at the time they were around $700 to $800 for a PCI card. Now you can pick them up for under $100.
But despite the lower cost, there's a fundamental concern with computer TV tuners: the computer's processor. Back when TV tuners were coming onto the consumer market PCs were running 486 and Pentium I processors. There was an issue with this for TV because the clock cycles of the processors were around the same as the TV signal. Even with an outside aerial the signal was disrupted and the TV picture became grainy and snowy.
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Installation & Documentation
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Ease of use
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Value for money
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Price approx.
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RRP $355.55 +GST |
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Software/Hardware
Requirements |
USB 2.0 Connectivity |
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Available from
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Buyers Guide as well as other computer stores
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Imagine then the problem of having the tuner right beside the processor. To a certain extent this issue is still around but with the much higher speeds of today's processors, the interruption issue is lessened. That's not to say it's completely gone away, so if you get a TV tuner, run the signal through a video recorder or get a signal booster, as the signal going straight into the TV tuner is reduced going into a computer. Going through a Sky or Saturn decoder means there is no signal quality issue.
With most hardware reviews, it's common to find that the hardware and associated software is made by
the same company. The Miglia TVMax however uses Elgato's EyeTV 2 software. As such this
review will look at the hardware and software as separate entities.
Hardware
The first impression is that someone has
modified the Mac Mini and cut it in half. I personally believe this is more
than intentional. When the Mini came out people took one look at it and
immediately thought Apple's intention was to create a media centre PC. But
Apple never did, instead it announced the AppleTV which doesn't have a TV
tuner. In comes Miglia. The TVMax is the go between filling in a gaps that
the AppleTV has no intention of filling. But Miglia filled that gap
superbly!
Being an external box, it is able to be powered thus providing a better signal than a PCI card. It's still a weaker signal than a video recorder but much better than cheap PCI cards or even top end cards for that matter.
The back of the unit has three inputs, those being Coax Aerial, S-Video, and Composite Video/Audio. There's also the power input and a USB connection which is how the unit connects to the Mac.
One thing to note about this unit. It only works on Macs. How cool
is that? There are no Windows drivers and certainly no Windows software. Just
pure Mac. Included with the unit is a remote that looks very much like a standard
TV remote. Supposedly it supports TeleText but I haven't managed to get that
working yet.
One question on the Miglia FAQ is does it support the AppleTV? The simple answer is yes but not via hardware. EyeTV allows you to record to MP4 which gets stored in iTunes, which of course uploads or streams video to AppleTV.
Which leads me nicely into the second half of the review, the software.
Software
As mentioned, TV Max uses Elgato's EyeTV 2 software. It is so simple
to use it's almost a shame because, like Apple's consumer apps, the simplicity
belies the power. EyeTV 2 doesn't just allow you to watch TV on your Mac, it turns
your Mac into a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) - think Tivo if you know what that means. It records to DVD,
MP4, and DivX formats with user definable quality settings. It has one button
export to iPod or DVD/(S)VCD.
The initial running of the EyeTV software sees the user entering their license code as well as configuring the channels. The CD contains an older version of EyeTV so I recommend downloading the latest version first and installing that rather than the one on the CD. You will still need the license code though. The reason for downloading the later version and not the one on the CD is that there is now "official" support for New Zealand. The version on the CD only supports Australia.
With New Zealand it sets up 9 channels. In countries like Australia, the UK and America, program listings can be downloaded into the application. There is no support for programming guides within New Zealand and this is very disappointing. There is no online TVGuide site in New Zealand either that allows you to program your TVMax easily. I suppose you can get the TV Guide from the local diary, but the programming guide feature of EyeTV would be cooler because it allows you to simply click a program and add it to the schedule.
Creating a schedule is pretty simple and it's certainly a whole lot easier than doing it on a video recorder. You enter a name, set the times, set the channel and click OK. You can schedule this as a repeating schedule to record weekly episodes (for example) and you have total control over the intervals you set. You can add your recorded file to a Playlist in iTunes and there's even an option to Export to iPod on the programming screen. Be warned though that exporting can take a long time to complete.
There is an option in the Preferences that allows you to adjust the
Schedule by default to record a period of time before and after the schedule.
For example, if you had scheduled to record a program at 8:30pm on Monday it can
add 5 minutes to the start of the schedule and 5 minutes to the end without
you having to do this yourself. Set the schedule to 8:30 to 9:30 and it will
record from 8:25 to 9:35 automatically.
You may wonder why you would do this but more often than not programs run longer than normal because newsbreaks or on rare occasions, programs run short [Or you can believe it's a conspiracy theory to make you miss the start of other channel's programs - Phil]. The extra minutes can also be handy for differences in times between the TV stations and the time your computer is set at.
So with all this going on the system must take a huge hit, right? I mean how does a standard Mac Mini with 1.66Ghz Core Duo and 512Mb RAM stack up with all this going on? Surely you can't record and do other stuff at the same time? WRONG.
As I write this review I'm using MediaFork to convert a DVD into an iPod compatible MP4, while recording from the TVMax and writing this review using Pages. That's a lot of usage and the Mac Mini handles this sweetly. How? Well the thing to remember is the Mac doesn't do any work translating the TV signal into video. That's purely the role of the TVMax and the fact that it's an external unit means the only thing the Mac has to do is translate the stream from the cache to a file.
The cache is similar to a cache for a web browser whereby you set its limit and it never goes over that. The default cache is 2Gb. The cache ensures stutter free playback but it also performs a pretty cool feature...whereby you can rewind the video you are watching to re-watch a segment...all the while, the stream continues. You can then go to where you left off or to where the video currently is. Of course once the cache is full old video is replaced with new.
EyeTV 2 is a very very polished application and all credit goes to Elgato. I have yet to find anything I don't like about it, with the exception of the onscreen controller which seems kind of redundant when you have an actual remote, but then EyeTV supports a number of devices and not just the TVMax. Some of these devices don't have remotes.
I think the one thing that needs to be fixed with EyeTV is the video export. If they leveraged the video encoding of FFMPEG then the speed of conversion would be so much quicker, not to mention a wider variety of video formats (there's 3 - MP2(DVD), MP4, and DivX). If FFMPEG was used you could also do WMV, Real, etc although these formats are not brilliantly supported on the Mac these days.
Once Elgato works out how to effectively use multiple tuners (i.e., multiple TVMax's connected to your Mac) Eye TV
will rock hard. As it is, only one application is required to be running and it then
just uses whichever tuner isn't in use. Being able to set which device to use will make
it so much better.
The bottom line is if you want to replace your TV and video recorder then get the TVMax. Your Mac instantly becomes an amazing Media Centre complete with DVD recording, iPod export, and scheduled recording. It can't record more than one program, nor can it record one program while you watch another but then what video recorder can? [Sorry, but my lovely HD Recorder/DVD player can do this...recording one program whilst I watch a previous recording - Phil]
To do this with a TVMax, you would need two units. I've checked with Elgato and they have confirmed this does work but at the moment it is experimental, apparently the scheduling will only select the first available unit to record from and doesn't allow you to set which unit to record from.
TVMax is a stylish, Mac centric unit that does not look out of place sitting under a Mac Mini. Mixed with EyeTV software it is a beautiful example of a third party application filling a gap left by Apple. Apple doesn't need to make devices like this because companies out there are already doing an amazing job.
Phil comments - You also might like to keep an eye on a similar but cheaper product from Miglia - the TVMicro
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a guest
said:
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Oops, missed something On the hardware side the only thing that could be improved would be to add a Coax Out port so you could daisychain units like you can with a video recorder. As it is you will need a signal splitter but then you really really DO need a signal booster and high quality leads as well with minimal use of joiners or gender benders. One thing I need to clarify too. I didn't pick it up last night 'cos it was almost 12:00am. Sorry, but my lovely HD Recorder/DVD player can do this...recording one program whilst I watch a previous recording - Phil What I was meaning with regards to recording and watching was more for live TV. Even a DVD/HDD recorder can't record TV and watch another channel at the same time. What Phil was getting at was that you can record a program but you can also watch a prerecorded show at the same time. In this regards EyeTV can also do this. |
a guest
said:
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Unless you are desperate for a TV add on, I would wait till they roll out Digital TV either via freeview satellite ( Due mid 07) or DTT (Either late 07/early0  for NZ. Using a Digital tuner will allow you access to all the EPG goodies that come with it, there is talk about HD coming with Digital TV fairly soon after its launch ( Although I am not sure if it is to be on DTT or Freeview Satellite or both. |
Darryn Lowe
said:
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Does it connect to a monitor without a Mac? The answer is NO. You need the software to control the unit and the software is only available on the Mac. The only out port is a USB port. As to the other comment, DigitalTV is not a recording mechanism. As such all it will provide is a TV signal. The TV Max is a recorder and is more a compliment to digital TV in much the same way a video recorder is. There may be an option to connect to computers via USB on the decoder boxes but something tells me this isn't the case. In any case it would also have to have the software to run it on a PC/Mac and something tells me that Mac support will be limited. The programming guides will be a great feature for use in EyeTV as, like I mentioned in the review, it allows you to simply click on the program you want to record. As it is any tuner that is compatible with EyeTV is the best option as you can simply record to HDD, so long as you have enough hard drive space. |
Philip Roy
said:
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Discussion continues here Recent events related to this product can be discussed in the forum... http://www.nzmac.com/forum/ |
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