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| WiFi, gigabit Ethernet and TV adapters are able to fit into a USB dongle, because components are getting smaller and software is able to take up the jobs left by hardware DSP. This trend has led to more miniatured and affordable gadgets at the expense of heavy CPU taxing. For this reason, moving to a USB stick has its pluses and minuses depending on your needs. The Miglia TVMicro - a Hi-Speed USB analog TV dongle - will put you in the same dilemma in which you have to choose between convenience and scalability. | ||
Review Verdict
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Essential Specs & Stats
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USB TV, Dongle-Style
By Ian Chiu, Managing Editor
Miglia TVMicro isn't the first of its kind, but such form factor for analog TV is apparently the only one for Mac as of this writing. It is about 40% thicker than an iPod shuffle so you can almost dangle it around your neck. The remote, on the other hand, is about twice the size of the TVMicro. The unidentifiable TV chipset and the USB controller make up for the bulk for this over-sized tuner dongle, which fortunately didn't tilt my PowerBook G4 and the new MacBook to one side. The bundled USB extension cable was also giving me troubles as it kept disconnecting my TV connection probably due to signal loss or USB power issues.  The remote is twice the size of the Miglia TVMicro. 
 Due to the TVMicro's width, the dongle can block adjacent USB ports on a PowerBook.  The TVMicro is exclusive for watching & recording television due to the lack of S-video or composite video input for importing content from a VCR or camcorder. I remember at least one PC USB TV dongle with a S-video adapter so such an omission on the TVMicro is a bummer. I primarily tested the TVMicro on on the latest Intel iMac, as Migila only provides Tiger support through Elagto EyeTV 2 (Universal Binary). This somewhat frustrates Panther users with no immediate plans to upgrade to the latest of the Mac platform. As the brain of the TVMicro (figuratively speaking), this comprehensive TV management program takes care of the channel scanning, manual scheduling, program guide (TitanTV for USA, tvtv for EU, iEPG for Japan), editing, software video conversions as well as a complete array of drivers for other Mac TV tuners.
The EyeTV can wake up an asleep Mac to begin recording either by EPG web services or manual scheduling. An hour of PAL recording in MPEG-2 720 x 576 will devour 2.7GB with each file carrying a 3-hour limit. (If you are stuck with NTSC, then the resolution will be a tad lower at 720 x 480, resulting in slighter smaller file.) The CPU usage, despite running on a powerful Dual Core 1.83Ghz, was sitting at between 90 and 100%. The highest is 135% with time-shifting (watching and playing back simultaneously) in process. TV streaming with progressive scan stayed low at around 35%. Even with time-shifting, most of my applications ran fine without feeling sluggish. That is, of course, if you have a top-of-the-line Intel Mac. Miglia recommends only Dual G4/G5 Mac owners should try the same high-end settings. You'll have to make some compromises in quality should your Mac be held back by low hard drive space and/or by a single core processor like the PowerBook, PowerPC Mac mini or iBook. EyeTV, Not Perfect Yet  An iPod export function is available if you want to convert the saved shows automatically to H.264 or MPEG-4 and then to add them into iTunes' EyeTV playlist. Other formats are available; though, DivX requires a license fee. I particularly like how Elgato elaborates all the different export options for the popular iLife's iDVD, iMove HD, Toast, Sony PSP and Apple iPod. I did find a few disappointments with EyeTV 2. The video conversion was amazingly slow. I stopped my timer when the progress bar was still at 70% after waiting 90 minutes for EyeTV to finish converting my 71min MPEG-2 video to 544 x 408 MPEG-4. I was also a bit suprised that direct-to-disc is absent. Elgato encourages the use of the optional Roxio Toast CD/DVD authoring, which is an additional $79 (discounted already) to the bill.
I love TV on MacSubjectively speaking, the TV picture quality produced by the USB TV dongle was decent, but the colors were muted, details were somewhat blurred and the tuner had a difficult time filtering out the noises properly. Scrolling text in Bloomberg channel was legible, yet far from razor sharp. Fast-moving motions came out okay, without any residual ghost images.      Overall, the Miglia TVMicro has lived up to my expectations; it performed well without any quirks. The rock solid Elgato EyeTV 2, requiring nearly no learning curve, is easily the best PVR software available for Macs. Though, I still feel like there are much to be improved, such as the addition of S-video, a new ADC as well as Panther support. At $90, the ultra-portable analog USB TV tuner is still a bargain considering the software-encoder EyeTV EZ from Elgato is crazy expensive. |
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