TVMicro

Company	:	Miglia Technology Ltd
Price	:	RM 550
Rating	:

The TVMicro is a portable TV Tuner, just slightly bigger than a 1st generation iPod shuffle, which lets you watch and record analogue TV on your Mac.

The box contains the TVMicro, a USB 2.0 cable, two adapters for connecting the TV cable, a remote control, two AAA batteries, and a CD containing EyeTV 2 software.

After installing the software, I simply connected the TV cable to the TVMicro and slotted it in my USB port. I then launched the EyeTV Setup Assistant. The first thing you have to do is select your country. Unfortunately Malaysia is not on the list so I selected Singapore. Then I clicked on Auto-Tune and within a few short minutes all the available channels were selected and stored. Unbelievably fast and easy to set up.

The picture quality is quite good especially if you're watching on a smaller screen (like I was with my 12" PowerBook). I can only presume that the image won't be all that fantastic if you have a 24" iMac. But of course you don't have to watch full screen. In fact having the TV on a smaller window allows you to do other things at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking!

Recording a TV show is a simple one-click affair. You can save your clip in either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format. But be warned: because TVMicro relies on your Mac for processing power, you will need a Dual G4 or G5 or an Intel Dual Core processor to record in full DVD quality.

The EyeTV 2 software has a few cool features. You can program it to wake up your Mac from sleep to start recording. In order to allow your Mac enough time, the wake up occurs two minutes before the scheduled recording starts.

Another thing is that you can do some minor editing with EyeTV's Visual Editor feature. This is ideal for editing out commercials, for example. You can also export your recordings to a number of different options such as iMovie, iDVD, DVD Studio Pro, Toast, PSP, iPod and iTunes.

Converting to the iPod format couldn't be easier: one click on the iPod icon and your TV show is converted and automatically stored in the Movies section of iTunes, ready for transferring to your iPod. I roughly estimate the file size to be 1 min equaling just over 10MB.

The included remote control is nice to have but I personally didn't find much use for it as I was sitting right in front of my Mac and not across the room.

All in all, the TVMicro is a cool little gadget to have and carry around. Firstly, it provides a clean and minimalist set-up to hook up your TV to your home Mac. And secondly, if you travel a lot it's ideal for recording those unusual TV programmes in other parts of the world.

Technical specs:

• USB 2.0
• Audio: mono
• Recording format: MPEG-1, MPEG-2
• Max viewing size: 720x576 (PAL), 720x480 (NTSC)
• Supports up to 125 channels
• Unit weight: 150g

Compatibility:

• PowerPC G4, G5, Intel Processor
• USB 2.0
• Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
• Dual G4 or G5 or Intel Dual Core CPU required for full size recording

TVMicro is available at all Apple Centres.