Admit it, your Apple TV is no Tivo. Want to record live TV? It doesn't do that. Time-shifting? Sorry, not that either. It doesn't even have any kind of audio/video input to make recording from external sources possible. Pretty sad, eh?

Luckily, there is Miglia TVMax+ that can perform all those PVR tasks for you. You want to watch live TV? It can do that. Pause live TV? It does that. Schedule recording? That too. The only thing you need is a Mac running OS X and an Internet connection. You can then send the recorded shows to iTunes to be synced with your Apple TV.

Features

• Capture TV and video from any source to your Mac
• Digitize your old VHS tapes to DVD, make them unique
• Fabulous integration with Apple TV
• Stunning design complements any Mac environment

What's in the box

• TVMax+ content capture device
• CD-Rom with TV software and PDF guide
• Remote Control
• External power supply
• USB 2.0 cable

Initial Impression

At first glance, you might mistake the TVMax+ for a Mac mini. In fact, this is intentional. It is designed to stack seamlessly on top or at the bottom of a the said Apple product. Once stacked, they look like a single unit rather than two separate devices. The two products work together as a full-function PVR; kind of like a Tivo on steroids.

Don't be fooled by the clean line in the front. The back of the unit is where the action is. It is equipped with a full array of audio/video connections which include coaxial, s-video, composite connectors.

The TVMax+ is also bundled with a basic remote controller, which allows you to control the unit from the convenience of your couch. You can use it for channel surfing, TV recording and even pause/play live TV.

Setting up

The installation of the TVMax+ is straight-forward. All you need to do is hook up the TV cable (or antenna) to the coax connector and install the bundled software and off you go.

On the first run, the TVMax+ software would set up the tuner for you; it scans through all the available channels and remembers the station names. If you live in the US or the UK, you are in luck because the software works with the TV listing services like tvtv for the UK customers and TitanTV for the US customers.

Features

Miglia pitches the TVMax+ as a “fabulous content booster for your iPod or Apple TV.” This marketing claim is not far off from what the product can actually do. It can record videos from numerous sources, including its built-in TV tuner. Once you're done channel surfing till your heart's content you can then export the recorded content to your iPod, Apple TV, Sony PSP or even burn it to a DVD. With the TVMax+, you no longer have to rely solely on iTunes. Why pay for an episode of Lost when you can record one yourself? Well, you do still have to fast forward through the commercials though.

The TVMax+ features a built-in hardware encoder, which significantly reduces the encoding time when recording live TV or video from other sources. This is actually the main difference between the TVMax+ and the TVMax product that Miglia released last year. The new software takes advantage of the hardware encoder hence the “+”.

Another important feature is the integration with TV listing services like tvtv and TitanTV. This makes recording TV programs a one-click operation. Just click the “record” button on a TV program you like and TVMax+ does the rest for you. No more setting up the start time, end time, channel, etc. Just one click.

Usage

As with many modern PVRs, the TVMax+ allows you to pause and record live TV. These operations can be done via the controller window or the remote control provided. Recording a show is very snappy. There is a very slight pause once at the beginning and the other at the end of recording. This is all due to the hardware encoder on the TVMax+ unit, which offloads the CPU-intensive processing from the Mac.

To achieve lightning fast encoding performance, the software first needs to be configured to record in a preselected format. In my case, the obvious output format is “Apple TV.” Some of the other formats include Full Size, iPod Best, iPod Good, iMovie Good, Sony PSP Good, and DVD Full Size. Preselecting an output format helps the hardware optimize the encoding process for that specific platform. The end result is a recording formatted for a specific device that can instantly be transferred and viewed. The only drawback to this approach is that a recording targeted for one platform cannot be viewed on an incompatible platform. However, it sure saves a lot of time re-encoding a recorded show every time you want to transfer it to a device.

Since the TVMax+ is only equipped with an analog TV tuner, the picture is pretty grainy when viewed on a high resolution screen like a monitor or a big screen TV. The software comes with a Picture Optimization option. This improves the the picture somewhat. Even using the “Best” option, the picture was still grainy though much less than not having the optimization turned on.

You do not have to use the built-in tuner, however. You can hook the your cable box to TVMax+'s s-video input to get better picture. However, integration is not as seamless.

To transfer recorded shows to the Apple TV, all you need to do is select the recordings and click on the “To iTunes” button. Once the shows have been added to iTunes, all you have to do is sync it with the Apple TV. Don't have too much expectation though when you view your recorded shows on the big screen. As mentioned, the TV tuner is only analog so would definitely see pixels.

The recordings can also be burned to a DVD. However, they have to be in a DVD-compatible format. Unfortunately, shows recorded with Apple TV setting would be able to be burned to a DVD.

Another nice thing about the software is that, each recording can be viewed in its own window. You can watch 10 recorded shows at one if you chose to. All this while the live TV window is visible.

A few minor gripes

Conclusion

Miglia TVMax+ is available now and retails for $229.95 (£128.00).

Pros:

• Snappy TV tuner.
• hardware encoder encodes recording on the fly.
• TitanTV/tvtv integration makes viewing/recording TV programs simple.
• multiple output formats (PSP, Apple TV, iPod and DVD)

Cons:

• integration with TitanTV is not seamless.
• no option to convert shows from one format to another.

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Comments (1)

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written by Marc G , April 03, 2008

When I watch tv in full screen mode the picture quality is horrible, all of the other small sizes look good. Any suggestions?

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