I have used the TV Max from Miglia ($230) from the day it was released and it is one of my most used and favourite pieces of equipment in my Mac set up.
With the relatively recent parting of the ways between Miglia and Elgato it was always going to be interesting to see what Miglia did to replace eyeTV which was one of my Top 10 applications of 2006.
I recently took the plunge though and upgraded to the TVMax +. The main reason for this was that I had decided that I wanted to store all my movies, both recorded and DVD, in iTunes so the eyeTV propriety application had to go.
First though I needed to encode all the existing eyeTV movies into iTunes friendly format, I chose h.264. To do that I used Visual Hub and a little know “trick”: as .eyetv is a container, if you right click you can “Show package Contents”. Once inside you see the movie. You can then use VisualHub to convert the file into a AppleTV format then run the converted file through MetaX to add all the necessary metadata, then add it to itunes.
Setting up, or in my case upgrading, was a simple process. Once everything is connected you follow the easy steps and then let the MigliaTV software pick up your channels:
I have been very impressed with the picture quality – although in this case not with the quality of the England teams cricket!
Scheduling a recording is simple and I much prefer the interface to the old eyeTV software. It is much more intuitive and Mac like.
An area that is still under development though is the editing function. Still in beta and somewhat ugly (by their own admission) it works and shows a lot of promise. It is a totally necessary function in my book – to top and tail early starts and over records and edit out commercial breaks.
The real beauty though is the total ease with which it records in an AppleTV (iTunes) friendly format – no encoding, no post production, it just records direct into the format saving an unbelievable amount of time. Most impressive and very very useful.
So any worries that I had about the future of the TVMax + and Miglia have disappeared. This is a very impressive application that I am using on a daily basis, and it already seems like an ‘old friend’.
Here it is sat with the Mac mini and LaCie external hub and drive hooked up to the B&O
What they Say
The Quickest way to get video onto your iPod or Apple TV
A fabulous content booster for any iPod or Apple TV. Let TVMax+ become the heart of your home entertainment by connecting to a range of devices and enjoy your shows on the go.
Not forgetting of course that TVMax+ is also a TV tuner, so you can watch, pause and record all of your favourite cable shows to watch exactly as you want to.
Be creative and make it happen with TVMax+ and Apple TV on your Mac.
Key Features
Fabulous quick content provider for your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV
Your home entertainment hub
Following the simple yet beautiful lines of the Apple Mac Mini, TVMax+ will become the heart of your digital home entertainment. A superb content collection hub. TVMax+ offers the missing link between TV or content and your AppleTV or iPod.
This digital hub enabling you to connect a full range of video devices using the Coaxial, Composite or S-Video inputs. Transform your Mac into a personal video recorder and capture your VHS, Camcorder tapes or DVD’s. Imagine being able to store entire collections of your favourite shows on your iPod or Apple TV.
TVMax+ lets you watch, pause, record TV and supports both the tvtv and TitanTV Electronic Programming Guides so that you know exactly what’s on and when, allowing you to schedule your shows for you to watch at your convenience.
Pretty cool. I have often thought of getting a tuner but don’t watch enough TV to justify it. The VideoExpress from Miglia sounds like a pretty cool H.264 encoder. How are the file sizes?
A typical film is coming in at an average of 1.2GB. I found the average in .eyetv format to be closer to 4GB.
I probably would have already bought an Elgato EyeTV product by now if it weren’t for Miglia. As a result, I still have neither. I like Miglia’s promise of no file conversion time after recording. It baffles me that Elgato does not record natively in a format you would actually use. However, Elgato still appears to be the industry leader, its software is more mature and apparently has better features for things like editing. So as someone who has used both, is Miglia’s product better? And what would I be missing if I didn’t go with Elgato?
From what I have seen (and know) I would be more than happy to suggest you go with Miglia. I think their product will be better once they have tidies up the editing feature, and I don’t think you will be missing anything if you go with them.
What do you have in mind? Maybe I can give you a “heads up” 🙂
I’m very curious about which electronic program guides Miglia’s software support. eyeTV has been promising a Canadian program guide for years now, and nothing. Is Miglia any different? With out proper EPG support it makes this product absolutely useless for scheduling recordings. Watching TV, I have normal TV’s for that.
Well you see for me over here in Spain I only get one channel that I want to recortd – Sky, the satellite feed, so I pick up whatever channel I have sky set to.
They have a number of plugins that you can select from for TV schedules though: tvtv, TitanTV, iEPG. Don’t know if any of those help you?
So Chris, now you’ve pretty much stumbled upon my movies workflow. After the turbo.264 came out with their new 1.1 software with a lot more options that you can choose, it’s a lot more difficult choosing between it and VisualHub. It sure is easy either way, though. After that, I too use MetaX. Since they came out with 2.1, it’s been fantastic to be able to queue up a bunch of movies at one time.
I was going to get Elgato’s eyeTV hybrid, which I guess is like Miglia’s? However, they recently came out with the HDHomeRun for the Mac, which I think is worth taking a look at! It’s like an eyeTV NAS. This, I think, would be really cool.
Still looking for a decent workflow for chapterizing mp4’s, though. So did you say you have the h.264 hardware encoder from Miglia? How is that working out? How is it’s software? How does it compare with VH?
Oh, here’s another one. What are you encoding in? AppleTV or iPod High?
I would hold off on the eyeTV Hybrid. I know for a fact that Miglia are bringing out a siilar product shortly and I would serioulsy wait for that so that at the very least you have a choice!
h.264 hardware encoder? REmind me when I said that 🙂 All I have looked at with Miglia recently has been the TVMax+ and that automatically encodes as it records.
The HDHomeRun does look impressive I admit.
AppleTV 100%. I have no intention of watching a movie on the iPod, and although I don’t (yet) have an AppleTV my current set up effectively does the same thing as all my films are going to be accessible through the iTunes library.
Ah, my fault. When Blake asked “The VideoExpress from Miglia sounds like a pretty cool H.264 encoder. How are the file sizes?”, well, the VideoExpress is the h.264 hardware encoder so I assumed when you answered him that you had it. My bad. Sorry. Didn’t realize that TVMax+ encoded on the fly.
Hey, didn’t you mention on Tim’s show that you where sticking with Miglia because you wanted to stay on that side of the pond? Isn’t elgato english? Or is it German? I guess I could go look, but that would take a extra 30 seconds…;)
[quote comment=”8760″]AppleTV 100%. I have no intention of watching a movie on the iPod, and although I don’t (yet) have an AppleTV my current set up effectively does the same thing as all my films are going to be accessible through the iTunes library.[/quote]
I love going through iTunes coverflow when looking at movies. It’s one of the main reasons that I wanted to put my movies into iTunes. That, and one of these days, I will be getting one of those AppleTV’s. Maybe version 2? Maybe when I actually get an HDTV? 🙂
Reason I asked was that I just reviewed the MyVu video for the iPod and was wondering if it would be worth saving to iPod or sticking with AppleTV.
Elgato are a German compnay with a subsidiary in the USA. Neither of which are on the UK side of the pond in my (biased) view!!!
The ‘lack’ of encoding is just one of the really great things about the Miglia stuff.
I hope to get an AppleTV at some stage. I know I don’t need one, but heh I reckon I need all this stuff for research and integrity reasons.
MyVu is cool but in my view yet another ‘gimmick’ that will last a month and you will get fed up with it. I intend to have the best part of 1TB of movies on hard drive, all in the iTunes library and all accessible through the network on any TV so I just want things that make that configuration work. Again, is a personal view but I have no need or desire to watch a movie or TV show on my iPod. Maybe if I start travelling again, but even then more likley to use the PSP.
Is this guy taking the piss? He drowns on every week about his ‘great life’ in Spain and the next thing I see is a link (cap in hand) for a Mac Pro Fund. Why the fuck should anyone give this fucker money so he can purchase a high en Apple when the rest of us have to buy our own?
Go fuck yourself buddy along with your stupid fucking cat… you should be ashamed… believe me no body gives a shit!
M Johnson
Cov Uni
Thanks for taking the time to comment and for your view – no doubt you feel better for getting that off your chest 🙂
PS – Moreno says he isn’t stupid 🙂
Once a video is saved in iTunes format can you still edit out the commercials\ top and tail it etc afterwards?
Yes you can. The edit function is beta and does crash from time to time, but it gets the job done and obviously will be robust when it is released.
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[quote post=”901″]The edit function is beta and does crash from time to time, but it gets the job done and obviously will be robust when it is released[/quote]
Hi Chris, hope you don’t mind me resurrecting this topic!
Do you happen to know if the edit function is out of Beta yet? I’ve looked through the PDF manual for the MigliaTV software but it doesn’t seem to mention editing at all.
Cheers!
No problem – sorry it has taken me a while, but have been somewhat ill.
This is their current statement:
“It’s still being worked on, so I don’t have a precise date just yet. We’re currently working on improving performance while browsing the movie”
I am sure that I can get you a beta copy 🙂
Miglia TVMax+ software with activation code?
I can,t find my cd after reinstalled my HD on MacBookPro
Need software with activation code for OSX
Well i bought the mini tv stick and have miglia tv and as yet have no ser key. have emailed and gone through support on the website and not one reply so not sure on there after sales! lots of money and still cant do nothing!!
Hi, I’ve narrowed my decision down to either the Miglia TVMax+ or the EyeTV 250 Plus. I need a hardware encoder since my Macs are single processor G4 and G5 machines. I like that the Miglia TVMax+ can encode in mp4, which saves space, but I like the smaller form factor and greater market maturity of the EyeTV 250 Plus better. Both use the same EyeTV 3.x software, right? Other than the form factor and encoding differences, are there any other major differences between these two units? (Note that I also considered the HDHomerun, but I ruled it out because my cable is analog with only a few digital channels in the lineup. The HDHomerun only handles digital, so it won’t work for me, which is too bad b/c it’s a great concept.)
Miglia went bust some time ago so the EyeTV 250 is your best bet for sure.
Does anyone have the software for the Miglia Tvmax dmg to work on an intel mac mini?