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Miglia TVMicro and EyeTV: Easy TV on Your Mac
Pages: 1, 2, 3

Creative Possibilities to Consider

In addition to using a TV tuner for watching television on your Mac, there are at least a few other creative options that come to mind. Hooking up a VCR and dubbing your VHS cassettes to a digital format is one chore that's pretty trivial to get done. Simply connect the VCR as normal, use the included EyeTV software to digitize it, and then compress to your format of choice or burn to DVD. There's bound to be some old family videos lurking around somewhere in the attic. (Miglia actually recommends TVMax for this job, but I've been getting great results with the TVMicro.)



Plugging in a video game console and using your computer screen instead of a television is another option, especially if you want to record and show off your old-school Nintendo skills on YouTube or would like to put together a video tutorial that illustrates how to complete a particularly difficult level. Besides, wouldn't you rather use the space that old dusty television is occupying for something else? You might get twenty bucks for it at your next garage sale to credit toward your TVMicro purchase.

Configuring a schedule in EyeTV to automatically convert and export recorded television shows to your video iPod is one particularly appealing option we briefly glossed over earlier. In addition to saving you some cash, it might also save you some time if you routinely wait on your iTMS downloads over a slow connection. Another thought might be to put together a script that provides a simple means of logging in remotely and scheduling a recording; you never know when you'll end up working late.

A final option to consider is picking up a reasonably sized antenna so that your backseat passengers can have something better to do than sing songs or ask "Are we there yet?" on your next family vacation. This could also be a prime opportunity to hook up that video game console. The only other piece of equipment you'd need is a good power inverter.

Final Thoughts

Other than a very minor issue I've experienced with EyeTV that involves fast user switching, I have nothing but good things to say about the TVMicro and EyeTV. For a very modest price, this package is great to have on-hand--especially for folks who are cramped on space. Even if you already own a television, you might want to consider how this product can save you some cash or automate some of your recordings. Of course, Miglia has many other flavors of excellent TV tuners that are also worth checking out, including the TVMini, which can also handle digital TV.

Wouldn't it be nice if Apple offered these TV tuners as optional components that could be built right into your next computer purchase from the Apple Store?

Matthew Russell is a computer scientist from middle Tennessee; and serves Digital Reasoning Systems as the Director of Advanced Technology. Hacking and writing are two activities essential to his renaissance man regimen.

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