Miglia TVMicro and TVMini / TVMini HD

Question

Miglia TVMicro and TVMini / TVMini HD

I have been doing some research on Miglia's "TV on Your Mac" product lines and am still a bit confused between them.

My Options are:

TVMicro
TVMini
TVMini HD

See this page for product info

Questions:

1)
Both the TVMini and TVMini HD come with an antenna, while the TVMicro does not. What does this mean? From the research I've done, this allows me to pick up signals over-the-air via ATSC. What is this? Is ATSC digital? Apparently ATSC can pick up HD and standard def.

2)
The TVMicro and TVMini are simply USB dongles the size of an iPod Shuffle, while the TVMini HD has a larger (yet still portable) unit. What is the larger unit for the HD? Is that the equivalent of an HD box you would have to buy if you wanted to exploit HD picture on a television?

3)
What does the TVMini do that the TVMicro cannot? I believe, but am not entirely clear, that the TVMicro can only pick up analog, be it via cable or over-the-air (even though an antenna is not supplied). Are these statements accurate?

4)
The TVMicro and TVMini, as mentioned above are both dongles that look identical. The TVMini, however, comes with an antenna. Does this mean that the TVMicro cannot receive over-the-air signals AT ALL, even if I supplied my own antenna?

5)
I live in NJ right on the Hudson river, directly across from the Empire State Building (which is essentially a giant antenna tower) in NYC, therefore I'm assuming I should get excellent over-the-air reception using the antenna supplied with the TVMini or TVMini HD. Is this an accurate statement?

6)
From what I've read, it is possible to encode VHS tapes with all of Miglia's products. It is suggested, however, not to try this using the TVMirco or TVMini because it would be too taxing on the computer's processor and that the TVMax is the more appropriate solution for this task since it handles the processing power for encoding as opposed to the computer's processor. A couple of article's I read, however, say that if you have G5 or and Intel Core Duo, the TVMicro and TVMini can handle the task. Can anyone confirm/clarify/suggest?

7)
Basically I am trying maximize the portability of my MBP by eliminating unnecessary wires. In the end, can the TVMini really pick up quality HD Digital signals over ATSC using the supplied antenna?

MBP 17" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Aug 18, 2006 7:54 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 18, 2006 9:03 AM in response to My Last Confession

There seems to be a lack of knowledge in the MBP forum when it comes to TV Tuners. Can someone suggest a different Apple forum to post this to? Thanks.

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Answer 2

Aug 23, 2006 8:14 AM in response to My Last Confession

bump

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Answer 3

Aug 23, 2006 8:49 AM in response to My Last Confession

I think you said it yourself.

I haven't read too much regarding TV tuners - and I sat confused in the store yesterday looking at the products you describe.

Unfortunately the boxes aren't all that explicit in "how they work" and I wasn't taking the product apart in the store to read the product manual.

I've wanted a TV turner for a while, but I just want/need to know exactly how it will function before I shell out $100-250 for one.

From my experience with a TV Tuner for PC, it was poor and unreliable, really not worth the hassle. I'm not sure that the same goes over to the macs, but I have only HEARD good things about EyeTv -but not a particular one of their products.

I'd say the best bet is to call up the company to ask them your questions, because there aren't enough people here that both know a lot about each device, nor have used every device.

So give them a shout, I'm sure they can answer all of your questions, I'd love to hear their responses too!

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Answer 4

Aug 23, 2006 10:21 AM in response to My Last Confession

All of these products I think use the same EyeTV software which isn't bad once you fiure it out (the manuals are a bit sparse) I have the TVMini HD and it's really cool. It does not pick up anything analog stations but it supports ATSC HD (Over the air) and Cable (Clear QAM) signals.

Where I am at currently (Arlington Virginia, USA) the cable operator gives me about 10 digital channels (local station feeds, CNN headline news, and the weather channel) and it works with SD and HD broadcasts and I run it on a mac book pro and it runs fine. I have even run HD TV and played world of warcraft at the same time with no problems.

I am a but confused myself about the mini and the micro. Forget about the included antenna it *****. Digital is all or nothing deal so you'll have to make sure you have a good antenna.

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Answer 5

Aug 23, 2006 12:09 PM in response to My Last Confession

OK Lets see if after much research and the purchase of the TVMax, I can answer my own questions:

1)
Both the TVMini and TVMini HD come with an antenna, while
the TVMicro does not. What does this mean? From the
research I've done, this allows me to pick up signals
over-the-air via ATSC. What is this? Is ATSC digital?
Apparently ATSC can pick up HD and standard def.

TVMini is not available in the US. The equivalent version is the TVMini HD. The TVMicro ONLY picks up analog signal. yes it can pick up over-the-air signal but, again only analog. ATSC is a digital over-the-air transmission. The digital cable equivalent is Clear-QAM. From what I understand, the supplied antenna with the TVMini HD is very weak. A slightly stronger antenna may need to be purchased from suppliers such as www.Crutchfeld.com for minimal cost. You can get an EXACT signal strength and available over-the-air channels by entering your address into www.antennaweb.org.

2)
The TVMicro and TVMini are simply USB dongles the size of
an iPod Shuffle, while the TVMini HD has a larger (yet
still portable) unit. What is the larger unit for the HD?
Is that the equivalent of an HD box you would have to buy
if you wanted to exploit HD picture on a television?

Yes the relatively larger unit supplied with the TVMini HD is the HD converter.

3)
What does the TVMini do that the TVMicro cannot? I
believe, but am not entirely clear, that the TVMicro can
only pick up analog, be it via cable or over-the-air
(even though an antenna is not supplied). Are these
statements accurate?

Yes, this is accurate.

4)
The TVMicro and TVMini, as mentioned above are both >>dongles that look identical. The TVMini, however, comes
with an antenna. Does this mean that the TVMicro cannot
receive over-the-air signals AT ALL, even if I supplied
my own antenna?

The TVMicro can receive over-the-air signal if an antenna is purchased separately, however, it can only receive analog, not digital (be it over-the-air or wired).

5)
I live in NJ right on the Hudson river, directly across
from the Empire State Building (which is essentially a
giant antenna tower) in NYC, therefore I'm assuming I
should get excellent over-the-air reception using the
antenna supplied with the TVMini or TVMini HD. Is this an
accurate statement?

In my case this is true (though I haven't actually tested it). Based on the information I researched on antennaweb.org, a good bulk of the over-the-air digital signals can be picked up with a very weak antenna.

6)
From what I've read, it is possible to encode VHS tapes
with all of Miglia's products. It is suggested, however,
not to try this using the TVMirco or TVMini because it
would be too taxing on the computer's processor and that
the TVMax is the more appropriate solution for this task
since it handles the processing power for encoding as
opposed to the computer's processor. A couple of
article's I read, however, say that if you have G5 or and
Intel Core Duo, the TVMicro and TVMini can handle the
task. Can anyone confirm/clarify/suggest?

The TVMini HD CANNOT encode as it can only receive digital signal. Encoding VHS tapes requires the ability to receive analog. While in theory the TVMirco can do this, it is not recommended as the amount of time required to do so, even with strong processing power is extremely long (no quotable times, but as explained by Miglia tech rep.) The only viable option for true hardware encoding is the TVMax, a new product from Miglia that acts not only as an analog TV Tuner but also uses its own processing power for encoding, freeing up ALL processing power on the Mac. The only downside to the TVMax is that it cannot receive HD Digital.

7)
Basically I am trying maximize the portability of my MBP
by eliminating unnecessary wires. In the end, can the
TVMini really pick up quality HD Digital signals over
ATSC using the supplied antenna?

Yes provided you determine that the desired channels can be received with a weak receiver. Some alternatives to this are the new WUSB (Wireless-USB) standard which was just announced in a press release. Though I do not know any companies producing products with this new standard as of yet/ The other alternative is using CyTV to transmit from another Mac. Unfortunately I only have 1 Mac.

Hope this helps anyone else with questions.

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