Home page » Multimedia

Search:

Refine search for Multimedia

And the TVMax+ also makes it very easy to capture this footage in iPod-friendly (and other) portable formats. Because of that internal encoding hardware, the box can crunch the video signal effortlessly on the fly, so transferring content from your set top box recorder to iTunes for on the go entertainment, is simplicity itself. I converted several programmes recorded over the Christmas period and all of them transferred perfectly in 320 x 240 format with not a skipped frame or scrambled soundtrack in sight. A simple click, after footage has been captured, transfers the recorded movie instantly to iTunes or burns it to DVD.

But it's not just iPod owners who benefit from this simplicity: the box also has presets for Sony's PSP and Apple TV, and will let you capture straight to DivX - an impressive list that might convince owners of other (gasp) non-Apple portable media players to take a look at the product.

The only snag with transferring footage this way is that, oddly, there's no instant timer function. With the Miglia TVMax, you have to set up a scheduled recording that starts a minute or so in the future and then wait for the recording to begin before hitting play on your source device. The Archos 605 WiFi I reviewed in September allows you to simply choose how long you want a recording to run for, rather than rooting it to a specific time. This makes it far easier to manually transfer programmes or movies from video without fear of filling up your hard disk if you forget to turn it off, or getting the schedule wrong.

Verdict

Alas, none of the good stuff really makes up for the Miglia TVMax+'s lack of digital TV tuner, because even if you ignore the TVMax+'s negative features and consider it solely in the light of its analogue video capture capabilities, there's still the problem of the high price.

While it looks the part and performs its task admirably well, there's not enough here for the sort of money being asked. As a result, if you've £130 to spend on a TV tuner and video capture device for your Mac, I'd recommend you look elsewhere: the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus, for instance, does the same job, but includes digital as well as an analogue tuner for the same cash.

Add your comment

© 2003-2008 TrustedReviews | About Us | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy | RSS