TVMicro
Review by: Katie
http://www.miglia.com/products/video/tvmicro/
Price: $99

Many of us are waiting for Apple to release a Mac that will serve as a home media center. Apple’s upcoming iTV product is a step in the right direction, but iTV will only allow users to stream content from one Mac to their television set. The Mac Mini attached to a television set combined with Front Row and access to the iTunes Store to buy and download TV Shows and movies comes close, but that’s still leaving out the primary method with which most of us receive our entertainment- cable television. TVMicro along with Elgato’s bundled EyeTV software fills this gap and can allows a consumer to finally, have a true Mac home media center.

TV Micro allows you to watch cable television through your Mac. (The company also offers a variety of products that work with other setups.) The included EyeTV software allows the user to turn their Mac into a digital video recorder (DVR). You can watch TV either in full screen mode or in a small window on the Mac. You can also schedule recordings and save them for later viewing on a computer or iPod or by burning to a DVD. While watching live TV you can pause, rewind and fast-forward to different places in programming. Record single programs or setup a recurring schedule to regularly record all your favorite television shows. The software is even smart enough to startup your Mac or wake it from sleep mode to record an upcoming show.

Some “average” computer users may ask, “So what’s the big deal?” Televisions are cheep, and there are already a number of DVRs on the market available from cable companies or through third parties such as TiVo that are less-expensive than buying an entire computer to hook up to the television. TVMicro and similar devices may not be for everyone, but from a cost-benefit analysis, for many users it will be a bargain.

Take me for example. I have a Mac laptop that serves as my only computer, two TVs (one in the bedroom and one in the living room) a TiVo attached to those TVs. Each of the TiVos cost me about $100 after mail in rebates and I pay $12.99 a month for the TiVo service on each box. I’ve downloaded several movies and TV shows from the iTunes movie a more and in the future plan to have even more content on my Mac under the hopes that there will be a larger library of Movie downloads available for download and those downloads with the hopes that one day even movie rentals may be an option. I firmly believe that one day in the not to distant future DVDs and movie rental stores will become a thing of the past. A Mac Mini connected to TVMicro in my living room may make sense. I can ditch the second TiVo and it’s $12.99 monthly fee, get rid of my DVD player since the MacMini already has one built in and have a backup computer in my home should my MacBook fail me. I’d also have access to all of my media including TV Shows, Movies, Podcasts, and my Music in my living room. Just having access to all my iTunes music available through the TV and speakers in my living room would be great for entertaining or listening to music when I’m not sitting at my Mac. Can you imagine how much clutter you could free from your home entertainment center by getting rid of all those now useless boxes? For those of you who have a spare Mac sitting in your closet, what a wonderful and functional way to breathe new life into an unused system.

Now, granted I’m a bit of a Mac geek but the “average person” could also find use in TVMicro. Let’s say your working in a home office where you don’t have a TV. With TVMicro you can watch the latest news or a sporting event minimized in a corner of your computer screen and keep up to date on what’s going on while remaining productive. If your computer resides in your guest bedroom, your guests can have access to a computer and watch TV while they’re visiting. The included remote control make it very easy for even casual computer users to access television programming.

For you TiVo Fans out there, TVMicro offers you TiVo-like functionality with full Mac compatibility. As long-time TiVo users will know, we were long ago promised full Mac support for our TiVos that would allow us to burn our TiVo recordings to DVD, play them on our computer or transfer them to our iPods. Well, I’ve been waiting for over two years now and full Mac support for TiVo users still hasn’t materialized. With TVMicro, you can have all the benefits of a DVR, plus full Mac support with no monthly fee.

For only $99, the TVMicro makes a great addition to your Mac for even casual users. Everything you need is included in the box and the setup is a simple as connecting TVMicro to your cable outlet and plugging it into a USB port. Install the included software and a setup assistant will walk you through configuring TVMicro for your cable setup. With the TVMicro being about the size of a first-generation iPod shuffle it’s easy to take with you on the road. If you don’t have standard analog cable, there are a variety of other hardware options available, one of which is sure to meet your needs.