It is simple within the EyeTV software to record something. There is a small window shaped like a remote control that floats on the screen, and you simply click the record button to begin a recording. There are buttons for play, pause, forward and reverse as well.

Just clicking around on the available channels I found, I was able to watch and record HD programming from TNT, NBC, Discovery HD, and ETV HD (PBS). Overall, the picture was excellent on all of the channels. There were no audio sync issues, either.

There was a show about polo on PBS (go figure) and there was pixilation at times during the action shots of horses running, but later on a documentary about the old West the images were pristine. It is probable that the over-the-air signal strength during the polo program was weak, thus contributing to the pixilation.

The Today Show on NBC was crisp and clean, almost as good as sports programming (which I find to be the best picture quality of HD programming). As Al Roker sucked up every last bite of fish that guest chef was preparing on the morning show, I was able to see it in way too much detail.

Reruns of ER on TNT HD looked good for film-based material, with appropriate grain and contrast during the moody, dark emergency room hallway confrontations between Dr. Green and an evil psychiatrist.

And I couldn't resist watching a few minutes of standard definition programming as Ernie and Bert sang to each other about their, uh, um, friendship over the years. The picture was every bit the pathetic NTSC quality we have come to expect over the years.

Interface & Software

The EyeTV software interface is very familiar to users of iLife, Apple's suite of applications that includes iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, etc. In the left column there are categories to choose from for each of the major functions: Recordings, Schedules, Channels and Program Guide. Clicking on one of these turns the right side of the window into the working area of the selection.

When you click on Recordings, you get icons showing a still shot from each of the recordings you have saved, with Title, Date, Duration and Size listed by each.

Schedules shows you any pending scheduled recordings.

Channels displays a channel listing. There is a toggle button for antenna/cable.

Program Guide displays the TitanTV program guide, from which you can easily schedule recordings. I have had mixed results with TitanTV over the years. At first I had trouble getting the program guide to load into EyeTV. Eventually, I was able to log into my TitanTV account (that I had set up a few years earlier, but had not used in a while) and update my preferences. Once I told it I had the TVMini HD hooked up, it loaded in immediately. In my experience, TitanTV is a continually improving site.

You also have the ability to create Playlists, which are similar to an iTunes playlist or an iPhoto photo album. Just drag recordings from the Recordings window into the playlist. This makes for easy organization of programs you want to burn to a DVD or export to your iPod.

And exporting to your iPod is incredibly simple. Select the program or playlist you want to export, and click on the iPod button, and it immediately begins the export directly into iTunes.

Conclusions and Overall Perceptions

The Miglia TVMini HD is a great product for Mac users wanting to bring HD video to their desktop or laptop computers. The DVR and programmed recording options make the package a complete solution, allowing the user to record, edit and export high definition programming.

The EyeTV software is hungry - you can watch your hard disk space fill right before your eyes. A one minute clip of HD material can easily take up over 100MB of space. My MacBook Pro's internal fans kicked in often when watching or exporting material in order to cool the 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor. But hey, small price to pay for HD on your computer, no?

I can't help but think that combining this product with a $599 Mac Mini creates an amazing HTPC. Or should I say HTMac. With the Front Row and iLife software that Apple bundles with the Mini, you would have a very stable, user friendly, incredibly usable media center. Could be a future Audioholics project!