London, UK-based Miglia Technology on Monday introduced TVMini. It’s a Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) receiver inside a USB stick. It costs €149 or £99 (about US$178.56, though this product is specifically intended for the European market).
The iPod shuffle-sized hardware is paired with Elgato’s EyeTV software — the same software Elgato provides with its Personal Video Recorder (PVR) peripherals for the Mac. Plugged into a USB 2.0 interface, it lets users pick up DVB-T/DTT television signals, which are free-to-air digital television broadcasts in parts of Europe. The TVMini supports DVB-T multilingual programs and can also receive Dolby Digital audio (if your mac supports it).
The EyeTV software lets users watch, record, edit and archive the DTT television programs on their Mac; paired with the tvtv online guide, you can schedule when EyeTV will record and from what station. After the fact you can edit out commercials or unwanted content; you can include close captioning and teletext, export to iMovie HD, iDVD, Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express, and more.
The TVMini comes with a TV antenna and an adapter for a coaxial antenna cable you can use to boost reception, USB 2.0 extension cable and an infrared remote control.
System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later and a G4/500 or faster with USB 2.0.