By: Erik Vlietinck
Mon, November 28, 2005 - 7:40:01
Pros: 0

Score: ">

Featuring MPEG-2/4 and DivX hardware compression, EvolutionTV is British Miglia‘s digital video recorder for the Mac. EvolutionTV is a modestly sized aluminium device that comes with a remote control. The case features a large infrared “eye” and a green LED so you know it’s working. It is a USB 2 device and so needs external power --in contrast with most of Miglia’s other multimedia hardware, which draws power from the FireWire bus.

The EvolutionTV system is delivered with software enabling you to watch and record live TV, with all the usual functionality like what you’re used to from a video- or DVD-recorder: pause, rewind, skip forward, etc. The software also has scheduling capabilities, access to online TV guides if available and a large number of other features which I couldn’t all put to the test, due to my TV set being over 20 meters from where my computer is installed.

Instead, I tested EvolutionTV using a video-recorder and a few recordings that I had made the night before. My objective was to see if the quality of EvolutionTV’s conversion could stand comparison with what I manage to get from my Miglia Director’s Cut Take II / Final Cut Pro combo.

The EvolutionTV software will tell you which codec you’re using, and I tried the MPEG/2 codec with 100% quality. The result was a QuickTime file that looked exactly as the original recording. Given the fact that we’re not yet in a stage where broadcasts and delivery over cable are flawless and High-Definition quality, I was not surprised to see there was no noticeable degradation of quality between the original recording and the EvolutionTV MPEG/2 file.

The hardware therefore seems to have been manufactured to the same standards I’m used of seeing from Miglia. After all, Miglia is the company which makes the Director’s Cut Take II, a device which delivers comparable output quality to a much more expensive Canopus converter.

So, with EvolutionTV, the value really is the software and the connection flexibility on the rear of the hardware cabinet. The latter is OK, with a coax cable connector, s-video, audio and composite video all present.

The software is done right too. The software enables the device to record and compress video --TV programmes-- in one action, with the option to choose MPEG/2, MPEG/4 or DivX hardware compression. The scheduling feature integrates with iCal.

If digital TV is available in your area, you can even simply connect the EvolutionTV box to the receiver box via s-video and watch and record TV right from the Mac. A MovieGate plug-in will allow you to burn to DVD the files captured in MPEG-2. You can even add chapters to your DVD.

Conclusion

So, with the right software in the box and the hardware performing in an exemplary manner, what is there not to like about EvolutionTV?

Nothing if you just want to be able to record TV programmes. If you want to remove advertising blocks from your favourite movies, then you are better off with a converter and Final Cut Pro, in my opinion.

But for ease-of-use and recording capabilities, you can’t wrong with EvolutionTV.