Product ReviewsGraphics cards
Miglia's Alchemy is a PCI TV tuner card, which in addition to enabling you to watch TV on your Mac, allows you to import video from any analogue source and listen to any FM radio station. Setting up the Alchemy is simple: insert the card in a spare PCI slot, connect your TV signal or video supply and FM radio aerial, and install the software. The TV signal can be sourced from a terrestrial aerial connected to the Alchemy's RF socket or from a satellite, cable or Freeview digital source. The Alchemy doesn't have a SCART socket, so you need an adaptor to convert to S-Video or composite video. You also need to convert the audio signal output to a minijack, as the Alchemy has no room for stereo left and right audio connectors. Tune in Once the software is installed, setting up the TV tuner is straightforward. A dialog accessed from the Tuner command in the Preferences window allows you to tell Alchemy which country you're in and the TV format it uses. The software then scans and stores the channels. You can then fine-tune these channels and name them. You can also re-order them so they appear in the right order in the drop-down menu in the software remote control. FM tuning is carried out in a similar way. The software remote control, which appears as a window in the Alchemy software application, allows you to change channel; adjust volume, brightness, contrast and saturation; and toggle between FM radio and TV. There are two other important controls. One allows you to grab a still picture from whatever happens to be showing on the TV screen, and the other allows you to record from the TV tuner. The recording feature has huge possibilities, potentially allowing you to turn your Mac into a personal video recorder. It's disappointing, then, to have to report that this potential has not come close to being realised. First,
It's tempting to go for the uncompressed setting in the hope that this will provide the best possible recording. However, this will use acres of disk space and, due to the number of dropped frames, make playback so jerky that it will be virtually unwatchable. However, playback is fine with an appropriate compression setting. Bad timing The bad news is that not only is there no online TV guide, but there's not even a timer. As a result, you can't take advantage of all the attractive features, such as pausing live TV, offered by set-top personal video recorders such as Sky+ and TiVO. This omission could be forgiven, given the difficulty of agreeing licences with providers of online TV guides in Europe. Indeed, this feature is missing from the European version of El Gato's EyeTV for that very reason. However, the lack of a timer is very disappointing. The ability to set your Mac to record your favourite programmes and then burn them to CD or DVD to watch on your iBook or PowerBook on the train on the way to work would have been very useful. Record deal Worse still, you can't record FM radio at all. However, this can be remedied using either Ambrosia's WireTap or Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack. Indeed, with Audio Hijack, you could set up a script to launch the Alchemy software and record the output on your Mac between specified times. As we went to press, the Alchemy wasn't compatible with the Power Mac G5 range. Miglia is aware of this and is working on a fix, which should be available soon. Alchemy is a disappointing product, if only for the unfulfilled possibilities. As a TV and FM tuner, it works well and is reasonably priced, but TV tuners have been available for a decade and it's impossible to be excited by this feature alone. As a video recorder, Alchemy is lacking too many important features to earn any kind of recommendation. By Kenny Hemphill |
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