Ingenious and functional but not perfect

I am in the process of moving from a good-sized house into a shoebox, and decided to play the "convergence" game to get rid of some electronics. I figured my old Sony TV, being bulky, could go; my Apple 23" Cinema display is far superior for DVD movies and, it seemed to me, ought to be just as good for TV or videotape.

The AlchemyTV DVR model (which I am reviewing) seemed to fit the bill. It is an ordinary PCI card intended for a Power Mac G5, which features a TV tuner as well as S-video, composite video and analog stereo audio inputs. The DVR model adds superior capture hardware as well as a remote control (with an infrared "eye" that plugs into the card).

I installed the card without incident into my dual 1.8, non-PCI-X G5. I had heard that early versions of the software were troublesome, so I downloaded the latest version and installed it. The first time I fired up the application (which handles both viewing and capturing tasks) I found, no matter how I adjusted the settings, that I could not get sound from the TV tuner card. Strangely, after I logged out and in, the sound worked fine. I have experienced no problems since.

Picture quality from S-video and composite sources is as expected given the limitations of those types of connection. (A component input would allow better picture quality from outside sources.) The TV tuner, unfortunately, is not as good. It is extremely sensitive to cable signal level, which is reported at the cable I am plugging into the card at -2.5 dBmv. A +2dBmv signal from a friend's house looked considerably better, with much less noise, clearer motion and brighter color. My Sony VCR plugged into the composite input also looks noticeably better than the AlchemyTV's tuner. What's worse, access to my cable modem causes severe interference in the tuner picture. The documentation warns about this, but it is still unacceptable; the cable modem operates at frequencies completely separated from those of TV channels, and cable modem access causes no problem with the TV picture displayed by any other TV tuner I own.

Nevertheless, I stick with the tuner on the card because of some nifty software features. It can autodetect channel names (although many of the ones my cable provider sends are inaccurate) and select favorite channels. It can use its capture capability to act as a basic but fairly flexible DVR. It can crop TV pictures line by line, useful where there is interference on the top or bottom line of the picture.

However, the best aspect of the included software is the interface for the remote control. When I acquired the card I was thinking of the remote only as a curiosity, something to amuse friends with. I did not count on the power of the included software.

The remote has 24 buttons, of which 23 can be programmed to operate any menu item in any application. The 24th button is an "Enter" button that activates a global mode where any button can be programmed to perform a system-wide task no matter what application is running. The software, an OS X preference pane, includes predefined command sets for the AlchemyTV application, iTunes, DVD player and iPhoto. However, a command set can be built for absolutely any OS X application. Remote buttons can trigger keystrokes or menu items.

Using this functionality, I was able to expand the DVD Player and iTunes command sets, and create ones for VLC and Safari, so that the AlchemyTV DVR remote could perform everything you would expect of a home theater remote. Taking the next step and programming the AlchemyTV remote's codes into the learning remote for my Sony DA5000ES receiver, I was able to integrate my Mac into my stereo/HT setup as well as any other component - no matter whether it is wearing music, movie or Web hats. For me, the powerful remote software ended up being the tail that wagged the dog. I can appreciate having TV tuner and video input, but I don't know how I ever lived without being able to control iTunes or Apple's excellent DVD player - comprehensively! - from my listening chair.

Miglia is a small company, based in the UK, and as such I am not expecting indefinite or flawless support for my card in the US. For the $120 price I paid, that is OK. But while this is an innovative product with some very powerful features, do not expect perfection.