I had a Digital TV card before but the software was pants so I decided to buy a new card. I decided on the AVerMedia Hybrid TV + FM card because I had previously played with someone else's card and liked the look of software. I bought it online for £58.74.
INSTALLATION
Turn off the PC, pull out power (for safe measure), remove back PCI face plate, slot in card and screw it securely to the case. Then just plug in the cables at the back, install the drivers and software from the CD. Very easy and I thought the software was unexpected quickly to install. It's so easy to set up I didn't need to use the printed Quick Start Guide provided. An FM radio antenna is included but not a TV antenna, so you need to buy your own if you don't have one for the card. I would have liked for one to be included so that people whom do not have a spare one could get started right away without having to buy one. I bought a 2 way booster previously to use with my TV set antenna.
SOFTWARE & PICTURE QUALITY
Once I've scanned for channels and so long as DVB-T is selected as the source, you can watch TV. You can press the up or down buttons, the hidden number-pad in the main menu interface, or use the remote. The main menu slides open to reveal the number pad, which I think this looks really clever. There are navigation buttons on the screen window as well, which hides itself when in full screen mode until you move your mouse to the bottom to bring it back up. The interface looks nice and is laid out clearly with appropriately sized buttons, which have easily identifiable icons. If I forget what the icons mean, I can hover my mouse over a button to display the button function.
I get total of 54 channels listed including the ones I cannot watch. Freeview does not have the license to let you view or even purchase access to channels such as Television X (D'oh!), Cartoon Network (I wanted to watch that), Discovery, etc. The channels are listed but you need to buy a separate Sky / Cable / Digital box. Channel numbers, names, etc can be edited quite easily. The colour scheme of the channel list is light grey over a darker grey and I don't really like this as it's not the easiest of colour combinations to read. You can even create your own channel lists so that you can select a different list to filter out what you want to watch. i.e. just news channels.
I love the clear TV picture quality. There are no interferences
or ghosts of other channels over the channel you're watching like you get on analogue TV's and TV cards when reception isn't good. There are times when the picture skips for a second but this is determined by reception strength. Sometimes happens if you're moving around the room but a signal booster helps. Capture quality is as good as the source and is also excellent. I think this is so much better than an analogue TV card that I had before and cannot fault the picture quality that this card produces.
You can record programmes by simply pressing the 'Record' button in the software or on the remote. You can also schedule TV (or radio) recordings (but PC must be switched on, obviously). You can schedule daily, weekly or one time recordings. You do not need to know a channel number as you select it from a list and you do not need to work out the dates since you can select a day from a calendar that pops up, or you can type in a date if you prefer. You can even choose how big to limit the files it creates and other options like where to save the files before starting a new file for a recording. Not only that, you can use the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) facility to schedule recordings. It's like a TV Guide. At first, not many channels were listed for me, but after I installed a software update, I got more comprehensive lists of programmes (accompanied by descriptions) so all is good. From those, I can select the channel and a day of the week and then choose the ones I want to schedule to record. It can also display an overview of all channels and what programmes are on or are going to be on. EPG is a terrific feature that's also very easy to use.
Recordings are recorded as MPEGII files and can get quite big (but not ridiculously big) so you do need a fair bit of hard drive space. I find the scheduling very easy to set even without reading the instructions and it did record 'My Name is Earl' as I'd set it to but when watching it, the video froze half way and I was only left with audio for the second half of the program so I missed the second half (or at least with no picture). Bugger….BUT it seemed to be an isolated incident, as my other programmes recorded flawlessly. Quality is excellent as well.
As the card is a Hybrid card, it also lets you listen to FM or Digital Radio. I don't really use these but Digital Radio is very clear. Analogue TV is also available but quality doesn't compare to digital and there's no point in using it. FM radio is not too clear either. It can also playback files and it seems to be able to play most of the popular video formats such as MPG, AVI, WMV and can even deal with subtitle files that accompany AVI files, as well as being able to play MP3 and other audio files once I switch it to 'Audio Mode'. Overall, the AVerTV software is excellent and scores highly in my book.
I'm running the card on Windows XP Pro but it's also compatible with Windows 2000, nothing lower. The box says it's also compatible with Windows Media Center Edition (Windows MCE), which means you would not need to use the AVerMedia software and just use the MCE in-built media functions.
The main issue I've had with the card is with the software. WHen recording more than the norm (i.e. 4GB+ files about 4 hours of programmes without stopping), the software seems to freeze. It's okay with shorter recordings but this issue with long recordings is a bit annoying to say to least. I would want to make such recordings if there were lots of programmes that I want to watch on in a row on a Saturday night when I'm out.
FEATURES
The 16 channel preview splits the screen into 16 windows and shows a channel for a few seconds and then keeps an image of the channel in the window. I think it's a bit slow to load but it works and can be quite useful if you can't decide on what you want to watch.
The Snap Shot feature where you can take pictures of what you're watching is a nice feature to have. It lets you set the snap as your Desktop wallpaper, which I think is quite a good way of letting you change your Desktop wallpaper easily and more often. The snap shot can have many uses such as taking a picture of something you want to look at more closely later, capture the lottery numbers so you can check, etc.
The Time Shift function lets you record currently running programmes so that you can go back to things you missed AND still continue watching the programme to the end while the programme is running. This is easy to use in this software. This is useful for watching a movie or sporting game that you do not want to miss any of. I think it's worth having. It can also record the programme to disk while it's doing this if you choose.
I can't seem to get any pages with Teletext for some reason. No idea why
The software does not include any video editing features, which I would have liked for cutting out commercial breaks from in between programmes that I want to keep. There are also no burning programmes to let you put the stuff you have recorded onto DVD. I've seen burning facilities with most other TV cards I've used so I thought this was unusual but usually, people with DVD Re-Writers would have burning software already so it is just a minor detail. As the card does cost a bit extra, I think they could have supplied this and they'd probably do a good job of it too from what I've seen already! It has all the usual features but still doesn't have stuff like Picture-In-Picture
Pictures of AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid + FM DVB-T PCI
AverTV software
(PIP) but it's not really a necessity. I'm already pleased with the features included.
REMOTE CONTROL
Something else that played a part in my purchase decision was that I saw a picture of the remote control. The remote is not the flat and cheap type like you normally get with computing products that come with remote controls. The build quality is really good and looks very much like a nice full sized and curved remote control for a TV or DVD player and it even looks nice. Buttons are clearly labelled with text and icons for some. Some buttons are also coloured. Oh and 2x AAA batteries are included!
The infrared receiver connects to the All-in-one cable included and you stick the receiver somewhere that you can point the remote at. It's a small thing that's attached to the end of a metre long cable. A round double-sided sticker is included so you can stick this somewhere. The red 'Power' button loads up or closes the AVerMedia software. It has useful buttons like Snap Shot to take a picture of what you are watching as well as the usual buttons. Other useful inclusions include a Channel Return button to flick back and forward between to the channel you were previously watching. Basic functions like Play/Pause, Stop, Power also work with Windows Media Player but not Next, Previous, etc but they work in the AVerMedia software which is what it is meant for. It is very responsive. Overall, I am very pleased with the remote control, especially since the remote that comes with other computing products are usually cheap and tacky.
SUPPORT
Drivers and software can be downloaded from the AVerMedia website. The site looks very professional but I've found the download speed to be a bit slow. The 17.3MB file downloaded at around 30KB/s. This is not very good since I have a 2Mbit ADSL connection (capable of around 230KB/s) and I downloaded it at 3-4am in the morning (Don't ask!) when there's less Internet traffic. So speed is not very good but it is easy to navigate and to be fair, the file is relatively small at 19MB. When you look in the 'About' bit within the software, you can choose to email AVerMedia, which I thought was quite unique. Rather than just telling you their email, you select which office (by country) and then click a button to load up Outlook with the email address and subject inserted. The user manual (PDF format) can be accessed from the Start Menu or the '?' button in the software.
After updating the software, I found new features. Some were just cosmetic changes but some were new sound options. The interface also started fading in and out when opening and closing windows, which I like the look of. My scheduled recordings were still there but I had to redo all of them because the channels were no longer valid and I was unable to modify the schedules. I think they should have included a backup and restore facility for scheduled recordings, settings, etc. for when upgrading. I can backup the settings by copying out the AVerTV folder in my My Documents folder if I'm reformatting Windows but it does not work with upgrades as the settings files are named different and many people would not know to do this. The update also made the channel list differentiate scrambled (non-viewable) channels from normal ones by marking the scrambled ones in red. I thought it was a welcome change. Overall, I feel the support is good and it seems they are constantly improving the software, which gives me confidence in AVerMedia and their products.
QUICK SUMMARY
GOOD
• Easy to set up. • Excellent picture quality. • Easy to use software. • Lets you watch and Record Digital Terrestrial TV on your PC • Good support • Excellent quality remote control. • Uses an All-in-one cable so fewer things to connect directly to the card. • Lets you record TV programmes. • Lets you capture audio/video from other sources i.e. VCR, camcorders, etc. • High quality software • Windows Media Centre Edition compatibly
BAD
• A bit more expensive (but you get what you pay for). • PCI version so you need to open up your PC to install it. • Does not come with its own TV antenna. • Lacks video editing features. • PC must be left on to record schedule recordings. • Can't pay for some of the listed channels • Seems to have problems with long recordings (i.e. 4 hours +)
VERDICT
I really like this DVB TV card. The card may be fairly expensive but being able to record TV programmes with your PC means you wouldn't need to buy a HDD/DVD recorder, and there's no need for a Freeview box, so that's a saving. The card lacks any video editing or burning facilities, which I think they could have included, but I can accept this since it does a great job of letting me watch TV and records programmes. It also gives me access to Freeview Terrestrial channels which I think is brilliant, as I'm enjoying being able to watch channels like E4 that let me watch programmes a week before they are shown on analogue Terrestrial TV. The software is easy to use and looks very smart with some smooth special effects and handy features. Even the remote is brilliant quality, which makes a change.
Overall, I can whole recommend this card despite the gripe with the long recording issue.
I've printed this off for future reference as I've been looking for something like this for a while now. Cheers, really informative and exceptionally helpful! Well deserved diamond too, thanks. Sal x
jesi 25.03.2006 13:43
Well done on your diamond! This sounds like a pretty good TV card if it is what you want ~ I neither really want TV nor have the storage space on my PC ~ but this review lets me realise that I would need an upgraded machine to fully utilise this anyway. ~ .................................................................................................... ~ ♥ ~ jes ~ ♥♥
Jossland 23.03.2006 20:59
Great review. Never heard of it but sounds good. Jo
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