High-definition TV tuners: FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus, USB DVB-T
- — 01 September, 2005 07:59
DViCO's latest FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus PCI (internal) and DVB-T USB 2.0 (external) digital TV tuner devices offer excellent picture quality and recording performance.
Both are capable of displaying high-definition channels, and both come with DVICO's FusionHDTV software interface, which is very simple to use and supports time-shifting, instant replay and scheduled recording.
FusionHDTV also has an easy-to-manage channel-favourites list, logically clustered playback buttons and a slider for going back through a live TV program that is being time-shifted.
Recording
Time shifting is not on by default and has to be enabled from the right-click menu before the pause button will have any effect. During our tests, we experienced no problems at all using the time-shift function in the latest 3.0 Beta 2 version of FusionHDTV from DVICO's Web site. By default, you can leave a program paused for 30min, but this can be extended in the program's configuration screen.
Manual recording with FusionHDTV allows you to capture either the current channel you are watching or the entire stream that the station is broadcasting. This is handy when recording stations such as the ABC, which broadcasts different programs on its ABC and ABC2 channels, but these recordings do take up more space than a single-channel recording.
Recordings are captured in ".tp" file format by default, which can then be transcoded to MPEG-2 or DivX formats using FusionCONVERTER. This program comes bundled with the DVB-T Plus PCI card and also with the USB 2.0 device and is very simple to use. Simply select your input file, set the desired output file settings and start the transcoding process. You can, of course, choose to record in MPEG-2 format instead of ".tp" format, but this takes away the ability to record entire transport streams.
One quibble we have with the software is the delay that occurs when you hit the record button. It takes a good few seconds before the program will start recording.
Picture quality
As far as picture quality goes, both the PCI and the USB 2.0 devices were perfect. Images were crisp, motion was smooth and colours were not overly rich. FusionHDTV allows you to watch in widescreen mode, full-screen mode and has a cool feature that even lets you use the TV as your background wallpaper!
We were also impressed with the way the software handled interference from light switches and electro-mechanical devices. The image only stuttered for a moment in these instances and did not lose audio synch. Recordings also kept in synch during moments of interference.
Twin-tuner capable
It is worth pointing out that the latest drivers for the PCI and the USB 2.0 versions of the DViCO FusionHDTV DVB-T devices allow for both these devices to be used in the same system in a twin-tuner configuration. This will give you the ability to watch one channel as you record another. Unfortunately, this scenario is not currently supported by DViCO's own FusionHDTV application, only by the third-party applications WebScheduler and Windows Media Centre Edition My TV. The PCI card includes a Media Centre Edition remote control, but the USB 2.0 device ships with a more simplistic slimline remote. The PCI device also features an analog input for capturing video from webcams or even your VCR. The PCI card can also be used in slimline cases, thanks to the supplied low-profile mounting bracket.
Verdict Whether you choose the PCI device or the USB 2.0 device, you will get excellent picture quality out of these DViCO products and you should also find their software interface to be intuitive. They compare favourably against the TV tuner devices we reviewed in our July issue and we recommend them, particularly for their good recording capabilities.
DViCO FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus
Price: $249 Distributor: Lako Pacific Phone: 1800 657 601 URL: www.lakopacific.com.au Specifications: HD and SD digital TV tuner; antenna pass-through; analog video and audio capture; remote control.
FEATURES: 8 VALUE: 7 OVERALL: 7
