Cheap priced ATSC/QAM USB HDTV

I purchased a Kworld VS-ATSC-315U to give it a try. Its currently the cheapest priced ATSC/QAM USB HDTV out.

The only manuals for this device is a quick start guide booklet, an installation manual with some remote control information at the end on the Kworld CD, and the ArcSoft TotalMedia 3 help file! thats it. nothing on the Kworld web site.

After going through the CD "quick installation" only the NTSC and remote control worked. I uninstalled everything and downloaded new software from Kworld only new BDA drivers were available. I installed the ArcSoft TotalMedia 3 first and then the Empia remote control drivers (there are 2 remote control drivers on the Kworld CD) next tried clicking on setup for the BDA drivers it didn't work rebooted (restarted) the computer plugged in the VS-ATSC-315U into the computer while it was starting then when the computer asked for the drivers for the "USB ATSC Hybrid Device" selected "Advanced" and pointed the computer to the newer BDA drivers folder all of the drivers are exposed and not in Cab files. After re-installing with updated software still only the NTSC and remote control worked. After a while I decided to do a Windows XP repair thinking some unsigned software may have damaged my Windows XP installation. After the Windows XP repair was done I installed the Kworld VS-ATSC-315U using the newer BDA drivers WOW everything works!

The ArcSoft TotalMedia 3 software bundled with the Kworld VS-ATSC-315U is not bad basically like a home theater PC or Windows Media Center software main menu has TV, DVD, Picture, Music, Radio, and Video.

If your computer CPU usage is high and you know you have a video card that supports MPEG-2 acceleration in hardware it can be turned on if ArcSoft TotalMedia 3 didn't do this during the installation go to Setup > General > Display Settings > Hardware Acceleration On/Off my CPU usage dropped 40%!. If you get a pop-up window that says your video card dosnt support HD in hardware and the channel looks like pink colored snow youll have to select Hardware Acceleration Off to view that channel. My computer video card supports MPEG-2 acceleration but not 1080i HDTV with the Hardware Acceleration On all of the SD channels look fine there are only a few HD channels here where I'm currently at using the VS-ATSC-315U have that pink colored snow.

Other notes:

Warranty information is not on any documents included. 1 Year warranty posted on Kworld web site.

A complete list of hot keys is in C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia 3\ShortcutKeyMap.ini just double click on it to open. F12 key is aspect ratio (not in help file)

The Kworld VS-ATSC-315U has (2) USB jacks to plug into a computer seems to work fine with just the bigger cable plugged in.

The Kworld VS-ATSC-315U is also known as the "KW-ATSC 315U" and the "PlusTV HD USB-315"