An affordable way to convert your computer into an HD television
Pros:
Very good performance. Receives both analog and HDTV signals over-the-air or from cableTV systems.
Cons:
If you are running Vista, make sure your computer is powerful enough.
The Bottom Line:
A great way to add HDTV to your computer.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I originally bought this card to receive over-the-air, or ATSC HDTV broadcasts. However, my results were a little surprising.
Installation of the card was pretty straight foward. Just insert the card and install the software. Depending on how comfortable you are with connecting the TV and FM radio antennas, the whole proceedure should not take longer than a half hour.
Running the software is pretty simple. If you are running Vista, make sure your computer is beefy enough. Vista, itself takes a lot of horsepower. Some stations broadcast 1080i and that requires a lot of horsepower! If you are using an LCD monitor, make sure it has a fast response time. Some slower monitors will make a baseball look like a comet going across the screen.
ATSC, over the air reception of HD TV signals can be a little tricky. I live in a valley. We have no problem getting analog TV. However, HDTV reception requires a strong clean signal. If you live in an area that is prone to fading or multipaths, look out! You may have to play with different antenna configurations to get good reception. This is not only for this card, but also for those $40 converter boxes, as well.
Since HDTV signals are on a different frequency than VHF stations, some existing antennas may not work efficiently. This may cause signal dropouts and pixelation to occur on your screen. If you have reception problems, most likely it's not the card but a weak HD signal. I have tried outdoor arial antennas, huge rabbit ears, amplified antennas and all sorts of stuff but could not get a good enough signal in my house. I found that a little 5-inch whip antenna on my desk gave me the best results.
Cable TV uses a different format than over-the-air signals called QAM. When I bought my card, the software that was included with the card did not support QAM. Pinnacle has released an update that now does. I have given up on trying to get decent over-the-air signals in my house and got cableTV installed. The QAM support on this card works very well.
The FM radio option works. The sound is very good. I don't care for the FM tuner interface very much. There is also an internet radio player included, too. Though, I don't think this function uses the card for anything.
The recording function also works very well. The software gives you options for saving your videos in a few different formats. You can also buy extra decoders to record to an iPod.
All-in-all, I like this card and would recommend it to people. I have also tried WinTV products. The software that comes with WinTV has a much more elegant interface. However, WinTV is more expensive and found that its software had a few quirks.
