Over-Hyped!
Pros:
Easy to set-up.
Cons:
Price ($189)- Image Quality - Buggy Software - Lack of user customizable settings
The Bottom Line:
If you simply want to use this unit to view tv shows on your computer, there are much cheaper units that accomplish that. Plextor=Over-hyped!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I have been capturing video with various devices for years and when I read other reviews about the plextor px-tv402u, I thought I had found the perfect pvr/capture device. After even 1 hour of trials, I found that there were too many issues to warrant keeping the device. Using the catv input to capture some tv shows, I found that the image quality was below tolerable. I was intending on using this device to capture and archive my favorite shows to dvd, but the captured quality, even at the highest mpeg2 settings was horrible. There were no dropped frames or audio-sync problems however. It was just that the catv quality was very "grainy" and pixelated.
Another issue that I had was the software that came bundled with the unit. It utilized WinDVR by Intervideo for the capture software. And it relied on TitanTV.com for the channel info. When checking "what's on" if you clicked to view a show that was currently airing, you got an error stating "Invalid scheduling time". The software assumed that I wanted to record the show, when all I wanted to do was view the channel. Plus if your intentions are to have specific resolutions such as 512x384, or specific bitrates to encode with, you can forget about it. There are about 20 encoding profiles to choose from, including mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4 and divx. So for the average user, this may be enough. But of you're looking to do some high quality encoding to dvd, I'd suggest looking for another option. I know I am! I know I can be very picky about my hardware, but honestly all I wanted to do was to capture good quality images at a resolution and bitrate that I set. I also would have liked to have an option for another audio codec. It is set to mp2 audio by default and it cannot be changed. I normally encode my divx files with mp3 audio.
Also if you're intentions are to bypass the windvr software to encode, with say Adobe Premier, or Windows Media Center, the plextor unit is not seen as a capture/tuner device. Plextor's website states that to edit captured video in premier, you have to capture the video using one of their recommended software titles first.
One last thing to those of you considering this unit, remember that if you have digital cable, this unit will only recognize the standard channels (usually 2-99).
