Terrible TV Tuner Card
Pros:
None.
Cons:
Picture isn't acceptable, software is slow and buggy. No updates.
The Bottom Line:
This card is total junk. Avoid it at all costs.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
At first glance, this would appear to be a pretty good product. This pci card supports hardware mpeg 2 encoding, fm radio, tv tuner, s-video input, remote control etc. for a really decent price. After using this product though, I am extremely dissatisfied. First, the tv picture is terrible; it is grainy and not consistent between channels. My other (Dvico) card provides a very decent picture, so I know it isn't related to the signal or wiring. In addition, this card does not seem to support audio over the PCI bus. Kworld's solution is to run a cable from the rear of the card to the line in connector on the back of your sound card. Not only is this an unprofessional solution, it won't work if you are already using your line in, or like me, if you have an Asus motherboard that uses the line in an mic connectors for 5.1 channel audio.
Also the bundled software is terrible. I figured that it couldn't be that bad since Intervideo is a fairly well known name, but this is not the case. I can not get the 'dvd creator' software to capture any audio, I don't know if it is a Kworld driver problem or what, but captured programs aren't very useful without any audio. The 'home theatre' program isn't any better. The sound works, but the program is extremely slow and the picture is terrible. The channels cannot be changed using the number keypad on the keyboard. Also, the only settings for video capture are 'good' 'better' and 'best'. None of these settings seem to provide acceptable video capture quality. There should certainly be more advanced capture settings, such as frame size, bit rate, etc.
Don't expect any support from Kworld either, they don't have any updates or support information for this product on their website. I mainly purchased this product because it had hardware mpeg encoding, but this feature is totally useless without good software and a good tv picture to encode. Supposedly this card will work with Windows Media Center Edition, but I don't think it is certified by Microsoft. Maybe it would work better in this environment, but I doubt it. I'd much rather pay the same amount for a decent quality card with good software support that doesn't have the hardware encoding chip.
