First impressions coming soon!

In less than 24 hours, my AVerTV Hybrid Volar Max TV tuner has shipped from Newegg, and I can't wait to show everyone what it can do! When it does come today (nearly here!), I'm going to test it on my ~3 yr. old 1.7 GHz Pentium M laptop and my dorm mate's decidedly much more modern 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo laptop. I've tried to find the reviews, and no one really does review TV tuners except for a few dedicated sites. So, I'm intent on doing a thorough review. Whether I can include pictures from my mate's lappy, I'll see. Check throughout this weekend.

 

We wait with bated breath.

 

Plug-ins can be found online that let owners view QAM cable inside Media Center, as well as sync video and audio better when recording games on external displays. So, if you were wondering whether you'd have to buy the doubly expensive HDHomeRun to watch QAM over Ethernet in WMC, you aren't SOL anymore, tightwads!

Anyway, it will be picked up at 7PM, so you can wait a good while longer, S2N. And I did mention sites have reviews, but they're coming in slowly. hdtvtunerinfo.com, the PC tuner authority, just reviewed it yesterday, and it wasn't too detailed for my tastes, so I'll try to do one better, schoolwork permitting.

 

Who uses tuners when we have tivo...just kidding, i wish i had one. Well i had one before (non hd) but sold it and now im sad i did.

 

What does that do, just let you watch TV on your laptop? How much does something like that run, and is there a monthly service fee?

I'm one of the aforementioned Tivo users so I don't know much about this kinda thing.

 

The time has come to do a bit of reporting from the field, but pictures will come real soon.

md02geist: TV tuners on your PC let you watch the basic cable you subscribe to (that is, no HBO, SHO, etc.), as well as free over-the-air HD feeds of your local stations. My TV tuner even lets me see OTA feeds of unlocked Comcast HD channels (again, no HBO, but things like Discovery Channel networks, I suppose). The Volar Max even has FM radio and AVer Media Center, which acts as a one-stop shop for all your pictures, music, and video--a front-end for the ten-foot interface, you could say.

Included in the package:

-TV tuner stick
-composite/S-video input 2-in-1 cable
-USB extender cable
-compact dual antenna
-suction cup mount
-laptop lid clip-on mount
-quick-start installation CD and guide

I'm glad to say that Newegg was sparing in its use of packaging to ship the box out, which is an improvement over what they used to ship out a stick of RAM a while back.

The device itself, with all protrusions, measures 3.75 x 1.25 x 0.5 inches. It's quite wide, which is why AVerMedia gratefully included an 8" extension cable. The device has a cool blue LED that lights up when it's recognized. It gets surprisingly warm during normal use, especially at the coax connection, but nothing that makes me worried about using it as a full-time viewing solution.

Installation was five minutes, using the included CD and installing their own Media Center application. After that, setting up TV and radio stations was painless, with a tiny bit of babysitting--a few clicks here and there. One can return to setup and rescan for channels. The installer puts a Media Center icon in your taskbar which lets you open the application in seconds. It takes a little over 10 seconds to watch ATSC channels from cold start and about ten seconds from cold start to watching NTSC analog. Flipping through channels takes almost a second with NTSC and two with ATSC HD, but it's what I'm used to with Comcast's HD cable box. This is done with a remote, on-screen controls, or the Pg Up/Pg Down keys. Remember, this is with my lowly Pentium M, so YMMV, especially when using a faster PC, such as my dorm mate's HP dv6000, which I'll use to test the Volar Max with Vista Media Center soon.

As for use while multitasking, I see no slowdown when viewing channels, but my best guess is that recording will bring my computer to its knees (not so much with a Core 2 Duo CPU). For recording, I'd rather use a better guide--say, one such as the free GBPVR or pay software, like Beyond TV. The AVerTV guide is clunky, with a Prevue-channel-circa-1994 look, to sum it up.

TV looks pretty good in OTA analog, but only if you hit the sweet spot with the included dual antenna, which works best with both ears stuck straight out horizontally, as the quick-start guide suggests on page one. The only problem is getting the dang suction cup mount to stick! Use the laptop clip mount to keep it in place, if you can. Reception is a good deal better in ATSC digital mode, providing me with a handful of crisp, beautiful channels, as well as PBS stations and two weather channels from my local news. Sound in analog is good, but not as good as from my CRT. On the other hand, the HD channels make good use of my Inspiron's mini-subwoofer! Likewise, FM radio is CD-quality clear.

That was with the antenna. I'll rescan NTSC channels using the coax cable next and hopefully reply in short order. After that, I'll get on my dorm mate's laptop, and then I'll download another PVR program with a better EPG on my system. Pictures will take a bit of time to resize, so they'll be last. It's not like AVerMedia's software is that beautiful, anyway!

 

Coax produces satisfactory results. Obviously, the inherent qualities of HD LCDs bring out the artifacts that CRTs otherwise smudge, but SD on my screen is pretty good. Nothing has compared to HD quality from the antenna, though. Surprising me, FM reception is pretty good with the coax screwed on. Again, the quality wasn't as good w/o the antenna, but I didn't think I could get a signal with coax!

I did notice that the heat from the stick, especially at the coax connection, was almost too hot to handle this time, so I'm very cautious about some marathon recording sessions, if only to protect the integrity of the product for a long time to come. My relatively weak system also stutters when I'm online, when loading pages and files or just scrolling down a busy page with lots of Flash. It's nothing a faster computer couldn't solve.

I was disappointed that, even though the stick went through and recognized a ton of digital music channels and QAM channels, they were all blocked/scrambled. That would be a problem on the cable company's side, but I'm not sure who provides cable to my university.

Next, I try different software to view program guides with coax and ATSC.

 

BeyondTV 4.8 works like a charm, making setup easier than it was with the AVer Media Center that came with it. Standard definition actually looks better on AVerMedia's software, which probably includes some welcome noise reduction. Otherwise, BTV was the only software to ask me for my demographics and provider at setup, so it could download the EPG, which works buttery smooth with the scroll wheel on my mouse.

The only problem with BTV is that my video card settings are different from those the software uses. When I place the live TV in a small window to do other things, the whole screen is stuck on BTV's settings, making everything slightly fuzzy and BRIGHT, as if gamma shot up. AMC doesn't do this at all and uses my custom video card settings for contrast, brightness, and gamma.

The problem with GBPVR is that it's unclear what's what when I try to set things up. The myriad options provide flexibility beyond compare, but therein lies the problem: where is the tuner configuration, or the EPG configuration, or any semblance of a clear dialog box? There are so many tabs in the setup window, I didn't know what to start with. When I went into the software without having actually configured the tuner or EPG, I made it freeze to the point where I needed to do a hard reboot. Tutorials aren't smooth and easy to understand, either. An easy config mode would suit them well, because BeyondTV and Windows Media Center have cornered the market of people who just want a simple way to get to their TV.

Addendum: I was harshing on AVerTV's EPG a little too much, but, after using the BeyondTV guide, it does feel very clunky.