Visionplus VisionDTV USB-Ter

The VisionDTV USB-Ter from Visionplus claims to be the world's first external digital TV tuner with Windows Hardware Quality Labs certification.

In theory this should ensure good XP compatibility, and we found that it worked flawlessly when a good aerial signal was present, but poor signal strength led to random application freezes.

The DTV is a tiny silver box that connects via USB 1.1 or 2. Power is delivered down the USB cable so you don't need a separate adapter; at 100mA, its needs are well below the 500mA rating of a standard USB port.

The aerial connection is a standard 75deghm coaxial plug, but there's no external audio or video input capability.

Channel set-up was simple using the automatic scan menu. You can add channels to a Favourites list, which usefully separates them into TV and audio channels, and if your soundcard has an S/PDIF output you can route the audio to it.

VisionTV is the functional software application. The VCR-style panel gives you access to the program controls, personal video recorder (PVR) and electronic programme guide (EPG) functions.

An infrared remote control replicates all the program and navigation commands. All program functions have a keyboard shortcut, but these are buried in the depths of the pdf manual.

Picture and audio quality were excellent, and the PVR system was a joy to use with easy scheduling via the EPG. You can also time shift live TV. Recordings are saved as multiplexed (.mpg) mpeg2 files. There's a 4GB file size limit (about two hours), and longer recordings are automatically spanned over multiple files.

For the price, it is outstanding. Cheaper than some rival USB Freeview TV tuners, it has as many, if not more, features.

Contact:
www.pcnextday.co.uk

System requirements:

• Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
• 500MHz processor
• 128MB Ram
• USB 1.1/2 port
• Minimum 8MB VGA card
• Soundcard
• Direct X 8.1 or later
• Microsoft Media Player 7.1 or above
• Digital terrestrial TV aerial

See also:

Avermedia AverTV Box9

A simple way to convert your monitor into a TV  11 Jan 2005

nVidia Point of View NVTV

nVidia's first analogue TV tuner card.  24 Sep 2004

Trust Combi PC-TV Pop View

A TV tuner card that plugs directly into your display.  03 Aug 2004

Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T

An easy to set up TV tuner card.  03 Aug 2004

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!