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MEDIA CENTER PC REVIEWAverMedia AverTV DVB-T USB 2.0
Introduction
You can pick up a TV Tuner these days for under £30, and they are two-a-penny at the lower end of the market. To justify charging more than that a manufacturer has to really pull out all the stops and produce something special. AverMedia have done just that with the DVB-T USB2.0, a pocket-sized digital terrestrial tuner that comes in at £85. We got hold of one to give it a try. What's in the boxFrom the moment you open the box, the DVB-T oozes quality. For some reason we expected it to be more the size of a Freeview box, but it is a surprisingly small device, not much bigger than a packet of cigarettes. It feels solid to the touch and certainly provoked a lot of admiration at Media Center PC World Towers - well, about as much as you could expect from a TV tuner. Also supplied is a remote - better than the one supplied with many TV tuners on the market, but still nothing to shout about, an installation and application CD, a USB cable and a 'free' aerial.  InstallationMaybe it's because we don't like reading manuals, but installation seemed a little trickier than we would expect from an external device. The problem came because of the potentially high power demands of the DVB-T, necessitating a dual USB cable so that extra power can be drawn from a second port if required. We didn't expect to need the extra juice, but working out which of the two connectors was the primary one wasn't obvious. Of course, much chastened, we looked at the manual and found the answer immediately. We thought we'd give the supplied aerial a go and plugged it into the DVB-T (more on that later). Software installation was a breeze, even for manual-reticent people like us and the DVB-T was ready to go. SetupAt this point we should point out that we had to hold onto the DVB-T for a little longer than AverMedia expected as we trawled the country (well the M25) looking for a digital terrestrial signal. It's amazing how many places in and around London don't have any reception. Eventually we found a colleague who claimed to get Freeview reception and off we went. The supplied aerial is useless. If you are under any illusions that this will enable you to receive digital terrestrial TV without parking under the transmitter itself, then put those thoughts aside. However, it didn't take much of an upgrade (we used an internal portable TV aerial) to get a signal, so we won't hold it against the tuner itself. The AverTV software found 20 digital terrestrial channels in our area and auto-tuned. Within seconds we were watching digital TV on our monitor.  OperationWatching TV is simple. With the use of the supplied remote you can easily use the DVB-T as a normal TV. However, switching between channels is not instantaneous - in fact it often took seconds, which isn't really an acceptable delay. The AverTV software hasn't altered much from the analogue cards we've seen (still no 10 foot interface), but it does everything you would want from a PVR - recording, time-shifting. As with most PVR software, it's worth checking the recording quality before you settle down to record something important as by default it is set to low to preserve disc space. Unfortunately low isn't good enough for everyday use, and certainly wouldn't be good enough to archive a recording to DVD. The 7 day electronic programme guide is functional and does all that you would expect of an EPG, including programme descriptions. It can be used to easily schedule recordings. This is one benefit of digital over a vanilla analogue card.  ConclusionThe DVB-T is a solid digital TV tuner. It looks nice, feels well built and doesn't break the bank. It's let down slightly by only having the same AverTV PVR software as cheaper analogue tuners in the range, but this is a small gripe. Our main concern is that there is no analogue tuner built into the card. If you can't get a digital terrestrial signal then tuner isn't for you. AverMedia have just released the AVerTV Hybrid+FM PCI analogue and digital tuner which might be worth looking at if this is a requirement. |
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