|
|
Advertisement:
|
|
ASUS 880 TV Tuner and Capture Card |
|
Join the community - in the OCAU Forums!
|
Image Quality and Conclusions
Another convenient PowerVCR feature is time-scheduled recording of TV broadcast with iEPG (Internet Electronic Program Guidance) support. From a local iEPG Internet site with TV program listings the exact recording time of the selected broadcast(s) can be scheduled for automatic recording just by clicking on the EPG icon associated with the program. We (based in Japan) tried it for Japanese programs, and it worked. This service might not be available in all regions/countries.
Further included in the ASUS TV 800 package are:- ASUS Video Security and ASUS Remote Controller software
- CyberLink’s Power Director 2.0 for editing captured video and CD and DVD burning
- CyberLink’s Multimedia show, a simple utility for producing multimedia slide shows and Internet authoring
These applications are not essential for working with the TV Tuner itself and can be replaced by similar software according to user preference. We liked in particular the nifty ASUS Video Safety utility. It compares captured video stream for “errors”, meaning changes caused by movements in given time intervals. If any change in the monitored area is detected a siren goes off or an e-mail is sent. This of course means your PC can become a basic security system. A web camera or a video camera are necessary to utilize this function.
Finally it all comes down to the question: how good is the picture quality of captured and recorded TV broadcasts? This was a weak point of early Tuner cards, but not so with the ASUS 880: The 10-bit Conextant CX23880 chip is doing a good job. Live TV and replay of recorded video stream looks like watching DVD - provided of course an undisturbed antenna signal. There is no way to benchmark the quality of a TV Tuner card. We post therefore a few snapshots taken with the PowerVCR “snapshot” function from various Japanese TV programs. The images we received were without grain, snow, stripes, and only with minimal distortion. It’s of course up to each individual user to judge about this. Naturally the overall experience with a TV tuner card depends also on the quality of the TV signal and the system components mainly the CPU, the video card, and the amount of available memory. The later system components are particularly important when it comes to recording with instant replay and time shifting enabled as well as editing the recorded video stream. The reader might keep this in mind when he is comparing our results with his experience.
We were very satisfied with the picture quality provided by our ASUS TV 880 test sample. This is of course partially due to the fact that a PC monitor is providing better image quality than a TV monitor because if its higher resolution and better refresh rate. For those who doubt we recommend to get as close as 20 or 30 centimeters to their TV monitor and then compare the visual quality with that of a contemporary PC monitor. Unless the home TV is already a HDTV device the difference is striking. Live TV displayed on a PC monitor (provided a good TV Tuner card and a good antenna signal) looks like high definition TV.
   
  
As a side-note: we used the ASUS TV 880 with the latest version of ASUS GF4 TI 4200 video card: the V8420S. This is one of the new TI 4200 offerings that are currently put in the market to keep the GF4 line of video cards attractive until nVidia’s new NV30 video GPU is out. Obviously nVidia has given free hand to their partners for modifications to the original GF4 concept, because we see now many TI 4200 that are clocked as TI 4400, with 3.6 or 3.3 ns memory and 128 MB onboard memory. We have recently tested such a card here. The updated ASUS V8420S comes with 128 MB Samsung memory with a 3.3 nanosecond speed grade. We could overclock the core of our sample without any modification or additional cooling to 320 MHz and the memory to 680 MHz. The GPU of a TI 4200 is normally clocked at 250 MHz and the memory at 500 or 550 MHz.
CONCLUSIONS
The capability to capture, record, and edit TV broadcast and video stream is adding quite substantial value to a desktop PC. A TV tuner and capture card like the ASUS 880 is doing this for little money. Considering that enthusiasts pay up to 500USD/800AUD for a high-end video card which gives 10% more frames per second, a TV tuner/capture card for 70USD/130AUD is certainly a reasonable investment. As far as the tested ASUS 880 is concerned: Installation and handling was easy, all of the many functions worked as advertised, and the picture quality was very good. Considering also the value of the bundled software we think that this product is a good buy.
|
|
Advertisement:
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.
|
|
