This
PCI TV-tuner combo card enhances the versatility of your PC. It lets you watch
TV, and capture still images and video on your PC. You can also do
video-conferencing with a little bit of ingenuity.
The card has 181 channels and a host of other features.
Connecting and installing it is fairly simple. Just plug it into a free PCI slot
on your motherboard and boot up. It’s plug-n-play under Win 98 and drivers are
installed from the accompanying CD. It also comes with a fully-functional remote
control. A stereo audio cable connects it to your sound card for audio output,
and the infrared sensor for the remote connects to the corresponding port on the
card. The software application sits as an icon in your system tray, which you
can double click to bring up the interface. When you use it for the first time,
it does a scan for all the cable and air channels coming through your coaxial
cable. You can, at a later stage, change the channel settings or re-map them.
VDOMate |
TV card. Rs 4,900 Features: 181-channel TV tuner; S-Video input; capture images and video. Pros: Easy to install; 16-channel preview. Cons: None. Source: Aditya Infotech Khemka Center DDA Building 2-5 Nehru Place New Delhi 110019. Tel: 11-6223810/11 Fax: 6497996/97 E-mail: kavita_modi@adityagroup.com Website: www.adityagroup.com |
All controls, like volume, channel, color, contrast, hue,
etc, can be controlled through its remote. The TV’s window is resizable and
you can also make it always stay on top of other applications. You also have a
16-channel preview option.
As for its image and video capturing capabilities, you can
capture images or video coming through the composite
S-video input, like a VCR or a video camera. Videos are saved as AVI files. The
card supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM transmission formats. The software CD also
includes Microsoft NetMeeting and Internet Explorer.
Ashish Sharma at PCQ Labs