Too bad that those $40 coupons given by our government doesn't cover this type of digital tuner. I'm speaking, of course, about TV tuners for computers. Fry's Electronics had the KWorld Plus TV HD PCI-120 digital TV tuner for $30 last week, and I decided to pick it up for my new PC build.
On the box, it promises Windows Media Center compatibility, the ability to tune analog TV signals, as well as ATSC digital TV. It also can tune FM radio, and have an analog capture device via S-Video and Composite connections.
It also comes with TotalMedia 3, which is a media center software in case you don't already have Windows Media Center Edition 2005 or Vista Media Center.
In the Box
The box itself looks pretty good. KWorld isn't exactly a huge brand here in the US (maybe big in Korea), but the box sure doesn't give that impression. It's glossy and have a very professional looking art as if it came from a big brand company such as Haupauge or ATI.
Inside, we get the PCI tuner card itself, along with a small quick-start pamphlet, a remote, 2 no-name AAA batteries, and an IR sensor that connects to the PCI card. It also comes with a driver CD that includes the TotalMedia 3 software.
Installation
Installing the card is pretty easy. As long as you have a free PCI slot on your motherboard, it's as easy as getting inside your PC, freeing the slot cover that you will use, inserting the card firmly into the PCI slot, and then screwing or clamping the card down (depending on how your case is designed, of course).
Once in, Windows XP detects 3 new devices. The driver on the CD is actually pretty recent, as I found that the web site didn't have anything newer. The driver also offers Vista and 64-bit compatibility as well, which is a pleasant surprise. I read many places that people had no issues using the card on Vista 64-bit!
Installing TotalMedia 3 was also just as easy. It finds the card and steps you through setting it up via a wizard-like process.
Windows Media Center 2005 detects it right away, and of course, have it's own wizard-like process to get you going.
TotalMedia 3
Of course, the card is useless without software, so I decided to use the bundled TotalMedia 3, since most users who buy this card may not have Windows Media Center.
The software is very easy to use, but not as slick as MCE2005 (Media Center 2005). I find that tuning to be a bit slow, and the EPG (electronic programing guide) is hard to set up. You have to sign up for TitanTV service (it's free), but basically it's just a web page, so it doesn't feel very integrated at all. Indeed, you have to have an active internet connection when you need access to the EPG where as MCE2005 and VMC (Vista Media Center) downloads them ahead of time.
TotalMedia does have less features than the Windows built-in varient. For example, you cannot really search for shows. In fact, you can only set up recording schedules using the old-fashioned day and time method.
Playing music and videos actually seem to be better than MCE2005 and VMC. While it's true that it is less polished feeling, it plays anything that Windows Media Player can play. The interface is much easier to understand and navigate as well (especially if you understand folder hierarchy like in Windows Explorer).
The FM feature of TM3 is actually better than Window's own Media Centers. Why? The ability to pause, rewind, and record, that's why! It's still a wonder why Microsoft doesn't allow that. Perhaps it's not very Microsoft-like (DRM awareness and all).
The nice thing about TM3 is that it can use the included remote or with Microsoft's own
Media Center Remote. It also can work with other popular remotes as well such as the SnapStream Firefly.
In Use - Windows Media Center
For an in-depth review of
Vista Media Center or
Windows Media Center 2005, please click on the links I've provided. In this review, I will only speak of the performance and video/audio quality of the KWorld PCI-120 TV tuner card within the application.
The video quality is as good as the digital tuners I have on my main HTPC. Under MCE2005, the tuner seem to be quicker to tune to a channel than under TotalMedia 3. It is still a couple of seconds slower than the more expensive tuners I have in my main HTPC, however. While it takes about 3 seconds for video to appear in TM3 (and another second after that for audio to catch up), in MCE2005, it took "only" 2 seconds for video to appear (still another second after that for audio to appear).
I find that the PCI-120 card doesn't pull in signals as easily as well either. However, since I'm in the city and have an outdoor antenna, signals are not an issue for me. It may be for some people, however. I don't recommend buying this card if you don't live in a metropolitan area or do not have good television reception in your area.
Analog TV quality is pretty bad. Even with stations that are very strong, I find a lot of noise in them using the PCI-120 to tune. My Haupauge tuner did not have any issues with the same stations. Tuning to analog stations was really quick, however. It was actually very pleasant using this card to channel surf in analog. Audio and video appears almost as quickly as you hit the channel up/down button. However, this pleasure won't last long since our government is threating to shut off television the way we were used to on Feburary 2009.
The FM tuner was very good! And the speed of tuning was pretty quick as well. It is actually slightly slower to tune stations compared to analog TV.
Conclusion
While it is not the BEST tuner card, I can't really complain for something that only cost $30 (normally $50). Once analog TV goes away, digital TV will remain the only option. And for that, the PCI-120 picture and audio quality is very good. It does take a while for it to tune to these stations, however, but then again, you have to remember the price you paid. It's also the perfect tuner card if you live in an area where reception is very good, or if you have a high-gain outdoor antenna.
Cable? Dish? Who needs them!
Update:
I found that MediaPortal .023 and 1.0 RC1 (freeware media center software) was able to detect the card and use it! However, it was pretty buggy, and tuning was very slow. Also, I could not get EPG to work. It's not the fault of the card, but MediaPortal itself.
I also tried Yahoo! Go TV, which is also a free media center software. It detects a TV tuner card, but blatantly states that it does not support it. That's too bad, since Yahoo! Go TV looks very promising, and very polished. The fact that it is integrated with Yahoo's Launchcast (their own internet radio) as well as the ability to watch music videos made me wish that it worked with this TV card! I also wished that there was a plug-in for MCE2005 and VMC that allow users to access these services within the media center program themselves.
SeseamTV (free as well) didn't seem to work well at all, and is the least polished of them all. When trying to set up the tuner, I could not find any USA regions. It seems to be a software geared towards European users.
