All TV tuner cards Feeds

Hauppauge WinTV Nova S-Plus

tech.co.uk staff — 1204298581

Installing a digital satellite card in your PC allows you to keep up with all your favourite satellite TV channels - and listen to satellite radio - on your computer desktop while you work.

It also lets you timeshift and record programmes, which you can then convert into high-quality DVDs or DiVX files.

The Hauppauge WinTV Nova-S-Plus is the latest card from one of the most established names in the PC-TV business. It's a standard PCI card that needs to be fitted internally, so if you have any qualms about opening up your PC you're better off opting for a USB alternative instead.

It's also of the single-tuner variety, meaning that you can't view or record more than one channel at the same time - even if they're on the same transponder.

Based around a Conexant chipset, which is compatible with third-party software such as TSReader, the Nova-S-Plus has an audio analogue-to-digital converter that let's you record from external analogue video (PAL/SECAM/NTSC) sources - unusual for a PCI card. On the backplate you'll find a single IF input for your LNB, composite and S-video inputs, plus a 3.5mm jack for audio.

The Nova-S-Plus is compatible with DiSEqC 1.0 for use with up to four satellites via a switch-box. Unfortunately, DiSEqC 1.2 is not supported - presumably because the dish motor would load the PC's power supply too much.

There's also a socket for a trailing IR sensor. Recording external sources is also possible, but because software rather than hardware compression is involved, you will need a relatively powerful PC.

On the board itself is a multi-way connector that also accepts the AV input if you have a front-panel connector bay. Unfortunately, the pinout of this connector is not given.

The software is fairly basic and simple to use. Two versions are installed - WinTV32 and WinTV2000 - which provide identical functions, albeit with a different look and feel.

Although the Nova-S-Plus will only work under Windows XP SP2, WinTV32 has been included because it will be familiar to owners of previous Hauppauge cards. An infrared monitor program that starts up when the PC does is also installed.

The Nova-S-Plus is supplied with a remote handset for waking up the application, changing channel and accessing standard teletext. Unfortunately, the remote cannot be programmed to work with other applications.

When you run the software for the first time, you're do this, you need to specify your dish configuration. You can choose a single satellite if you're using a standard fixed dish, for those with DiSEqC, the LNBs relating to each satellite must be selected.

Scanning is rather slow - it took around 10 minutes for the Nova-S-Plus to work its way through Astra 2. Although this is a free-to-air product, encrypted channels are also stored, though thankfully, the Windows user interface makes it easy to delete channels you can't view, even if you do find radio and TV channels mixed together on the same list.

You can view selected TV channels - or AV sources- within a window or in full-screen. One useful feature is channel surf', which grabs images from the various channels and displays them in a 4x4 grid. And talking of grabbing you can also use the software to capture stills.

Pressing the pause button engages the timeshift facility, which uses your PC's hard disk as a temporary buffer, but only with TV, not radio. More permanent recordings (saved as MPEG-2) can be made manually, or automatically using the WinTV-Scheduler.

The Nova-S-Plus is also compatible with the tvtv subscription EPG - but this, alas, is about as close to an EPG as you'll get.

Video and audio quality are excellent, so clearly Hauppauge's MPEG decoders are up to scratch. The unit is not as sensitive as standalone receivers, but it will be good enough for reception of the Astras and Hot Birds.

Unfortunately, we had many problems with the Nova-S-Plus - the tuner in our first sample was faulty. A replacement card got us going, and we were able to enjoy PC-based satellite TV. However, that too, stopped working after a few days - starting either WinTV program rewarded us with a few seconds of reception before the familiar not responding' message appeared.

Maybe we've just been unlucky here - previous Hauppauge cards we've tested have never given us trouble. But as reviewed, we can't recommend the Nova-S-Plus despite its strong AV performance and simplicity of use.

Elgato EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0

tech.co.uk staff — 1204280622

With the petite Mac mini and the gorgeously stylish iMac G5 deserving of a place in anybody's living room, playing TV on your Mac is something a lot of Mac owners are getting interested in again.

The first stumbling block to enjoying Richard and Judy in the afternoon on your computer is that neither the iMac nor the Mac mini play TV out of the box. If you've got a Power Mac then it's a simple matter of inserting a TV card from the likes of Miglia into a spare PCI slot and you're ready to go, but with Apple's small form factor iMacs and Mac minis, this really isn't an option.

Aside from there being no PCI slot, there's simply no room inside the case to fit one in. That's why Elgato has had so much success with its range of externally connected TV recording products.

The newest addition to its line is the EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0, with analogue TV tuner. It's a small grey box that connects to your Mac using a USB cable, meaning its perfect for the Mac mini or iMac.

The EyeTV Wonder is at the cheap and cheerful end of the Elgato range, so it lacks a lot of the advanced features of the other models, like compressing video during recording, for instance. Also, it can't receive satellite or cable signals itself without help from your digital box.

However, its simple featureset gives it the advantage of being easy to set up: you simply attach a cable, antenna or satellite feed into the box to start viewing TV on your Mac. Of course, you need to install the EyeTV software first, but all the tuning and configuration is done automatically for you.

We were particularly impressed that within five minutes of opening the box we were watching TV on a Mac mini. Unfortunately, the first thing we saw was that dreadful Crazy Frog advert, but we can't blame Elgato for that.

There are a few ways of connecting the Elgato to a video source. The first is through a simple antenna or unscrambled analog cable. Or, you can connect it to a cable or satellite receiver in a few different ways. Firstly, if your box has red and white audio connectors and a yellow composite video cable, then you can simply connect these together. There's also an S-Video cable option for better picture quality.

If your cable box or satellite receiver has an RF output then you can connect this way, and you can even connect the EyeTV Wonder to a VCR or DVD player.

If you're using the TV tuner to get a signal then you can change channel on your Mac, but you'll need to change channel manually if you're using your cable box or satellite receiver since the EyeTV Wonder cannot communicate directly with these digital boxes.

The software that comes with the EyeTV is pretty intuitive. You get an onscreen remote through which you can record, change channel or timeshift live TV. The window playing your TV channel is flexible, and can be resized at will, or the picture made to play full screen. You can schedule recordings to take place in the future and you get a year's free subscription to the internet TV planner tvtv.co.uk, through which you can also schedule recordings with ease.

While the EyeTV Wonder can record anything it can play and store the files as MPEG 2 files on your Mac, the lack of a dedicated onboard processor for compressing the files means that playback suffers while recording is going on. Your Mac is still usable while recording, but playback is choppy.

To be fair, recording TV isn't the main purpose of the EyeTV, and if you do want to record television you'd be better served by the next model up, the EyeTV 2.0. For simply watching television on your Mac without having to go through a complicated hardware installation or set up, it's perfect. Graham Barlow

Elgato EyeTV 3

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For years, Elgato has been making the best software for watching TV on your Mac, and though others have tried to compete, EyeTV has always been the preeminent solution.

Despite a lacklustre debut, The Tube from equinux has begun to show itself as a credible competitor, and the result of this competition is better software for us.

Take, for example, EyeTV's new idea of saved channel lists. The idea is, if you regularly move your TV-receiving Mac from one location to another - work and home, say - you can tune your receiver into the channels available at each location and simply switch between them without having to rescan every time.

The Tube has boasted this feature since its inception, so it's good to have it here at last.

Repeats and series

The biggest advance, however, is with scheduling repeating programmes for recording. One of the great things about services like Sky+, V+ and TiVo is that, with one click, you can have the system record an entire series, but the problem with this is that it requires all sorts of work at the back end of the electronic programme guide before you can do it.

The system has to recognise that specific programmes are linked together into a series, and neither the over-the-air EPG nor the subscription EPG tvtv.co.uk that EyeTV users can access supports this. And while it has long been possible to create recurring recordings, these were dumb repeats that didn't make any allowances for changing schedules.

Elgato's novel solution is to leverage the power of smart lists, just as we've seen in iTunes, iPhoto, Mail and Finder. So the idea is that you create a smart list with a bunch of variables - show name, episode title, actors, director, format, channel and the like - and it dynamically updates the list of programmes that match.

You can have the system automatically record every programme that matches, and, if it's a series, keep only a certain number of the most recent recordings. And while it's still not as slick as a one-click, it does have an extra advantage that the likes of Sky+ doesn't.

Record your favourites

Let's say you love David Attenborough's nature programmes; simply tell EyeTV to record all programmes that contain 'David Attenborough'.

Love the Coen brothers' movies? Just create a Smart Guide that lists 'Coen' in the directors field, and the system will automatically pick up any of their films whenever they appear on your EPG; it's a great way to catch stuff you like without scouring the lists.

Other improvements are most obvious with sharing. Now not only can you share your EyeTV library with other users on your local network - though this gave us some problems - but there's support for streaming your recordings to an iPhone or iPod touch.

Though this iPhone streaming debuted in EyeTV 2.5, the problem was that most consumer broadband packages lacked sufficient upstream bandwidth to stream recordings; EyeTV 3 offers the option for encoding the content at lower quality that now not only uploads over consumer ADSL but can also stream to the iPhone even over an EDGE connection.

You wouldn't want to use it for movies, but it's fine for news and the like. Also new to this version is optional password protection. equinux promises a similar system with its yet-to-ship TubeToGo solution, though in that case, the recordings are automatically uploaded to a server of yours so the same upstream constraint has less relevance.

New look

The interface has been spruced up, inheriting the collapsible hierarchical system used in iTunes and Leopard's Finder, and the full-screen menus now overlay the playing video with some handy options, including the ability to scan your entire channel list for programmes showing now and next.

You'll still need some tuner hardware, and given that the EyeTV for DTT costs £20 less than the software on its own, it makes sense not to buy a third-party tuner and add EyeTV 3. The upgrade costs £30, and while this is not cheap, the Smart Guides feature alone is worth the cost; you may even be eligible for a free upgrade depending on when you bought your tuner.

MSI Digivox Mini II V3

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The MSI Digivox is a large USB TV dongle with an RF antenna at one end that plugs into either your rooftop aerial or the supplied portable version. With support for 1080i High Definition broadcasts, this works as a digital terrestrial TV tuner, so you can receive Freeview channels.

In the box

Extras in the box include a USB extender, so the tuner won't obstruct your other USB ports - essential if they're all packed together as they are on many machines. You'll also find a mini-aerial but, as with all portable tuners, this is only as good as your local signal.

For software, MSI has opted to use third-party tools. You'll find Arcsoft Total Media and Magix Goya Base, both of which installed easily and, as they are compatible with Windows Media Centre Edition, can quickly be integrated with your laptop. While this isn't the smallest unit, it works well, as does the choice of software.

Compro VideoMate U2800F

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This latest VideoMate TV tuner stick is the first in Compro's extensive range to offer full Vista compatibility. Open up Media Centre and the U2800F will link up and enable full control over both digital and analogue TV.

Watch while you work

It's got all the same functionality as the E700 PCI-e card, apart from that card's dual-tuner function, which allowed you to record and play separate channels. There's the excellent timeshift, picture-in-picture and the TV desktop mode that allows you to set the TV as the background while you continue to work over the top.

Compro's DTV software is stylish and far more comfortable to use than the old Hauppauge app that I've currently been using in my home machine. The remote is small and functional, making this little package perfect for all those £300 to £400 Vista laptops that places like PC World are flooding the market with right now.

Hauppage WINTV-NOVA-HD-S2

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This veritable Swiss Army knife of the PC TV world will bring to your desktop the wonders of both analogue and digital terrestrial TV, FM radio plus digital satellite.

And as if that wasn't enough, the remotely controllable HVR4000 is compatible with the 'S2' variant of DVB-S, thereby facilitating hi-def satellite reception. An analogue video input also makes video display and capture (albeit with software video compression) a possibility. Nominally FTA only, the HVR4000 can be upgraded with the CI reader that Hauppauge is, at the time of writing, about to launch.

Another new Hauppauge product is the WinTV Nova-HD-S2, essentially a stripped-down (and thus more affordable) version of the HVR4000. Gone are the video input and terrestrial tuners - this simpler card is satellite-only. But the DVB-S2 compatibility is retained (thus the 'HD' part of the name). The only other DVB-S2 capable product Hauppauge sells at the moment is the HVR4000. As with this product, the Nova-HD-S2 can be upgraded for pay-TV reception with the aforementioned CI 'dongle' and benefits from a remote control. It's also supplied with the same Cyberlink PowerCinema application, which features DVD and media playback in addition to digital TV.

Connectivity

Connections are minimal. The backplate -accessible from the rear of the PC after the card has been slotted into a spare PCI slot - sports an F-connector for your dish and a 2.5mm connector that's intended for use with the supplied infrared 'remote eye'. This attaches with a metre or so of cable, so that it can be positioned for reception of the commands issued by the handset. There is no IF loopthrough output on this card which, to our surprise, is sparsely populated by components. Bearing in mind what it can do, the screened tuner that's built onto the card itself is tiny. The optional CI reader will plug into a USB socket; no connection on the card itself is required.

Use and features

Installation on our test PC - hardware insertion, followed by the drivers and software - was easy. And that's with the latest Vista (Home Edition Premium) version of Windows, which is currently something of a compatibility assault course. Hauppauge's traditional WinTV software isn't supplied because it doesn't support the H.264 video codec employed by European hi-def channels. Thus the inclusion of Cyberlink PowerCinema, which is indeed ready for hi-def. The Nova-HD-S2 will work with WinTV, which can be downloaded from the Hauppauge website. Just remember that only standard-def channels can be viewed with it.

WinTV will co-exist with PowerCinema on your PC, along with any other digital TV software you care to install; the drivers are BDA-compliant, and will thus dovetail with third-party digital TV applications like DVBViewer. Microsoft's Windows Media Center is not supported because it makes no provision for digital satellite cards. Hauppauge could learn something here from competitor Azurewave, whose AD-SP400 card has a 'patch' that fools Media Center into believing that its tuner is DTT.

PowerCinema, which mimics the feel of Windows Media Center quite well, provides media playback (DVDs, photos and audio/video) as well as the viewing and recording of digital TV. Power Cinema is rather basic in digital TV terms but is relatively easy to set up initially; a wizard configures aspect ratio, speaker type, EPG source (off-air or from a third-party EPGdata.com internet service) and the compatible tuner(s) it finds.

A 'satellite settings' submenu caters for up to four satellites if you have a DiSEqC setup. Then there's the scan, which replaces all existing channels in its database with the ones that it finds rather than just updating them. Make any DiSEqC changes and all channels are wiped, necessitating a full re-scan. This is annoying, as is PowerCinema's inability to scan one of the four satellites individually.

But you can add channels manually via the 'channel settings' menu. Using another wizard, the parameters of the desired service - satellite, transponder frequency, polarisation and FEC - can be entered. Fortunately, the supplied version of PowerCinema supports DVB-S2 (earlier ones didn't) and so the delights of European hi-def TV can be enjoyed. Although separate digital TV and radio lists are provided, channel selection could be a lot easier. The program presents you with a list that can't be sorted. You can't even define favourite TV channels for quick selection.

All you can do is turn off channels that aren't required so that they don't appear in the list. Other features include teletext, timeshifting and support for now-and-next EPGs - the 'holy triumvirate' as far as desktop TV is concerned. Multiple tuners aren't simultaneously supported for recording one channel while you watch another; all you can do is switch between tuners. PowerCinema may improve over earlier versions (like the one supplied with the HVR4000) but the use of different software for digital TV is still advised, such as the flexible DVBViewer.

Performance

With PowerCinema, even single-satellite scans are slow, the Astra 1x cluster taking around 15 minutes to find all of the available DVB-S and DVB-S2 channels. DVBViewer, in contrast, took about five. As far as sensitivity is concerned the Nova-HD-S2 fares no worse or better than other recent tuner cards. Video performance, sadly, is lacklustre - certainly with PowerCinema. With the Vista test PC outputting at our Sony HD-Ready LCD TV's native resolution of 1366x768, high-quality standard-definition MPEG-2 TV is soft, often with obvious pixellation visible.

HDTV was also something of a disappointment, its extra potential for visual detail not being fully realised here. Clearly, the program's video decoders are not up to much, and you can't specify alternatives in the setup menu. Switching to DVBViewer rewarded us with demonstrably superior video. The remote control is also a disappointment as far as PowerCinema is concerned.

Not all of the program's functions are available. It's possible, for example, to change channel, but you can't bring up the list. Some other TV functions can be accessed, but because the remote's 'enter' button isn't supported they can't be engaged. This is also annoying for DVD playback, which is also spoilt by an inability to navigate through disc menus (but cue/review and chapter skips are possible from your armchair).

The WinTV-HD-S2 has a lot to offer in hardware terms but, unless you're prepared to seek alternatives like DVB Viewer, its software limitations rather let the side down

Avermedia AverTV Hybrid Express Slim

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This latest TV tuner from AverMedia takes a different slant by being the first 54mm ExpressCard tuner. This means, apart from the aerial connector, the card is hidden away in your machine, so is better for the mobile user. That said, we found it grew hot when using it for long periods.

As with all TV tuners, you'll find a portable aerial supplied, but the quality of the transmission depends on how close to a TV mast you are. We'd suggest plugging it into a rooftop aerial whenever possible. Controlled using the newly improved Aver TV6 software, you can control not only the television programs on your laptop, but all the multimedia installed. If you have an ExpressCard slot and the desire to record TV on your laptop, this is one of the better devices on the market.

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus

tech.co.uk staff — 1192662000

Despite competition from Equinux in recent years, Elgato remains the natural choice if you want to add a TV tuner to your Mac. Not only is the accompanying EyeTV software powerful, slick and flexible, but the company has a wide range of TV tuner solutions to fit any budget.

The latest addition to the range boasts the ability to receive both analogue and digital TV broadcasts, but, unlike products such as the EyeTV Hybrid, the EyeTV 250 Plus has its own encoder. This not only means that the burden on the host Mac's processor is reduced, but that it's possible to connect up other devices and digitise the content from them.

Typically, this means plugging in a VHS system or analogue camcorder and using the VHS Assistant to help you set up and capture these old tapes to your Mac's hard disk. You could also use it to pipe video in from a set-top digibox or satellite receiver.

Whether you're recording digital terrestrial broadcasts or using the EyeTV 250 Plus's hardware encoder to digitise analogue TV or other analogue sources, EyeTV usually saves to MPEG-2.

This is the native format for DVD, so using the bundled Toast 8 Basic, you can burn stuff to DVD without having to re-encode your video. It also includes a remote control and a breakout cable that adds Composite and S-Video and audio (RCA) inputs.

Though not without room for improvement, the software that enables you to record, pause and rewind live TV is superb, and the inclusion of a year's subscription to the electronic programme guide tvtv.co.uk - which enables you to browse and schedule recordings online or via a mobile - very welcome indeed.

If you don't need to digitise analogue content, the cheaper EyeTV for DTT or Hybrid would do just as well. But, despite the price, this is a fine piece of kit.

Azurewave ADSP400

tech.co.uk staff — 1187823600

The move to European hi-def satellite broadcasting - and DVB-S2 - has paved the way for a variety of products able to receive this new generation of services. In addition to the standalone receivers, we now have a handful of DVB-S2 tuner cards to enable suitably powerful PCs to view these channels.

The Azurewave AD-SP400 is one of the latest, and is currently the only one to be offered complete with a CI module (the Hauppauge WinTV HVR4000 will soon get a USB-interfaced device). With the right CAM and viewing card, you'll be able to view hi-def pay-TV broadcasts from Europe - such as HD1/Euro1080. The AD-SP400 is, like the others, compatible with standard DVB-S services too.

The AD-SP400 is the only PC tuner card we've so far come across with full support for DiSEqC 1.2 and USALS motorised dishes. This will endear it to satellite enthusiasts.

The AD-SP400 delivers all of the goodies that can be expected of a satellite PC tuner card, such as timeshifting or recording channels to your PC's hard disc. The card also supports DVB-S datacasting, and so will be of interest to the few remote UK residents who rely on satellite for broadband internet delivery. Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) doesn't, in XP or Vista guise, support DVB-S. Fortunately, a 'patch' to get round this is included.

The AD-SP400 is in two parts. First is the tuner card. This is a low-profile PCI-bus card, and has only two connections - an 'F' socket for your dish and a jack for an infrared sensor that receives commands from a well-specified handset - to the outside world.

However, a multi-way connection on the card accepts a ribbon cable from the second component - a CI module which sits in a second PCI slot and is accessible from the back of the PC, and so you can insert or remove CAMs and cards with relative ease. The AD-SP400 is the only PC tuner to take a direct feed from your PC's power supply, ensuring that it has enough juice to drive DiSEqC dishes.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains the drivers (BDA-compliant, for compatibility with a wide variety of PC-TV software), a 'DigitalTV' radio/TV viewing program, a DVB-Data application and the MCE patch.

The latter effectively 'fools' the software into thinking that it's dealing with a DVB-T tuner. After running the patch and specifying the desired satellite (only one is available at any instant, regardless of your DiSEqC capabilities!), you then have to tell MCE that you live in Germany!

You can then select the Azurewave tuner (or, more specifically, the DTV-DVB Mantis receiver) from a list and then conduct a channel search. The patch supports two tuners, making it ideal for simultaneous recording and viewing. But there are caveats.

The EPG is no longer of any value unless you have any German interests; in any case, the channels don't correspond with the EPG. Very few tuners are supported. Mantis apart, only 878A and 7021A-based cards are listed. So you might find yourself buying a second AD-SP400.

The DigitalTV application could be more intuitive to use, making use of onscreen symbols rather than written descriptions. Some functions, including the EPG, have to be selected from a menu that's invoked by a right mouse-click.

Other functions accessible in this way include configuration (including channels, CI info, playback settings, etc) and the all-important 'channel scan'. From here, you can specify your satellite configuration, whether single or multi. As far as DiSEqC is concerned, DigitalTV gives you a mere five satellite positions. You're given controls for east/west limits, USALS parameters and dish movement.

We used a STAB DiSEqC 1.2 mount and Moteck positioner with no problems. As soon as DigitalTV is aware of your dish setup, you can scan through the preset transponder lists. Options here include vertical/horizontal-only scanning, plus the ability to edit a transponder or define a new one. But you can't tell the program to search only for FTA channels.

DigitalTV provides all the features that you would expect: support for radio and TV (both standard and hi-def) teletext, AC3 pass-through (if you're ready for Dolby Digital) and timeshifting. There's also a full EPG, from which timer recordings can be scheduled.

Supporting both now-and-next and seven-day schedules, it is both fast and friendly. All recordings have a .MPG extension - this will upset third-party PC media players, certainly as far as recorded H.264 content is concerned. Recording the 'raw' transport streams is not allowed. You also get displays of signal strength, quality and broadcast information.

A neat, albeit slow, feature is 'preview'. This grabs frames from all channels. Clicking on one selects it for viewing. There's also picture-in-picture, but unless you have a second tuner installed then the other item being viewed must be a recording.

Channel navigation could be improved, especially given the AD-SP400's multi-satellite potential. The only way to bring up a list is to use the 'favourites', which merely shows all available channels; you can't define your own custom list. But it is possible to 'uncheck', from a channel configuration menu, the services that are of no interest to you.

The only available sort options are radio, pay TV and free TV. There's no alphabetic search - use the EPG (which can be sorted alphabetcally) for channel navigation! Regrettably, DigitalTV is not the only 'bundled' PCTV program to be so limited in navigation terms. The third-party DVBViewer is a much better bet all round - or it will be when DVB-S2 is fully supported.

Channel searches proved slow on our best system (a 3.2GHz dual-core Pentium Extreme). Both the MCE patch and DigitalTV took over 25 minutes to scan the services available on Astra 1's 73 pre-programmed transponders (MCE had a tendency to crash before scanning was completed). Switching between channels isn't fast either.

The MCE patch initially refused to work, 'no signal' being reported whenever we tried selecting a channel. To cure this, we had to go to the MCE setup menu and 'uncheck' the digital terrestrial tuner that was also present in the test PC.

We also noted that the picture quality from DigitalTV is a little soft in terms of fine detail, certainly when compared with the occasions when we used the AD-SP400 with DVBViewer. But in terms of dynamic range and colour fidelity, Digital TV fares well, as does sound quality.

Overall, though, particularly sensitivity-wise, the AD-SP400 is as good as most other PC tuners - which is to say not quite as good as a standalone receiver.

Asus My Cinema-U3000

tech.co.uk staff — 1186009200

One USB TV tuner stands head and shoulders above the nondescript herd that comprises its peers: the ASUS My Cinema-U3000.

It boasts a form factor which is best described as 'interesting', and connects to your PC via cable rather than plugging directly into the port.

It's actually a reasonably smart design because, despite sharing a frightening similarity to a 1980s mobile phone, the flip-open lid incorporates an FM aerial, so you can listen to the radio without having to plug in the stubby external TV aerial.

If you just want to watch TV, it flips down again to save space. The U3000, like many recent TV cards, also comes with Cyberlink's pretty-yet-powerful Media Center-apeing PowerCinema, which happily lets you flick between analogue and digital.

It's a sturdy and well thought-out USB tuner and worth a punt if you haven't got one already.