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TV EXCEL : TV-TUNER CARD REVIEW
TV TUNER WITH FM RADIO AND REMOTE CONTROL.
PROLOG:
HEHEHEHE , Im sorry , but this card is pure opulence at best , I love it . Ive been looking for a capture card that will work with our Panasonic VHSc video camera for a long time now. My first experience with TV cards was with the FLY video 98 card . It crashed my system every time I turned the TV function off , I was not a happy camper. I got my money back on that one , and two months later, I now have the TV Excel card installed in my puter. Now it did not work right from the start , let me explain. I would set up the card and everything worked fine , but when I turned off the computer and back on sometime later , well on turning the computer back on the TV function did not work , and a re-instal was necessary. I tried pci slot 4 first , then moving the card to pci slot 3 , same thing again , no amount of playing with IRQ settings etc would solve the problem , I decided to move the card one more time , this time to slot 2 , pci slot 1 being out of the question due to interference from the graphics card. Lucky for me the TV Excel card worked in slot 2 . Am I a happy camper , well I think YES .
REVIEW:
This model supports two types of video inputs, Composite ( my Panasonic VHSc ) and S-Video , and allows you to watch TV and capture video ( video camera or VCR and capture TV ) and comes with FM radio built in ( optional ) and remote control ( optional ). Setting up this card is easy , just place the card in a pci slot ( slot 2 seems to work best ) and dont allow windows to install the card when booting , instead just place the CD in your CD drive and Install the drivers , thats it. You will need some sort of TV aerial and whilst the good old rabbit ears work OK , the picture quality will suffer, I have mine connected to the roof aerial and the picture quality is great. Setting up the card is easy , just follow the instructions in the user manual , and setting up the channels is equally easy , just hit the scan button and TV Excel will find them for you , seriously , anyone can do this , even mom .
This is what it looks like folks , the pic is channel 10s live coverage of the NZ round of Australian V8 super cars, the picture quality is obviously great , esp considering the high frequency environment inside a computer. The first pic , taken of the TV Excel box was done using the Panasonic video camera , all you have to do is plug in the camera into the Composite video input plug , and turn the camera on , live video . its that easy , then use the capture function to save a BMP of what ever the video camera sees . Now the Panasonic Video camera is not really a replacement for a digital stills camera ( well it can be ) as you are limited by the image size that you can save.
PANASONIC
PIC
So just what will this card allow you to do, 1. watch TV , cable . 2. Record TV like a VCR, 3. Capture stills from TV or video, 4. Capture video , ( from video camera or VCR ) , 5. Video conferencing , 6. Listen to FM radio.
What impressed me about this card is that I can be surfing the net , and watching TV at the same time , surely not you say . Sorry but yes , surfing and watching your fav TV show at the same time, now maybe you can understand why I call this card opulence.
CONCLUSION:
Considering the low cost of this card , and everything it can do , I can forgive the poor picture quality on the ABC and channel 31 , taking into account the high frequency environment of a computer , its a wonder it gives a good pic on any free to air channel, and would be just the bees knees on cable . Its a shame that the FM radio has no record function.
The negatives , The software is minimal at best, the card is only supplied with the TV Excel software , and using the TV Excel software to record TV would see most users run out of hard drive space very quickly indeed . So you will have to find some 3rd party software to record with , VirtualDUB is free and works extremely well , and gives you several compresion filters to chose from ( all being AVI ), Real producer G2 works well with this card , and allows you to save video in RM format , unfortunately not being free. So if you buy this card , you are going to have to chase up some software to use for recording TV or video , so depending on the software and compresion filter, expect to record at a bit rate of around 8000kb/min + , depending on the quality you want , and hard drive space. Without 3rd party software you are going to be recording at a rate of around 1000kb/sec or 60MB/min.
Overall a good card , the FM radio works , and the cordless remote works as well , I can use my video camera the same as one of those USB cameras , take stills , or record with the video camera and then take stills from the footage. So if you thought that your computer was versatile before , well the TV Excel adds a new dimension to your computer experience and is just one more reason not to go outside anymore ( so much at your fingertips ) . 9 out of 10 for the card and 5 out of 10 for the software package . This card is in serious need of good capture/edit software.
UPDATED 26 MARCH 2002
http://www.prolink.com.tw/english/driver/playtv.html For the latest TV Excel Drivers .(By popular demand March 26-2002)