Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card with Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First of all, the item that is sent will NOT be the item in the picture. However the tuner still works. When I first installed the tuner, it crashed my computer. Apparently the driver did not agree with windows, and the driver recommended by windows will not work with the tuner. Nevertheless, after a few hours of messing with the driver, it eventually worked and it's been working perfectly ever since. By the way, just to clarify about video quality, for normal viewing, it's the best tuner under 30 dollars with a remote. But if you want to record, the video will not be so good, it'll be really fuzzy if you're use to dvd quality videos. And also, it will not work with Media Center (not the OS, but the program), which is quite disappointing. You should buy this only if you have the patience and technical experience to adjust those settings.

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With the Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card with Remote Control, you can watch TV, listen to FM radio, and capture video from your camcorder all on your computer.
Record Your Favorite TV Programs onto Your PC With the built-in TV tuner, you can receive up to 125 channels on cable or over the air. With an autoscan function, clear signals will be added automatically, and you can watch television full-screen on your computer. Video is captured at a steady 30 frames per second for high quality.
A Variety of Inputs The card has composite and S-video inputs for connecting televisions and DVD/VHS players, a connection for an FM antenna, a composite video camera connector for digital camcorders, and an audio out for output of sound to external speakers.
The Sabrent SBT-TVFM TV Tuner/Video Capture/FM Radio PCI Card requires Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, a 366 Mhz or higher CPU, 32 MB or more RAM, a VGA card with 8 MB memory, an available PCI slot, and an analog TV signal source.
What's in the Box SBT-TVFM TV/FM/video capture PCI card, audio cable, remote I/R receiving cable, remote control, FM antenna, user's manual, and software CD.

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Sabrent TV-PCIRC TV Tuner PCI Card with Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)only a few channels worked and were fuzzy,
sound never worked,
remote worked once then never again
cheap product dont buy it

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Adaptec AVC-3610 Dual TV Tuner PVR Kit Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)=== Pros ===
Works well with Windows XP MCE, providing dual outboard TV tuners, FM tuners,and MCE remote that all work well under XP MCE. TV tuners also work well under Vista (but not FM).
=== Cons ===
No Adaptec support, support page, or drivers to download. Almost no 3rd party "geek forum" support, either. Drivers can be difficult to load in XP and Vista. FM sound completely unusable under Vista (possible driver problem). Product is like the once-famous Intel Pocket Concert music player: Excellent, ahead of its time, then mysteriously not supported shortly after its release.
=== Under XP ===
I bought the Adaptec AVC 3610 (Dual TV Tuner w/FM) 18 month ago from Dell in Jan-2006 to go with my then new XPS600 with XP MCE. The FM tuner was an added bonus. Though skeptical of the video quality capable from an external USB device, I was pleasantly surprised.
The TV picture quality was excellent and there was no discernable distortion, hesitation, or jerkiness on my Dell 24" wide screen LCD main monitor nor on my 17" CRT 2nd monitor. Loading the drivers was a little problematic at first but a few un-installs and automatic reloads seemed to fix it.
=== Under Vista ===
Problems occurred when I loaded the XPS 600 with Vista Ultimate a few months ago as a 2nd partition using dual boot. As with XP the 3610's drivers didn't load right at first and I had to uninstall them, let Vista find them again, and so on.
HOWEVER, although the TV tuners seem to work just as well as they did under XP, the FM radio terribly distorted - like a weak or very badly tuned station with lots of noise and distortion. I thought I lost my FM antenna connection. I rebooted XP and all was fine. I boot back to Vista and still terrible!
Contrary to reports I've seen from others, the remote control that came with it works fine for me under both XP MCE and Vista MCE. Obviously, you have have the 3610 situated in line-of-sight and point the remote at it for it to work. I initially was guilty of that DUH! when I mounted the unit on a shelf so my remote could not receive its IR signal.
=== Other things ===
I was a little disappointed in that the package does not come with much but, then again, not much else is needed. You get the main unit, the remote, some cables, and a CD. But the CD doesn't seem to have much other than documentation. The drivers are provided by Windows. I expected at least some kind of utility to test the unit and/or tune the TV/radio stations for fun or testing outside of Windows MCE.
Thus, it is important to note that you MUST have already Windows Media Center or some other compatible tuner software to use the unit at all. Some graphics and video editor programs that an import from Windows drivers might also be able to capture images from it but that's not a method usable for normal TV viewing or Radio listening.
Lastly, although the product is listed here as "PVR 3610", it's chassis label states the model number as "AVC 3610". Stranger still, Adaptec doesn't use model numbers to refer to it in the rare places it shows up on its web site. It states the model simply as "Dual TV Tuner". Did Adaptec move to China?
All fog aside, it is simply a dual TV tuner with FM radio tuner that does NOT intrinsically provide any PVR (personal video recorder) functionality. PVR functions are provided solely by Windows Media Center or other software that you must already have.
I give it 4 stars for XP because Adaptec does not seem to support the product even though it is one of their models and otherwise works great!
I give it 2 stars for Vista since the FM radio doesn't work, there are no drivers available, and there is no support.
I give it 3 stars as an total rating, to average the above findings.


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Sabrent TV-USB20 USB 2.0 TV Tuner/Video Capture Box with Remote Control Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was overall pretty sattisfied with the product. It came with the tuner, all neccessary drives, remote control (which I never used), and WinDVR to capture footage with.
It did pretty much what it promised, allows you to capture from any analog device such as a VCR or anything with Compostite Out jacks. Only problem is that the actuall tuner itself does not have an audio in left and audio in right, therefore forcing you to buy a audio composite to stereo 3.5mm jack. Another problem was the ability to only capture in the resolution of 720x480(unless you buy other expensive capturing programs). I recommend getting the free program Virtualdub and compressing to divx after you capture as many codecs drop frames when trying to compress while capturing(at least on my computer[2.2gHz proccessor])
Overall, I'm satisfied with the purchase and do recommend it IF you can't or won't afford anything better. Now, I leave you with a list of Pros and Cons.
Pros:
1. Captures decent-to-good looking quality video if configure right.
2. Great for getting all that old VCR footage on the computer and on to a DVD
3. Very simple to install, and comes with capturing program. Though VirtualDub is highly recommended.
4. Three video inputs - RF signal, Compostie, and S-video!
5. External device, so you don't have to open your PC.
Cons:
1. Composite audio to stereo 3.5 mm jack needed for sound.
2. Extremely large files unless compressed with VirtualDub afterwards.
3. Can only capture in 720x480 resolution. Unless expensive programs are bought.
4. I guess you get what you pay for but quality could be a bit better.

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The Sabrent TV-USB20 USB 2.0 TV Tuner/Video Capture Box with Remote Control can receive TV and capture video when installed on your notebook or PC.
In its compact and stylishly designed box, you can bring the device with you and have a mobile TV station wherever you are. Television is captured at 704x480 (NTSC) resolutions, creating video that can be stored on a hard disk and can be played back later. Videos can be saved in MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 format. You can use Personal Video Recorder functions such as time-shifting and pausing live TV.
The device also captures stereo audio at 16 bits with either a 24 Khz or 48 Khz sampling rate. With the A/V sync feature, video and audio can be captured at the same time. An additional feature lets you capture 704x480 still images from a video source.
The Sabrent TV-USB20 features a USB 2.0 interface that provides high bandwidth for video and, for convenience, requires no external power source. S-VHS and composite inputs let you connect DVD players and VCRs.
System Requirements Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP SP2, Pentium III 800 MHz, 64 MB, DirectX 9.0C, USB 2.0 port, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, 500 MB of available hard disk space.
What's in the Box TV-USB20 USB 2.0 TV tuner/video capture box, remote control, driver CD-ROM, and batteries.

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