Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this KWorld 340U at a local electronics store since it was on sale. I am thinking about canceling my cable service since it has just gotten too expensive over the years. I wanted to see if Windows Vista Media Center, this tuner and an antenna could serve as a reasonable alternative to the HD DVR I currently rent from the cable company. The short answer is yes. Long answer is below...
I am using it with a Dell E521 (dualcore AMD x2 3600, nVidia 7300LE, 4 GB RAM, Vista Home Premium) and it works well, though honestly I wouldn't try running it on a computer any slower than this. Watching or recording a HD broadcast uses about 50% of the processor and it can drop a few frames here and there if something intensive is going on in the background like a virus scan. But most of the time it works great. Video quality is outstanding. I have a 22" widescreen LCD with 1680x1050 resolution connected via DVI. It has more resolution than all but the most expensive 1080p HDTVs, so you can see the peach fuzz and caked-on makeup on your local newscasters' faces.
I installed the software which included the driver and a clone of Windows Media Center (which I promptly uninstalled). After that Windows Media Center recognized the tuner instantly. I hooked up a set of rabbit ears I had laying around and it scanned and found all the ATSC channels in about five minutes. (The dinky antenna in the box didn't pick up any channels inside.) Then it downloaded the program guide from the internet. It is much easier to use and has a more attractive interface than the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD supplied by my cable company.
I can schedule recordings, pause live broadcasts, fast forward, rewind and do everything a dedicated DVR can do without a monthly service fee (like Tivo) or paying the cable company $100+ a month.
Apparently it can also pick up unencrypted digital cable channels but I haven't tried that since there's no jack near the computer. Also note that it does not pick up NTSC (traditional analog) broadcasts from the antenna. But those are going away in a few months so this is not too much of a drawback.
Highly recommended. It is "certified" for Windows Vista and I see no reason to pay more for a Hauppauge or other name-brand tuner. This probably has the same chip inside anyway.
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