Leadtek TV2000XP vs ATI TV Wonder VE.

[elkinm]

I am looking for a TV tuner for around $50 or less. Hot deals lists the TV2000XP Deluxe for $49 so I am wondering how it is and how in compares to the TV Wonder VE.

I know that the TV wonder sucks on many different levels. The worst being the quality. The images have so much static that it looks like a bad cable or picture, much worse then a TV. I care mostly about the quality of the picture. Would the TV2000XP have the highest image quality for the money. I don't realy care about the other features as long as the quality is as high as I can get.

The only good thing about the Wonder is that it picked up more chanels then my TV and had a very fast tuner. My TV picked up basic cable up to chanel 20 which was probably normal but the Wonder picked up the full range of non encrypted basic cable (about 60 channels). I don't know if this was normal or just a fluke, but can the TV2000XP pick up all chanels, maybee even some not visible with a tv for some reason, and is the tuner reasonobly fast?

Thanks
elkinm

 

[elkinm]

Should I just get the Leadtek or, can I find something better?

Thanks

 

[elkinm]

I ordered one of these. I hope it works out.

 

[cobra77]

Hope it works out for you.
Can you post a little review when you get it.
I'm curious to see how it works as I am also looking to get a TV tuner card.

 

[elkinm]

Got my card a in 2 days with express saver, isn't fedex great.

Anyway, I installed the card, and downloaded and installed the latest drivers and software from the website. It took about 5 minutes and I was watching TV, smooth as silk.

First thing I noticed was that the quality was great. Far better then the TV Wonder VEs I tried. I was watching in optimal quality though. Good qualty looked much granier. Thinking that normal would be horable I tried it anyway. Normal was almost as good a optimal and much better then good. My guess is that normal is normal. Good ads some sharpening and optimal also adds smoothing to the image. They use 2, 7, and 15 percent cpu time on my Athlon 1600+.
The good setting I think is useless and optimal looks a little better then normal and is most noticable as it removes the dim-bright interference effect with angled lines although I don't think it is worth the performance penalty unless you realy like a show at the best possible quality. The tuning speed was also impresive as the image of the next chanel starts to apear instantly, but there is a slight line flash in the picture. Audio doesn't catch up instantly so when you chanel surf at max speed you hear nothing which may be better then hearing extremely short burstsof sound all the time.

I tried recording with the default mpeg-2 good qualty setting and it worked fine. CPU time whent up to around 40%. The quality was good and only somtimes there was slight pixilation along edges during motion.

The remote is nice. The transmitter is great and the reciever is very sensitive as I can point the remote practicly anywere in the room and it still works. So I can just leave it on the table or on my bed and not need to pick it up or move it to use it. Functionality is quite good and I realy like the BossKey. It minimizes and mutes the picture instantly and then restores it just as fast. There are 4 colol marked buttons and my guess is that they are configurable but I don't know how. If anybody knows what these do please tell me.

Cons:
When enabling closed captioning the picture is lost for a fraction of a second and you see the default blank screen with the ring in the middle. This also happens when changing quality but I don't think it is necesary or welcome with closed captioning and I also find the ring a little more anoying then a pure black picture.
Another thing is that the recording and time shifting felt strange with not to many options (fastforward, rewind). I also did not find the options to save or select when and how the files are played. For instance once I stoped recording the file plays back instantly and repeats until I stop it. This is were I found the ATI player nicer to use.

I noticed the brigtness corection at work between chanels, but it was bad when turning on as the card whent to dark-bright whenever the player is turned on. No big deal but it is anoying.
Also in full screen, after some time the right-click menue would quick working requiring to go to normal mode and then back to full screen to reactivatre it.

As far as the FM goes I was a little dissabointed as despite the rediculously huge antena, I only picked up about 10 stations. And it could not pick up some stations I knew and could pick up with a normal radio. The ones that did work worked great though.

I have not tried DScaler or other options of the card and software and I will when I have time.

This has been a very harsh review on my part, this is definetly a great card and more then worth it's price.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Thanks for taking the time to post in detail -- I'm still trying to decide whether to get one, and "real user" reviews are more trustworthy than most website reviews.

 

[elkinm]

If the bugs I mentioned don't bother you then this is definetly a great card. I've been watching tennis all day and I notice the line quality and I am getting more and more used to the optimal quality, it is nicer and once you go to something so good its hard to go back.

 

[ethebubbeth]

very nice.... i've been debating ordering one of those for quite a while (at college, don't have a tv and a 19" inch monitor would work fine for me...)