The card arrived from newegg today, as expected. I've had about an hour to play with it (hence mini-review). In the box is the card, A/V box (for s-video, rca video, and rca stereo (L&R)), remote, remote reciever, batteries, manual, audio link cable (tuner to sound card) and a ton of software.
Driver installation was as easy as it could possibly be. Cancel the windows new hardware prompt, and hit the install button on the cd-rom launcher. There's another button to install the remote software. I am not going to use the remote, but I tested it for this review. It worked fine. The reciever is USB, the cord is 3 or 4 feet, it uses 2 AAA batteries (included).
PowerVCR is the viewing/recording software and it seems like a great program so far. I've recorded a few test clips in both MPEG -I and -II. They both came out as expected according to bitrate. Video quality is outstanding. It blows away the TV-Wonder I had and is better than the TV-Wonder paired with DScaler, no doubt. My video source is DirecTV via S-video. I'll likely be watching some basketball tonight on this, so I'll see how it stands up to high-motion video.
There's other software included, probably 4 or 5 discs overall. Asus DVD and a video editing program are a couple that I remember. A very impressive software collection I would say. One reason I bought this card was because I had heard good things about PowerVCR, and I can see why.
Overall, this card seems to have met every expectation I had for it. Drivers being WHQL certified and working right out of the box? That's unheard of. This is a great video capture/tv tuner card. I'm not sure it's the best value out there (the leadtek deluxe may be for $20 cheaper), but there's no way there's any better card in this price range (sub $100).
For reference, my system is an AthlonXP 1600+ @ 1900+, 512MB, GeForce3 Ti200, Windows2000 SP3. I'll field any questions you have on this card, just post. I may post some screenshots sometime if I get a chance.
Driver installation was as easy as it could possibly be. Cancel the windows new hardware prompt, and hit the install button on the cd-rom launcher. There's another button to install the remote software. I am not going to use the remote, but I tested it for this review. It worked fine. The reciever is USB, the cord is 3 or 4 feet, it uses 2 AAA batteries (included).
PowerVCR is the viewing/recording software and it seems like a great program so far. I've recorded a few test clips in both MPEG -I and -II. They both came out as expected according to bitrate. Video quality is outstanding. It blows away the TV-Wonder I had and is better than the TV-Wonder paired with DScaler, no doubt. My video source is DirecTV via S-video. I'll likely be watching some basketball tonight on this, so I'll see how it stands up to high-motion video.
There's other software included, probably 4 or 5 discs overall. Asus DVD and a video editing program are a couple that I remember. A very impressive software collection I would say. One reason I bought this card was because I had heard good things about PowerVCR, and I can see why.
Overall, this card seems to have met every expectation I had for it. Drivers being WHQL certified and working right out of the box? That's unheard of. This is a great video capture/tv tuner card. I'm not sure it's the best value out there (the leadtek deluxe may be for $20 cheaper), but there's no way there's any better card in this price range (sub $100).
For reference, my system is an AthlonXP 1600+ @ 1900+, 512MB, GeForce3 Ti200, Windows2000 SP3. I'll field any questions you have on this card, just post. I may post some screenshots sometime if I get a chance.
Its actually the serial number ( S/N ) on the silk screening of the CD itself!!! I had to launch the software, then eject and enter the CD Key, then reinsert the CD...whatsup with that?!?!?!? 
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