HD-TV through your PC
Hauppage have released a new HD TV tuner card that will pick up free-to-air HD channels, such as the ones offered by the BBC. The WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2, plugs into a PCI slot on your computer’s motherboard and connects to a satellite dish, giving you access to HD Satellite channels through your PC. Unfortunately you won’t get access to the HD content provided by Sky, unless you have a subscription.
One of the great features of this product is that it will also allow you to record the TV and radio broadcasts directly to your computer. This is extremely useful if, for example, you are following a TV series and would like to watch any episodes again in the future. The content can be recorded either onto your PC’s hard drive or onto an external source using the H.264 format. The card even supports Digital Satellite Equipment Control 1.0, which is a communication protocol that allows switching between up to four satellite sources.
The recording functions are provided through Cyberlink’s PowerCinema application. This software includes “time-shifting” functionality and will also let you record your favourite shows automatically. These can be scheduled daily, weekly or just as a one-time recording.
Also included in the pack is an Infra-red remote and receiver, for ease of switching between channels. For those of us lucky to have a large PC display, or indeed a link from PC to TV, we can enjoy sitting on the sofa and flicking through the channels without having to get up and keep accessing our computers.
The only downside to this card is that it does require a pretty hefty PC to run. Hauppage recommend at least a 3.2Ghz processor, 1Gb of RAM and a graphics card that has at least 128Mb of memory.
The WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2 is available now for around £99. ($200)
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment