Evaluating the KWORLD KW-PVR-TV 300U PC TV Tuner and Video Recorder

Have you ever wanted a convenient, economical way to watch and record television on your laptop or desktop computer? Would you like to be able to capture still pictures of your favorite television show? If you have then you should check out the KWORLD V8-PVR TV 300U PC TV Tuner and Video Recorder. This easy to use and connect television tuner and recorder has a reasonable range of features considering the price which is around $40.

This television tuner requires the Windows XP SP1 operating system, a Pentium IV 1.6GHz or higher (recommended) with at least 256MB RAM and one available USB 2.0 port. A graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0 or above and an AC97 compatible sound card are needed along with 1GB free hard drive disk space.

For starters this compact unit measures about 3" x 1" x .75" with two connections, an antenna input and the standard USB signal/power cable. It supports the USB 2.0 Plug-and-Play interface and works with worldwide TV frequency support for analog TV reception from cable/antenna TV. It has a resizable window or full screen on your PC or laptop. If desired you can hook up your home video entertainment system through the additional AV and S-Video input. A special adapter and port is provided for that.

The initial setup is straightforward and involves loading the drivers and application program on the supplied CD disc. A TV Setup Wizard is provided to set up the antenna type (cable or antenna) and sound source. This is followed by the channel scanning which sets the frequency range of the individual channels.

Following this setup you switch to the software Main Panel which allows access to the following features: antenna type, schedule recording agent, setup, channel preview, snapshot, sleeping timer setup, and TV sound switching. A channel tuning numerical pad also appears on the main panel along with a volume adjust slider. On the recording side there is the Record Function, and Playback Function which includes the standard Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, and Fast Forward. The remaining feature on the main panel is the Time-Shifting Function. Still image capture in both JPEG and BMP formats.

In addition to watching television real time you can use the TVR application to pause live TV then continue from where you left with the Time-Shifting function. During the Time-Shifting mode it is possible to switch from current video to Time-Shifting video window.

Also included in the application is a MPEG Encoder, allowing the transcoding multimedia files between various video formats such as AVI, DV-API, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, ASF, WMV, Div X, and DAT. To use in concert with the Encoder a MPEG Editor is included along with a DVD burner. A complete hard copy manual provides details on using the TV tuner and recorder functions.

The overall performance of this system is quite good, especially considering the price. On occasion there may be a sync problem between the audio and video but this hasn't been a major drawback. The KWORLD KW-PVR-TV television tuner and video recorder can be purchased at several online stores and is an economical way to watch and record television on your laptop or desktop computer.