Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert Edition

[kombolcha]

Make: Leadtek (www.leadtek.com)

Model: WinFast TV2000 XP Expert Edition

Price:$50 (newegg.com)

Product Specifications (from the box):

Chipset:

-Conexant CX2388X Series (more info)

Hardware Interface:

-32-bit PCI 2.2 Bus Mastering

-Plug-n-Play compliant

Video Standards:

NTSC, PAL or SECAM

TV Tuner:

-NTSC, PAL I, PAL BG, PAL DK, PAL M/N, SECAM LL, SECAM BG, SECAM DK

-full 181 Channels supported

FM Tuner:

-Stereo FM 88MHz - 108MHz (worldwide except Japan)

-76MHz - 108MHz (Japan only)

Connectors:

-RF TV Source Reception

-RF FM source reception

-MiniDin 9-pin for video and audio input

-phone jack for audio output

-phone jack for I/R sensor

Driver:

WDM drivers for Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

-------------------------------------

Now for the fun part of the review.

Instalation (physical):

Installation of the PCI card was very simple, it is a lot smaller than i had thought it would be, it took me no more than 2 minutes to install and close up my case. It is really simple to set up i didnt' even look at the manual. now that i had the card installed i plugged in the cables. one cable goes to the DirecTV receiver, and my Xbox is attached the 9-pin connection (like an S-Video input converts into RCA input cables)

Installation (software):

In the box it came with 4 CD:

ERROR

i think i lost a CD.. anyway

Disk1 - WinFast Software and Drivers (also comes w/ WinFast DVD player software)

Disk2 - Ulead Video Studio 7 SE DVD

Disk3 - DVD MovieFactory 2.5 SE

ahh.. ok i figured out the error. the screen shot from newegg shows 4 CD's, but the box only contains 3 (2 programs on one CD)

Disk4 - Ulead 3D SE (Cool 3D)

the software part is not important.

these are the installation steps for the WinFast software:

After you restart the computer the setup will continue on its last step, i couldn't take any screen shots because it loaded before explorer did. all it does is install windows media codecs. after that you are done and ready to go.

You don't have to go through the wizard that comes with the program, all i did was set the channel to 3 and that was it. Since i have DirecTV. I did play around with most of the settings though. Unfortunately i am not able to fully use all the features since i have a satellite and not cable or antenna.

but here are some screen shots of the settings menu.

Video Settings:

Audio Settings:

Channel List and Frequancy:

Schedual:

From here on i have to try my best and redo the review, i lost it when the computer crashed and i'll explain why later.

There are some more features that i want to talk about. One of those features is the "time shift" which is pretty much the same as what Tivo does. It works, but not as good as Tivo. You do have 3 options on the video quality it records at. The better quality you choose the more system resource it takes up, not too bad though. Here's the down part to it. it doesn't record the sound. what is the point of rewinding if it won't stop the sound too? i'll look into this more.

the second feature and my favorite one is the "record" all it does is simply record whatever you are watching. Again you have 3 choices of record mode. Normal, Good, and Optimal.. As you can see in the screen shot above (video settings) optimal is MPEG-2. a 5 minute recording will get you around 160MB.

Other features include "DirectBurn" which allows you to capture video directly from external video devices to DVD. i would have tested this but i don't have a DVD burner.

have video-streaming in WMV and WMA formats only.

and now one of the last features. the plugin for NetMeeting. which allows you to send out the TV signal or whatever input display you have it set to to the other person on NetMeeting. At the begining of the wizard in NetMeeting i picked the tuner card as the video source. after i was done, NetMeeting no longer showed the tuner card as an option in the "options" window. I decided to unplug the webcam since it was the only thing it recognized. i unplug and poof computer resets. and i loose everything i wrote starting from the first screen shot. so i see that this feature does not work. it may or may not work for you.

As for the skin it uses, i know its ugly, i hate it and i don't think it is skinable.

Overall, You will not get the best picture quality like you would with a plasma TV. You have to understand that the TV is running in very low resolution it its not going to look crisp and perfect, but i can tell you that this card is a million times better than the ATI- TV Wonder when it comes to picture quality. I think this card is really good for its money, it is loaded with features and comes with a lot of good software. I know its not the best, but it surely can do a lot and do it well for its $50 USD tag price.

i also wanted to add.. some of the basic right click options on the screen. and they are:

-Always on top

-full screen

-minimize

-channel surf (allows you to watch up to 5 different channels at once, works with cable and antenna only)

-picture in picture (PIP)

-force ratio to 4:3

-force ratio to 16:9

-screen size 640x480

-video quality (normal, good, optimal)

the last part of this review is the Remote Controller. Its cheap looking, but it works. What i tried to do was get my DirecTV remote controller to control some of the basic settings like volume and channel change. I soon realized that wasn't possible becuase Leadtek was not listed in the manual for the remote controller codes. Another thing i noticed was that i had to keep the I/R senor (remote senor) away from the receiver since the "turbo" button on the direcTV remote somehow caused the WinFast program to change the channel. I doubt this will affect people who have regular cable or antenna.

One other feature i was not able to use was the schedual since i have satellite, but basically you pick your favorite channels and you can set a time and date to where the program will automatically run when a show you watch is on, or set it to record a show.

oh yea.. the FM radio. Its as basic as you can get, no special features or anything. you can set your own presets and give it names. thats pretty much it work. it works like any clock radio or stereo would work.

now a few more screen shots to give you a better idea of what it looks like:

this is a screen shot of me in action with the guide.

and this is what the tuner card looks like (borrowed from newegg.com)

[pimpshiznid]

Good review Vice!

I doubt I'll do mine as it is pretty much exactly the same as yours.

The only difference I can figure out is the card's sizes.

Also, for some odd reason, my remote doesn't work. Oh well. Not like I was gonna use it anyways.

[kombolcha]

mine work.. i don't need it either.. but i'm still trying to get the directv remote to work