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DriverHeaven Review |
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Recently, we looked at the excellent Radeon All-In-Wonder X800XT, which provides both outstanding gaming capabilities and great multimedia functionality. However, what if you already have the latest and greatest gaming card and you just need an additional TV tuner? Well, that’s a gap that Asus hopes to fill with their new TV tuner; the My Cinema P7131 Dual.
The Card The MyCinema is a stand-alone PCI TV tuner that uses the Philips dual format silicon tuner. The use of said tuner means the product is capable of receiving both Digital Terrestrial (DVB-T) and Analog TV signals. The audio/video decoder chip used on the My Cinema is the SAA1731E, again from Philips. NOTE: For those not in the know, DVB-T is the internationally accepted standard that over 35 countries have signed up for in the move from standard/traditional analog broadcasts to digital format. You can see from the picture below that the card is a relatively small product (low profile) and will easily fit into a small form factor PC. It also runs on the PCI revision 2.2 spec.
As well as handling television signals, the P7131 Dual can also receive FM radio transmissions and component inputs from devices such as camcorders and game consoles. The final input on the card is the IR connector for the bundled remote.
The bundle that Asus provided with the My Cinema contains everything you’re likely to want or need. You get a remote control, FM antenna, video/audio input connectors, driver CD, manuals and IR sensor.
The manual is well written and talks you through the installation in easy to understand steps, explaining what each connector is used for. The remote Asus bundled is very compact, but thankfully, the buttons are just big enough to be easy to use and are well positioned with the navigation buttons being within easy access of your thumb. When Asus sends us a product, the box is usually a highlight with really cool or sophisticated artwork. Not so much so in this case though. and the Tigers V Lions screen is pretty cheesy.
Software: The Asus My Cinema, like many multimedia products, comes bundled with Cyberlinks PowerCinema. As we have mentioned in previous articles, we are not fans of PowerCinema and really do find it hugely limiting in features and configuration options. Thankfully, the P1731 Dual is fully compatible with Microsoft’s Windows Media Centre Edition and it is this software that we have used for testing. We would suggest that you also consider MCE as a purchase, regardless of the standalone TV tuner you choose to buy.
Should you choose to use the bundled software, you will find that it offers basic functionality allowing you to watch and record TV with ease as well as listen to the radio, watch DVDs and create discs of your recordings. If you just want your product to do what it says on the box, then PowerCinema may suit you.
Drivers:
Before we look at the performance of the card when recording/viewing TV, here are a couple of shots taken from Digital and Analog TV, which demonstrate the quality of the Asus My Cinema.
As you can see, the quality is great with images being crisp and vibrant regardless of the input used. As for actually using the card, the user
experience when utilizing the P7131 Dual with Windows
Media Centre 2005 was excellent. The card performed flawlessly
throughout the testing. Channel surfing was quick and
the card was extremely responsive to our button presses.
The channel tuning was on par with similar products and
all expected channels were found by the card. Additionally,
the card was completely stable regardless of how much
we changed between live TV, rewinding, pausing and skipping
through the broadcast. Test System Asus My Cinema P7131 Dual AMD Athlon64 4000+ Windows MCE 2005
TV Performance In a non-MCE PC, we would begin by looking at the “live” TV performance; however, MCE 2005 never produces a live image. In fact, from the moment the tuner starts, you are in TV-on-demand mode, which results in a slight delay in response to channel changes if you are using an external Digibox for example (applicable to all cards used in MCE). Channel changes within MCE are quick and responsive though. Therefore, lets look at TV performance as a whole. Remember, in this test, the system is recording to the hard drive and streaming the recorded file as TV output. (Therefore, recording performance is the same).
Overall, the performance of the Asus My Cinema P7131 Dual is excellent and the scores shown above are comparable to other tuners in the same price bracket. Conclusion If you are looking for a TV tuner card
that can be installed and used with the minimum amount
of fuss, then you need not look any further than the Asus
My Cinema P7131 Dual Tuner. Throughout our testing, the
card was completely stable and created crystal clear and
vibrant images. The ability to view Analog and Digital
broadcasts is a real plus and an easy to use remote makes
the product all the more attractive. We’re not keen
on the bundled software, especially if you want lots of
detailed configuration options and functionality; however,
for the novice user, PowerCinema may be ideal. If not,
then the card works perfectly fine with Windows Media
Centre 2005. The Asus My Cinema P1731 Dual can
be purchased from www.overclock.co.uk
for approx.
£50 at the time of writing.
Contacts: Reviewer:
Stuart
"Veridian3" Davidson
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