| AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB |
| Written by Luck Kanthatham | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 17 May 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Just installed Vista? Then you might notice that it now comes with Windows Media Center (WMC). But you can't really get real use out of that unless you have at least a TV tuner. The problem is that there are so many out there and not all of them are Vista-compatible. Enter AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB , the first HD/analog TV tuner that is compatible with Windows Vista's Windows Media Center. Not only that, but it also comes with an FM tuner too. Sounds like a perfect package but you never know until you read the whole review. Introduction
AverMedia is no stranger to the TV tuner arena. Their latest product, AverTV Hybrid Ultra USB, seems a to have a lot going for it. It combines all the features that consumers are looking for: a HD tuner, an analog tuner, and an FM tuner all bundled in one package with the ease of use of USB. It also comes with both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for Windows Vista.
The product features:
Here's what you get in the package:
Test hardware and software:
Installation
Installing the product was extremely easy. Just plug the unit into an available USB 2.0 port and put the installation CD in and click install. This would install all the drivers necessary to use the tuner with WMC.
One thing to keep in mind though, the product is designed to work specifically with WMC. No other software is provided with it. All of the features of tuner are accessed via WMC. So make sure you have the correct version of Vista because the Home Basic edition does not come with this feature.
Once you have the drivers installed, just start up WMC and configure the device via the Settings menu. Configuring this took much longer than I thought because the software had to download a lot of location-specific information. But I can't blame the hardware, it is the way WMC works.
Going through the TV setup wizard took all together about 15 minutes. Most of that was spent on downloading TV programs specific to my location; it may fetch up to 14 days in advanced so be aware of that.
Using a powered HDTV antenna, it was able to pick up most of the stations available in my area. The kit does come with a free antenna but don't bother using it. It could not even pick up an analog station. But again, maybe it is just where I live.
Configuring the radio was much easier. There was no wizard to go through. WMC was able to detect the FM tuner and put it to use right away. I did wish for a wizard though maybe something that would tell me about the available stations in my area. But maybe such thing does not exist yet.
Performance
So how well does it perform? I can honestly say it performs really well. The HDTV reception is clear using the powered HDTV antenna I bought especially for the unit. There was some pixelation on some channels but that's probably because of the reception and not the hardware. WMC responds very well to heavy channel surfing; there was no detectable delay. The tuner hardware does a great job of decoding the signals internally to reduce the load on the CPU.
The tuner features hardware MPEG-2 compression, which allows for a near-instant recording. I detected only about a half second delay once I hit the record button before WMC would start recording. This does depend a lot on the settings of the recorder though. For the best quality, I experienced up to 1 second of delay before recording. Also, the responsiveness of WMC slightly deteriorated at this setting. This is especially true when recording at 1080i. But, overall, the hardware does its job well.
 
Another point to keep in mind when recording is that, you really need a lot of hard drive space for this. It is also better if you can keep the recorded shows on a different drive than the master because, this will take the load of the main drive.
As far as FM reception is concerned, the tuner works as well as anything out there. The kit comes with a good-length FM antenna, making it easy to get clear reception wherever the location. It it just not very practical for use on a notebook as in my case.
Extras
The device comes with s-video and RCA inputs in case you want to pick other video sources other than the built-in tuners. The only downside to that is that WMC can only work with one TV source at a time. This means that you have to run the wizard every time you want to change the video input. This is a major down side. Spending 15 – 20 minutes with the WMC TV wizard is not my idea of fun.
Conclusion
The AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB strikes a good balance between ease of use and performance. This is due partly to WMC interface, which in itself is very intuitive to use.
If you just upgraded to Windows Vista and are looking for an all-in-one tuner to bring a full TV viewing experience to your computer, you cannot go wrong with this product. Just make sure you get yourself a power HDTV antenna first!
The MSRP on the product is $129.99 and is currently only available via Aver web site here .
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Recommended.
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Comments (15)
Jon R.
said:
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I would like to know when the product will be available via other retailers, like Amazon, etc. |
Felix
said:
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You can use any 3th party applications (SageTV, BeyondTV, etc) as long as they BDA compatible. Also, AVerMedia released own application that you can download for free and use it on any OS (including Vista 32/64, XP 32/64, even Win2000). Here is link for it: http://www.aver.com/mpd/suppor...enter.html |
Casper
said:
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You missed the "Money shot". Where is a pic of the Coax connections and such? I ask because I am curious if this Dual Tuner and only 1 Coax required, then I would question AverMedia (and Felix who works there) why the M780 doesnt also just use 1 connection? |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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I just added it. I didn't realize that I didn't add the picture of the coax, FM jack, and USB. |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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Bill, you can find the system requirements here: http://www.aver.com/mpd/hybrid_ultra_usb_mce_spec.html |
FlashGordon
said:
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How did you hook-up an external antenna? The connector seems to be non-standard, and radio Shack had no idea what it was. I purchased a powered external HD antenna, but cannot figure out how to adapt it. |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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FlashGordon, the connector is a standard coaxial input as I remembered it. It's at the back of the unit along with the the USB port and the FM input. There is also an adapter that comes with the unit that you can use in case your antenna does not fit. I got my HD antenna at BestBuy and didn't have any problem with it. |
David H.
said:
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I am confused...does this product only recieve over the air tv? Is it able to hook up with my Comcast cable? |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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David H., yes this product can receive over-the-air TV. Just hook it up to an antenna and configure the software to get the feed from the antenna. And, yes, you can also hook it up to your cable. |
RAGEDBULL
said:
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How is the lag time on this? I am looking to use in with my xbox 360 instead of the gamebridge which goes nuts in vista (also, horribly written hardware available software). Is there any way around that 15 minute setup when switching from inputs to tv? |
Raza
said:
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I am still waiting for mine, but since stumbling on this website I have an urgent question...If I have windows XP without MCE, will it work? The avermedia website says: Windows XP/XP MCE/ Vista so I was guessing it would work, but you wrote down in your cons that it only works with MCE.....  |
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