Black Boxes:
Adaptec VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 Edition
Watching, storing and burning-to-disc your favorite television programs are something more and more people want to do on their PC. Adaptec's VideOh! DVD Media Center, along with your DVD or CD burner, turns your computer into a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Anyone who wishes to watch and control TV on a PC will find this USB 2.0 edition a thorough solution that doesn't take up another PCI slot on the computer.
The Box
The slim and lightweight box can easily fit on top of a computer or desk. The unit can either rest on its side or upright on its stand. We found the included stand for the box never securely locked to the unit, making it little wobbly when connecting A/V cords. Included inputs for the device are RF, S-video, composite and stereo audio. All inputs are right up front, making it convenient to connect a variety of devices including camcorders. Although capturing video from a camcorder is not the unit's primary purpose, it is possible to connect and record from any device with analog outputs. You must have a USB 2.0 (or 1.1 port, but this isn't recommended) available and at least a 600-MHz processor. We were set to launch our new DVR after fifteen minutes of installing the hardware and software on our HP workstation xw4100 through the USB 2.0 port.
Maximizing Control
InterVideo's WinDVR 3 is the essential software for watching and controlling TV on your computer. At first launch, WinDVR took us through its simple set-up, including an auto channel set-up, a basic program guide and an Internet EPG (electronic program guide) from TitanTV.com. Configuring the set-up was very easy and only took a few minutes. After we finished, we ran the software and could watch television in an adjustable TV window. The controller interface offers all the standard features (including play/pause, record, stop and mute) as well as some unique ones you'll only find on a DVR. You can pause, instant replay, commercial skip, rewind, or fast forward live television with time shifting. The time-shifting technology is constantly buffering the TV program on your hard drive so you can fast-forward live TV, provided you start watching the program a few minute after the real start of the program. Unless you have a fast hard drive, you'll want to keep your time shifting to a minimum. Time shifting features demand top performance from your computer. You can adjust these settings so that your system can perform at its best. If that is not enough control for you, Adaptec throws in a remote control that puts all the key features in the palm of your hand. Pressing the power button will even turn on the box and launch WinDVR 3.
Smart Programming
WinDVR gives you several options for programming your DVR. The simple method is the internal program guide. This guide works just like a VCR. You can set the DVR to record a pre-determined duration starting at a certain time and have that recording reoccur in the future (for example, to record weekly episodes). Even better, you can use the Internet EPG, in this case TitanTV.com. You can set up a free account that will control your DVR to record any occurrence of a particular TV show, actor or even a director. Setting up your account is fairly simple and takes a few minutes. This feature allows for you to remotely program the DVR from anywhere in the world as long as you have access to a computer with an Internet connection. So, if you're in a business meeting in New York and forgot to program your computer in Chicago to record game seven of the World Series, no worries. You just log on to your Internet EPG and reprogram your DVR so you don't miss it. We like the default TitanTV, but you can use another EPG if you want.
Recording and Archiving
You can capture still photos from programs with a single click of the mouse. You can capture movies in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoded video files. WinDVR 3 proved to be quite flexible with the encoding settings and allowed us to customize the quality we wanted. We were very pleased with the quality of our files upon playback.
Assuming that you have a strong signal, WinDVR 3 can record picture perfect TV for hundreds and hundreds of hours of TV, depending on the amount of compression you wish to use and the size of your hard drive.
If you ever run out of disc space on your computer, Adaptec includes Sonic's MyDVD 4 so that you can archive you TV programs to CD or DVD. From basic editing functions to titles, MyDVD can help you produce a VCD or DVD collection of your very own. You can even make slide shows with music from the still images you've captured. We were excited to have MyDVD as an added feature that really tops off the whole package.
Adaptec's VideOh! DVD Media Center brings the control of a DVR to your fingertips with a feature rich interface, useful remote, an all-important Internet EPG option and a burn-to-disc program for archiving. This is a well-rounded solution for Windows 2000 and XP users who are looking to turn their PC into a multi-functioning DVR.
SMART SPECS
Processor: 600MHz processor or faster
Operating System: Windows 2000 or XP
RAM: 128MB
Hard Disk: 250MB
Other: Video card and monitor that support 16-bit color
Sound card
CD-ROM Drive
Available USB 2.0 or 1.1 port
CD or DVD burner
Inputs/Ouputs: USB 2.0, RF, S-video, composite, RCA, stereo audio
Video encoding: MPEG-1, MPEG-2
Company: Adaptec
Contact: (408) 945-8600
Web Site: www.adaptec.com
Price: $199
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