Black Boxes: eVGA.com nVidia Personal Cinema

by Joe McCleskey
Winter 2003/Spring 2004

The product category is nothing new-video display card manufacturers have been offering television-integration capabilities at least as long as there have been home computers. But the development of more powerful computers, more impressive peripherals such as DVD writers, and smarter, more computer-friendly televisions, VCRs and DVD players has culminated in a product category that's truly awe-inspiring in the capabilities provided for relatively little cost.

Sitting squarely in this category is eVGA.com's nVIDIA Personal Cinema, which is basically a high-quality, 3D-enhanced video display adapter card with many useful features and a range of bundled software for those who would like to place their computer at the center of a home media station. Chief among the Personal Cinema's capabilities is the ability to control your television, time-shift your programs, edit them, and then create your own DVDs-provided you have your own DVD-writing hardware, of course. The wealth of features and capabilities that come with this package make it a great value for smart shoppers who don't need the absolute top-of-the-line in performance, but would still like to integrate television timeshifting, video editing and DVD creation with their home computers. A key feature is its RF-based remote control.

Stuff Galore
The time required to completely set up the nVIDIA Personal Cinema-about two hours-has more to do with connecting it into your home entertainment system than setting up the card and software. For our test purposes, we cabled a standard analog cable signal to the unit, then connected the outputs to a Sony A/V receiver. (Note: the nVIDIA Personal Cinema does not support digital cable signals.) With the hardware installed and everything plugged in, we were ready put the Personal Cinema through its paces.

Access to the Personal Cinema's functionality is via the eVGA.com Media Menu. From this stylish interface, which you can easily hide in your computer's system tray at the lower right of the screen, you can launch the four main programs that come with the Personal Cinema: WinDVR for viewing, recording and timeshifting television programs; NVDVD for playing DVDs from your computer (which you can, of course, view on your television or on your computer's monitor); Ulead VideoStudio SE for video editing; and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2.0 SE for creating DVDs. All of these software applications worked well and were very easy to learn. WinDVR gives you options to either use Live TV for simple, direct TV viewing, or the Titan TV electronic programming guide to easily select programs for timeshifting, recording, etc.

Bottom Line
In a product category that's dominated by ATI's All in Wonder line of TV/PC video display adapters, the nVIDIA Personal Cinema offers a budget-conscious solution that's more affordable yet powerful enough to satisfy all but the most demanding of users. It does not match the 3D performance or video playback specs of other cards, but it has more than enough video power to timeshift, view and edit your favorite television programs. The included RF remote control is a nice touch, too.

III SMART SPECS
Operating System: Windows Me/2000/XP
Processor: 1GHz Pentium III or equivalent
RAM: 256MB
Hard Drive: 20GB
Other: PCI Sound Card
Stereo computer speakers
256MB of system RAM
AGP motherboard slot
Windows ME, 2000, or XP
20GB+ free hard drive space
USB port
Inputs: S-video, composite video, stereo audio
Outputs: S-video, composite video, stereo audio
Other features: RF universal remote control
Bundled software:
eVGA.com’s Media Menu
nVIDIA NDVD 2.0
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2.0 SE
Ulead VideoStudio 6.0 SE
InterVideo WinDVR 2.0
nVIDIA 3D graphics demos
America’s Army game
Keyhole’s Earthviewer 3D (demo)
Stardock’s WindowBlinds
Ubi Soft’s Ghost Recon game (full version)

Company: eVGA.com
Phone: (714) 528-4500
Web: www.evga.com
Price: $179