DPandA TV-Stick

Name: DPandA TV-Stick
Rating: 4.00
Author: Elias Plastiras

Elias Plastiras

PC World

@pcworldau

14/07/05

Expert Rating

4.00 / 5

Pros

Tiny, easy to use, plug and play

Cons

Nothing to speak of

Bottom Line

The DPandA TV-Stick is a terrific little TV tuner that is perfect for plugging into your notebook. It's also ideal for those of us who don't like venturing into the unknown innards of a PC enclosure to install a PCI device.

Would you buy this?

Yes 2
No 1

Price
$ 249.00 (AUD)

The DPandA TV-Stick is tiny, measuring less than 10cm in length. It plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port. The bandwidth the USB 2.0 interface provides is enough for HDTV support, and this tuner displays HD channels without any qualms.

The TV-Stick installed faultlessly on our test system. Its supplied software interface is the same as the Hauppauge Nova-t. It supports scheduled recording, timeshifting and is a very easy and stable program to use.

Even though the unit we looked at was a pre-production model, it tuned into all the available channels in our area and displayed them very well. In fact, we experienced no problems at all during testing this little marvel.

Physically, the unit plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port and the antenna cable plugs into the other end of the device. Because the TV-Stick's thickness may interfere with the ports either side of the one it is plugged into, and because the antenna cable you use may be slightly heavy, a USB extension cable may be necessary.

The DPandA TV-Stick is perfect for notebook users and for those of you who don't want a bulky external TV tuner.