Nebula DigiTV PCI/USB
Pros
- AV-in for PCI, easy to use interface, serve TV on a LAN, superior timeshifting, transport stream recording, easy scheduler program
Cons
- Have to tune client PCs in LAN mode
Bottom Line
The Nebula DigiTV PCI and DigiTV USB devices both come with software that is rich in features and well supported by the vendor. If you want a card with excellent recording and timeshifting capabilities, then the DigiTV series is ideal.
-
Price
$ 259.00 (AUD)
Nebula's TV tuner products have always impressed us with their expansive range of capabilities. The latest PCI and USB products continue that trend.
The DigiTV PCI is a HD digital TV card with composite input, so in addition to HDTV, it gives you the opportunity to watch video from an analog source, such as a VHS player or pay-TV set top box.
The Nebula DigiTV USB is a compact unit with a built-in infrared sensor, and it uses the same software interface as the DigiTV PCI version. This unit can display HD channels through its USB 2.0 interface, but it lacks video-in ports for capturing analog video streams.
Both the PCI and the USB versions of the DigiTV returned the full complement of channels during their initial tuning sessions.
The strength of the DigiTV PCI and DigiTV USB products lies in their bundled software, DigiTV, which sports an unobtrusive interface. All functions and settings are located in menu items within the TV window, without so much as a separate channel list or player controls visible. A more graphical interface can be used with the remote control, though, which is perfect for viewing from a distance. The DigiTV PCI card can be comfortably controlled by remote, and it ships with an infrared receiver (the USB version has the receiver built-in). Likewise, the program can be controlled easily via keyboard shortcuts; for example, R is for record and S is for stop.
The DigiTV software is very robust. One of the most useful features allows DigiTV to serve TV on a LAN (including wireless 802.11g networks). Using this setting, a client PC anywhere on your network can view TV as if the tuner card was placed in that machine.
Note that you cannot watch different channels on two machines at the same time with this feature, and the client PC must also be tuned so that it can generate a channel list. We experienced some issues while trying to tune the client PC from the server, (the client PC could not pick up a signal).
Recent versions of the software can also handle multi-channel recording and, to take advantage of this feature, Nebula plans to make USB slave devices (they were unavailable at the time of writing).
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- U.S. SEC slaps Nvidia with a US$5.5 million fine over GeForce GPUs used for crypto
- AMD shrugs off COVID chip shortage fears by focusing on premium PCs
- AMD announces 2023 ‘extreme gaming laptop CPU,’ Dragon Range
- According to Qualcomm, Nuvia processors are now due in late 2023
- This insightful Nvidia video explains how Game Ready drivers work
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?