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03 September 2010 

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Leadtek WinFast TV 2000XP Deluxe

TV cards are fairly common place nowadays, and allow you to view TV signals on your home computer. As well being a space saver (no real need for a large TV), TV cards also can tune into radio stations, capture video and sound and other clever things. Today I take a look at the Leadtek WinFast TV 2000XP Deluxe a not so expensive option for those looking to get a TV card.


Product Specs:

- 32-bit PCI 2.2 bus mastering
- Plug-n-Play compliant

- NTSC, PAL or SECAM Video Standards
- Full 181 channels supported
- Stereo FM 88MHz ~ 108MHz (FM Model only)

- 1 x F-type connector for RF TV source
- 1 x F-type connector for RF FM source (FM Model only)
- 1 x MiniDin 6-pin connector for S-Video & Composite Video input
- 1 x phone jack for audio input
- 1 x phone jack for audio output
- 1 x phone jack for I/R sensor


Minimum System Requirements:

- One available PCI 2.1 compliant slot
- Pentium II 300MHz or higher compatible PC 64MB of system memory
- MS Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
- Graphics sub-system with DirectX 8.1 or above
- 16-bit sound card


Package Contents:

The card ships in a colourful box detailing some of its features and also indicates which model you have purchased.

Inside the Box - Everything you need

Some of the Features

Once you open up the box, you will find tightly packed:

- The WinFast TV2000 XP card iteself
- WinFast TV drivers/utilities CD-ROM
- 1 MiniDIN A/V cable
- 1 stereo audio cable
- Remote control & batteries
- IR sensor plug
- FM antenna cable(FM version only)
- A User's manual

The Manual and Bundled Software
(Ulead Video Studio and Cool 3D)

The Remote Control:

Also known as 'CoolCommand', supplied with the card is a remote control. This is an extremely useful addition to the package - all of the cards major functions can be accessed and controlled remotely from your home computer.

The CoolCommand

It is well laid out and is not cluttered. Along the top are buttons to put the card into the mode you wish to use (e.g. TV or Video), volume and channel selection arrows and numbered buttons towards the bottom. The remote emulates a standard TV remote and is easy to use.


The Cables:

1 - Audio Cable | 2 - IR Sensor Plug | 3 - FM Antenna
 

These cables simply plug into the back of the card into the indicated (as in manual) and labelled plugs. The Audio Cable allows any sound to be output through your system speakers, the IR Sensor Plug receives the commands from the CoolCommand remote control, and can be placed anywhere you wish for best visibility to point the remote control at. The FM Antenna can be moved around to get the best reception.

One thing that is not included is a TV aerial itself...

The Card Itself / Installation:

Rear Connections | Components Closeup

The card is a standard PCI slot type and so simply slots into a spare PCI slot in your computer. The rear of the card is home to all of the connections, each is labelled and makes connection simple.

The only hitch I ran into when trying to install the card into a spare PCI slot, was that the TV aerial plug was for some reason too 'big' to allow me to slot the card in. Thankfully it seems removable and so I needed to take it off, slot card in and then push it back into its hole.

Windows XP prompted me for drivers once I booted up, inserting the supplied CD-ROM, Windows XP completed the installation of the four required drivers and the card is almost ready for use - a final step is to install the supplied Leadtek applications.

The first load of the program prompts to scan for TV channels in both the TV and Radio program. Manual tuning is also possible to put in your own stations or to fine tune them.


Performance:

Overall I was generally not impressed by the quality of both the TV and Radio signals picked up by the card. Blame could be placed with either a) poor reception area b) cheap aerial or the fact that the card is almost 'budget'.

The channels it could tune were mostly perfect, with slight minor adjustments needed to get a better image. Sometimes the image was a little grainy. Sound quality was good, although when using the Radio I found that some stations had perfect reception, whereas others required reposition of the FM aerial to improve the sound.

Having said this, I feel that if the card was hooked up to the TV aerial on top of house the quality would improve somewhat.

One thing I liked about the card was the PIP (Picture in Picture) function, this allowed me to watch two channels at once:

The PIP Function

The card also allows you to capture audio and video direct to your computer hard drive (providing you have ample space to save them). Accessing this function is as simple as clicking the REC button on the remote control.

Conclusion:

Overall the card packs in a lot of useful features (some features that are comparable to more expensive TV cards) and represents good value for money. The Video quality it can provide is adequate and I would say this is the only real thing that drags it down. The radio is a useful function and is not to bad at picking up the major FM Radio channels. Having remote control is a great little addition to the package.

modtown rating: 3.5 out of 5

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