Kworld PlusTV HD PCI-115 ATSC Analog TV & Digital Cable PCI Card

- Only Analog tuner is MCE compatible, QAM digital tuner is not

- Misleading minimum system requirements (should have DX9 or better graphics acceleration)(no hardware MPEG2 acceleration on card, must use software kludge)

- The scheduled record function must run in foreground and muting the audio mutes the system's sound, holding the computer hostage.

- Program initialization is too slow. So is the transition to "TV" viewing.

- Tuning to a new channel causes an audio pop. Must set audio to mute (or low volume) for transitions.

- Channel name change (edit) resets user to beginning of channel list. User must single step through all previous channels to reach new channel to edit.

- Selection and deselection of favorites is in a separate submenu and is a pain to use.

- No option for TV window to stay on top, allowing user to work on another window partly "underneath". (What were these programmers smoking?)

- Resizing window size and position is cleared every time one changes from full screen to resized screen.

- The multilayered menu tree is awkward. User should have option to jump to basic functional services (TV viewing) from any data entry screen. The clumsy traversal of subsections is not user friendly.

- Keypad selection of channels is not always active in any submenu data entry screen. Restricting the data entry to limitations of a remote control makes no sense, since many computer owners would be using mouse and keyboard, not a remote.

- It appears that the software philosophy was targeted at home theater / media center implementation, without any consideration for multiuse systems. In a word, the ArcSoft Total Media 3 Software is OEM, buggy, and has zero support. Must pay for a 3 month service contract before assistance is rendered.

Have had no success with other PVR programs, such as GB-PVR.

If you need QAM capable HDTV tuner, this is NOT.

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It is difficult to switch between analog and digital tv with the device. You have to do it thru menus.

It does not compress digital shows even though you select different record quality options on another submenu and say save.

A 1hr digital show takes up about 1.8 gig.

The record quality does work with analog.

It is very easy to record a digital show from the OTA digital guide and the final recording saves the show name as the file name.

Appears to be fussy with screen choice resolution and changing screen resolution or number of colors can cause playback issues with analog recordings.

The built in USER Help faq guide is pretty useless. I find I have to write down a lot of notes to be sure of navigating where I want.

I would say the hardware is A+ but the included software is pitiful. I would be embarrassed to sell software so poorly written.

The included remote appears to work ok. I have not tested it for long distance but at table length it is fine.

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