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Category: Personal Computers
Brand: AVerMedia
Model: MTVCOMG2W
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AVerMedia MTVCOMG2W Customer reviews
AVerMedia MTVCOMG2W Review by Directed Energy (USA)
The Aver tuner arrived in a well packaged white box (see photo) along with half height computer case slot adapter for the PCIe tuner card, S to component video dongo, S to composite jack adapter and installation CDROM with Aver application and drivers (see photo) which do not work with Win7 Ult 64 given the software and hardware group that is being used.
Using an Intel DP55KG motherboard and XFX Radeon 5850 video board (see photo), the supplied Aver software was not functional with Win 7 Ult 64 and should not be installed. Doing so will prevent the Graphic User Interface (GUI), "Windows Media Center" from detecting the Aver TV tuner card resulting in a error message to the effect "no TV tuner card was found".
Also, the H797 PCI-E Combo NTSC/ATSC driver that Win 7 Ult 64 wants to download from Microsoft and auto install should be prevented and cancelled. Allowing this default driver to auto install will duplicate the problem associated with the Aver supplied driver on the installation CDROM.
The solution is to down load the file "Win7_x64_Dr.exe" from the Aver web site. Then, delete any existing TV tuner drivers that may have auto installed and install just this file, Win7_x64_Dr.exe. The installed driver will allow the MTVCOMG2W card to work with Windows Media Center, however the TV tuner card still will not support the supplied Aver software package.
Hence, the Aver designed TV GUI is not usable, as well as the advertised "Aver Media ClearQAM Tools" since the TV tuner is not visible to the supporting driver package. This is disappointing, for the consumer is not being provided all of tuner functions as advertised.
Restricting the Aver TV tuner card to the default Win Media Center GUI creates other interface compromises that were never associated with the Aver GUI. For comparison, I use a similar, Aver PCI version of the card on a Win XP system and the Aver USB Volar MAX TV tuner on a Vista Bus64 laptop. The detractors for abandoning the Aver GUI in lieu of Win Media Center are as follows:
1) The display aspect ratio is limited to 16:9 and does not auto sense the aspect ratio of the viewed program, leaving behind unnecessary black space (see photo) and inefficiently using the computer monitor. Since the size of a GUI screen is software defined and generally not a physical function, this sort of lazy complacency in software code development is shameful.
2) No GUI function for alternating between two channels (see photo).
3) The TV interface tool bar at the bottom of the screen only justifies right as appose to center. Hence, when view 4:3 programs, with the screen positioned at far right to clip the black screen area, also clips the volume control function of the tool bar (see photo). Positioning the screen in this manner is being done to reduce the programs footprint on the computer monitor.
4) When the GUI screen size is reduced from default size, the interface tool bar auto abbreviates and drops the tuner channel control function (see photo).
5) With Win Media Center as the TV interface, there is no discrete separation of the TV audio controls from other media players without the use of the Windows audio mixer controller. That means, muting the TV audio in Win Media Center also mutes streaming Flash audio in Internet Explorer and in other media players like RealPlayer. This limitation does not happen with the Aver designed TV application. With the Aver TV software, one can easily change TV volume levels without impacting the audio level in other applications and without Windows audio mixer controller.
6) An annoying issue is that when starting the Media Center Application, the program defaults to the recorder function and not the TV. Personally, I like my TV's to power up to the channel I was last viewing. That is not the situation with this Avery card as after opening up the primary application, you still have to select the TV function.
What is happening with this Aver TV tuner product is disappointing. Aver is now leaving TV GUI interface and development to Microsoft instead of continuing to take the lead and responsibility for developing fully functional software for their own hardware offerings. Hence, the resulting interface product is a compromise package that is prioritized for recording and replaying video (see photo) then performing the basic task of watching TV.
A positive benefit from having basic recording functions readily available is quickly realized when viewing scrolling news program such as that aired on CNBC. With the instant play back functions in Win Media Center, in standard TV mode, I have the option to instantly replay a scene. Perfect for those times I just missed seeing what passed by on the ticker tape, or with other flashing information and data.
As for image quality, the MTVCOMG2W tuner card seams to display less digital noise compared the USB Volar version of the tuner. Also, since the tuner card functions via a PCIe slot, the channels change more quickly and I perceive fewer system delays and nearly invisible in terms of system requirements.
The image contrast and color saturation levels are comparable to the USB Volar version and from what that I can notice, better compared to an analog Hauppauge PCI TV tuner I have operating on a Win2000 system. Unlike the Hauppauge unit, I do not experience any "popping" sound when changing TV channels on the Aver tuner.
The Aver digital TV tuner is very limited in the digital cable signals it can receive and display. For comparison, using Time Warner cable, I am able to see all of the non encrypted digital TV and HD cable channels on a LG M237WD-PM 23" LCD Monitor with Built-in Digital TV Tuner. With the Aver MTVCOMG2W TV tuner card, I am only able to view the local broadcast digital channels and none of the digital channels I was hoping to view or listen to such as CNBC, Discovery, History, CNN, music, ...
The analog cable TV signals are all viewable and display quality fair compared to a standard analog TV. When enlarged to full screen, the image degradation from the analog to digital conversion and compression algorithms become very noticeable and at a distance of less than 1 meters on a 23 inch monitor can be annoying to watch and a distracter in itself.
Nice to report and share, the Aver TV tuner card once installed is very stable, and after a couple weeks of frequent and extended use, neither the software nor the TV tuner hardware has crashed and from what I can perceive, has not instigated a failure with other running software or attached peripherals.
A symptom that I've noticed with the XFX Radeon 5850 video board and not with a nVidia Quadro with dual DVI monitor support, is that each time the Aver TV tuner card is activated or switched from a standard analog TV signal to a digital signal, causes the other monitor(s) on the 5850, not the monitor with Aver TV display, to re sync. The Radeon 5850 has attached to it three monitors and it's a bit annoying with large 300cd and 400cd LED monitors and an event from the electronics side, I would prefer not to happen.
Minus 0.25 for a very clumsy install procedure and for supplying dysfunctional software.
Minus 0.25 for TV tuner requiring a downloaded file to function with Win 7 Ult 64.
Minus 0.25 for impractical claim and limitations regarding Aver Media ClearQAM Tools.
Minus 0.25 for full screen and reduced screen TV control interface limitations.
Minus 0.25 for not discretely separating TV audio levels from other media players.
Minus 0.25 for no auto sensing of aspect ratio for screen fill and GUI footprint control.
Minus 0.25 for selecting Win Media Center as the sole interface for the TV tuner.
Minus 0.25 for Aver Media not accepting responsibility for GUI and interface development.
AVerMedia MTVCOMG2W Review by Doug Christensen
I have tried the ATI, Avermedia G2, and the Hauppauge cards. The ATI card has poor HD capabilities so I tried the Avermedia and was immediately impressed with the quality of digital cable and the STB through the S-video connection. The quality isn't as good as HDMI directly to the TV, but it's close. After awhile I was then losing sound in Media center with the Avermedia card. Closing Media Center and restarting would solve the issue and I would never lose it again, this would ONLY happen with live TV. Through time thing progressively got worse with this card, eventually If I would record a show and change the channel, upon returning to the channel being recorded, again there would be no sound. I tried everything with Windows and nothing helped. Finally about a month ago the live TV would start to flicker a little and got worse so I ordered a Hauppage card and not only have all my problems disappeared but the picture quality is even better. No more sound issues, and no more flickering.
AVerMedia MTVCOMG2W Review by Morning star (New York City)
I was very disappointed with the card in the beginning. After trying latest version of Potplayer, I was overwhelmed with the number of clear Qam channels I got and the quality of the pictures.
Hope this can save some time for other customers.
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Avertv MTVCOMG2W Combo G2 (White Box):: Features
- PCI Express Interface; Low Profile Form Factor
- Digital TV: Over-the-Air (ATSC); Unencrypted Digital Cable (ClearQAM); Analog TV: Cable TV (NTSC); Satellite with Set-top-box (NTSC)
- Compatible with Windows 7; Windows Vista Premium Certified (32/64 Bit) ; Windows XP Drivers (32/64 Bit)
- Hardware Encoding and 3D Y/C Comb Filter
- Stereo Sound ; HDTV support up to 1080i
- Item Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 3 inches; 1 pounds
- Brand: AVerMedia
- Model: MTVCOMG2W
- Product Type: Personal Computers
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