Hybrid TV and FM tuner GOTVIEW PCI Hybrid is an interesting budget solution with DVB-T support. GoTView PCI DVD tuner: TV plus MPEG2 hardware encoding System load

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what your computer is missing? Every time I get to the computer market or to any store, the same thought visits me: What else can I buy for my computer? On this moment my computer has a good configuration, original case, great monitor, comfortable keyboard and mouse, the only thing I lack is something multimedia that turns my EZ-Buddie into a real home entertainment center. To solve this problem, I used one very interesting solution provided to me for testing by GoTView - an internal PCI TV tuner of the same name.

At first sight...

To be honest, while I knew about this tuner only in words, and very much in in general terms, my attitude towards it was as pessimistic as towards other tuners I have tried.

The fact is that for the most part, the picture quality obtained with the help of most tuners is not so good that it would make me give up the TV.

So, having received this small, superbly designed box, on the way to the editorial office, I studied in detail what is written on it. On the box, I found everything that made me with great interest proceed for a more detailed study of GOTVIEW PCI.

In general, one can speak no less about the thoroughness of preparing the box than about the device itself. The most important thing is that on the way home, each of you will fully familiarize yourself with the capabilities of the device, as well as with the features of use and connection.

The board itself does not have any striking features, except for a large number of different connectors on the back side, and a large Russian-language sticker on the radio module.

In addition to the board in the box, we found a very brief manual for installing the software and a little about installing and connecting the board itself, a CD containing all the necessary software, including a 70-page manual for installing the program and its operation in PDF format. L license disk with software from Intervideo, which allows you to do video editing. The disc contains two programs: WinDVR (for video capture) and WinDVD Creator in Russian (for editing video).

Also in the box there is a cable for transferring audio accompaniment to the sound card, remote remote control, miniature IR receiver and FM antenna.

InstallationGOTVIEW PCI

Installing a GOTVIEW PCI TV Tuner is a bit more complicated than installing a PCI sound card or modem. First of all, you need to install the board itself in a free PCI slot. In our case, the board was installed in an EZ-Buddie barebone case with a single PCI slot.

It's no secret that due to the limited internal space of barebone platforms, problems may arise when installing various boards. In our case, there were no problems, and the nearby FX5600 video card with a sufficiently powerful cooler will allow us to evaluate the effect of a direct flow of warm air on the TV tuner, as well as what the installation of an additional PCI card threatens our video card with.

After installing the tuner into the computer, something similar is obtained on the back side.

Before we continue with the installation process, let's look at what connectors are available on the TV tuner. On the right is the connector for connecting the FM and TV antennas, then there is a small connector for connecting IR port, normal video/audio and SVIDEO inputs, necessary for connecting external audio/video signal sources, and, finally, an audio output.

Continuing the installation process, you need to connect a small adapter cable from the audio output of the tuner to the line input of the sound card. This is necessary to transfer sound signal to a computer while maintaining high quality.

Having connected all the necessary cables, you can proceed to install the software, thanks to which you can realize all the features that will not make you regret purchasing this tuner.

The software installation process begins with the automatic installation of the necessary drivers and programs. During installation, I encountered a strange problem. After installation, the tuner refused to play TV and FM programs. The problem turned out to be the incomplete installation of drivers for all the devices necessary for the operation of GOTVIEW PCI.

To solve the problem, I used a very simple and familiar method - I simply deleted all unknown devices in the device manager. After rebooting, Windows XP automatically detected the missing devices and installed them one by one. As a result, everything worked and four new devices appeared in the system, serving various functions of the tuner.

The program itself, serving the tuner, despite a fairly simple interface, has really great potential. Before I review them in detail, I would like to draw your attention to the Russian interface of the program, which makes it easier to work with the program, and the readiness of the settings to work in Russian terrestrial networks. The program interface consists of two windows: the main control window and the actual TV screen.

The main working window of the program includes all the necessary functions that allow you to control the tuner.

As you can see, on the top of the floor with the GOTVIEW logo there is a frequency bar that allows you to fine-tune the frequency in 0.01 MHz increments. To the right of the frequency are two arrows that allow you to move between preset frequencies (stations), but for faster movement it is best to use the mouse wheel or just the up and down arrows on the keyboard. Next to these buttons is a description of the selected mode and the signal source (TV / AV / SVIDEO). Finally, on the right side is the volume control. By the way, you can also change the volume using the left and right buttons on the keyboard.

Now let's move to the bottom of the main window. Here, on the left side, there are controls for brightness, contrast, saturation and color, which allow you to change these parameters on the fly when watching TV or video. Four function buttons follow. Here I would like to dwell in more detail. The first button is responsible for "capturing" data. The GOTVIEW PCI TV Tuner allows you to capture video (AVI), audio (WAV/MP3 and other formats) and "Snapshot" that allows you to capture a TV/Video screen.

The capture function is built in such a way that not only professional users, but also beginners can use it. For example, video capture (AVI/MPEG1/2). This window has everything you might need during the recording process.

The user can change various parameters for recording video and audio, as well as specify the time and date of the start / end of the recording and the duration of the recording. For example, when using the DIVX5 codec, we were able to record a video clip lasting 30 seconds and 5.7Mb in size.

The audio capture mode includes significantly fewer features, which, in principle, are enough to record from your favorite radio stations.

Finally, the "Snapshot" mode allows you to record the contents of the screen in a graphic file (BMP, JPEG and GIF) with a resolution of up to 768x576. The user can set the capture mode to every n-seconds (default is set to every 3 seconds).

We move on. To the right of the "capture" button is a station search button. As you can see, the search function is implemented in the most convenient way for the user, allowing you to specify not only the name of the station or channel, which is displayed in the title of the main program window and the TV window, but also to individually set the system, volume, contrast, warmth and color.

By default, the program comes with pre-installed channels, however, in our case, not all channels matched, so we had to search for channels.

The search process itself turned out to be much easier than on a regular TV. You just need to set the scan range, step and system. In principle, you can not install anything, the program itself knows everything.

For added convenience and for solving some specific tasks, the program has a built-in scheduler that allows you to schedule the viewing and recording of the programs you need. For example, you can automate the process of recording news in automatic mode. Or, knowing the program, set the sequence for viewing and recording channels. In addition, at the bottom of the scheduler window there is a function to automatically exit the program and turn off the computer.

And finally, the last button is the tuner setting. There are a number of useful functions here that allow you to further configure some of the tuner parameters.

Among the most useful, I want to note the resolution setting. This function may be needed when starting the tuner for the first time. So, for example, at the first start I got such a picture.

After changing the resolution, or rather the encoding scheme on YUY2, everything worked fine.

In addition, we want to check the "Sound source" option, where you can set which connector of the sound card the tuner's sound output is connected to.

In work...

Unlike previously tested external tuners, this internal version has a lot of possibilities and allows you to solve really a variety of tasks. For example, it turned out to be very useful for me to be able to watch TV in a window while working in the application I need, such as MS Word or IE, and when I want to watch TV normally, I open the window to full screen (double click on the TV screen). Another example is for those who want to have documentary evidence of the events shown, for example, people involved in the analysis or preparation of reports on current events. Using the "Snapshot" function, you can get a good selection of photos from the current news release.

And the last example is related to the ability to record video and audio content on the fly. For example, by TV channel show the movie you would like to have in your movie collection. You simply select the desired format, provide the required amount of hard disk space and record. The same can be said about the song you like on the radio.

Finishing the conversation about the work of the tuner, I would like to recall the stability. I remind you that in my barebone case, the tuner is located very close to the video card. On the one hand, this noticeably heats up the card, on the other hand, it limits the flow of air to the graphics card, which, theoretically, can lead to problems, but during use, I did not notice any problems either when watching TV or in complex 3D games.

About the quality...

The reception quality depends primarily on the quality of the receiving antenna used. When receiving FM stations, we did not notice any problems at all, but our TV let us down a bit. Although the picture quality was quite comparable to conventional TV, I never managed to get the digital quality of satellite TV.

Conclusion...

In conclusion, I would like to once again note the unique features of the new tuner, such as the really high quality of reception of both TV and FM channels, the ability to view in a window and full screen, and impressive service functions, allowing you to create video, audio and graphic content. If all this is correlated with the recommended price of ~$70, then it turns out that GOTVIEW PCI can really replace several important devices at once for quite reasonable money.

P.S. I almost forgot to remind once again about the software, which is optimized for Russian broadcasting, and allows both a professional and a novice user to work without problems.

We thank the coordinating representation of GOTVIEW, www.gotview.ru . For consultations, please call in Moscow: 284-1053, 287-9648

It seems like only yesterday that a huge and noisy mono VHS VCR was considered a luxury, but today compact and stylish home DVD players start at $50 and provide incomparable best quality sound and video. With the same emotion, just a few years from now, we will look back at DVD from the height of the possibilities of new and orders of magnitude higher HDTV media, more advanced compression algorithms and transmission of digital data without wires. One thing can already be noted today - it is becoming less and less reasonable to purchase video cassettes and VHS tape recorders, even with stereo support. On the shelves of the capital, a standard VHS-cassette for 240 minutes costs 60-70 rubles, and a DVD + RW disc costs about 30 rubles. If you bargain in bulk, then there is always the opportunity to take disks for 20 rubles, if not cheaper. It turns out that one cassette is three "blanks", which, moreover, can be rewritten many times, and over the years the quality of video on DVD does not degrade. Advantages optical discs before the tape, you can list endlessly, and how much easier and faster it is to copy DVDs to friends ... You can use another disc for this or simply copy files to HDD. The latter, by the way, are getting cheaper almost continuously. The fact that a DVD takes up less space on a shelf than a video cassette is out of the question.

A primitive DVD burner will set you back $30 (for a used model), while decent examples for dual-layer discs (more than 8 GB per side) are already quite affordable and cost less than $100. Even a system based on Pentium 4 or Athlon XP with a frequency of 1.5 GHz can cope with recording video in MPEG2 to a hard drive and its further processing, which today can no longer be considered any top-end. At the same time, not all Russians have such PCs - the installed base of computers in the whole country does not hold water. It is worth driving a couple of hundred kilometers beyond the borders of the Moscow region, and megahertz begin to flow down at the same speed with which water tends to land in Niagara. And, nevertheless, progress, albeit slowly, but comes to Russia. Thus, according to a recently published IDC report, the volume of the Russian market information technologies amounted to 7.1 billion US dollars in 2003, and it is assumed that summing up the results of the current year, it will be possible to speak of a market growth of 26%. IDC assumes that by 2008 total expenses for IT in Russia will exceed $17 billion.

In his speech on November 10 at a meeting of the Federation Council, the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Leonid Reiman, noted that the number of subscribers mobile communications for 4 years increased by 60 million - up to 63 million, although earlier it was predicted that in 2005 this figure would be only 9 million people. The number of Internet users also exceeded all possible forecasts: if in 1997 only about 1 million people had access to the Internet, now 18.5 million people use the Internet. The active development of the Internet, in turn, contributed to the growth of the information technology market, which has tripled over the past five years and, according to the forecast for 2004, will amount to more than 250 billion rubles. This, in turn, allows us to say that the computerization and informatization of the country is taking place dynamically, and the day when the "digital home" will turn from a futuristic concept into a completely ordinary concept is not so far away. It seems to us that classic tape recorders have no place in the "digital home". If the computer is gradually replacing household appliances, then it is the TV tuner that should most organically merge into the concept of "Digital Home".

Actually, let's move on to the hero of the occasion.

The GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner is one of those devices whose descendants will become the de facto standard in computers of the near future and in a few years will replace VCRs as a class from our apartments. This model differs from most TV tuners by the presence of modern hardware stuffing that supports encoding to MPEG2 "on the fly", without the need for a central processor. As a result, this allows you to record high-quality video on a hard disk without dropping frames and sound out of sync, even on relatively slow computers, since it is high-resolution video compression that takes up most of the system resources. In our recent review of the USB model AverMedia AverTV USB 2.0 for laptops, we noted a high processor load, and, in particular, this concerned the operation of a tuner on chips with a frequency of less than 1 gigahertz. On such systems, it is problematic to use delayed viewing (timeshift) and recording TV programs to the hard disk. The GoTView PCI DVD tuner takes care of digitizing video to MPEG2, which is very beneficial for weak computers.

The key functions of the tuner became possible to implement thanks to the use of two chips: a Philips SAA7174HL operating capture and a hardware MPEG decoder Conexant CX23416 with support for improved noise suppression. GoTView provides not only viewing TV channels with stereo sound in NICAM and A2 formats (if they are supported by the operator), but also hardware compression of the video stream into MPEG2 format. Compression is also supported by almost any other codec, for example, you can use DivX, AVI, Windows Media Video, ASF, and so on, but this procedure is carried out programmatically, that is, the entire load still falls on the system's central processor.

The disadvantages of the GoTView PCI DVD model include the lack of an FM tuner, which could allow listening to the radio on a PC. However, according to the statistical information we have, this feature is not in demand among all users. Among the advantages of the component base, we note that traditionally Philips SAA7174HL demonstrates a very decent quality of capturing video from external sources, and the Conexant complex decoder is equipped with improved noise reduction and pre-filtering functions, resulting in a very decent video quality on the screen, as well as high-quality digitization. Having made a recording of a television movie from the air and burned it to DVD using the bundled software, when viewed on household appliances you will not understand that the recording was made on a computer.

The GoTView PCI DVD package includes a tuner, an IR remote control with a receiver typical for most tuners, an audio cable (mini-jack for two "tulips"), two CDs with drivers and WinDVD Creator 2, as well as instructions for operation in Russian.

The following connectors are placed on the rear panel of the GoTView PCI DVD:

• input "tulip" (RCA) for video;
• remote control (non-standard mini-jack);
• antenna;
• S-Video input for connecting a VCR, DVD or other device;
• mini-jack input for sound.

Unlike "budget" models of tuners, GoTView PCI DVD supports digital audio transmission via the PCI bus without the loss associated with analog-to-digital conversions. This, in particular, allows you to minimize interference on the audio path, improve sound quality and increase the maximum sampling. An important feature of GoTView PCI DVD is the ability to encode in MPEG2 hardware not only TV broadcasts, but also video from an external source. You can connect a VCR or camera to the tuner with a "tulip" or via S-Video in order to digitize your videos made on ordinary VHS cassettes. Also, you can connect a video surveillance camera to the tuner input, and the GoTView software supports turning on the video for recording at the moment when there is movement in the frame, with flexible sensitivity settings. In fact, you get an inexpensive way to track a car in the parking lot in front of the house or your own front door. The included WinDVD Creator 2 program is not a standard of functionality and intuitiveness, but it will help you burn video in DVD format to a disc for viewing on household appliances. WinDVD Creator 2 supports a number of special effects and transitions between scenes, overlay titles, a control menu with your own photos or videos as the background, splitting videos into segments, and more.

It is also important that hardware encoding can reduce the load on computer resources during delayed playback (Time Shifting). With software encoding, this feature is practically useless on a PC with a processor speed of about 1 GHz. Finally, I would like to traditionally highlight the support by GoTView tuners for downloading TV guides from the manufacturer's website. This allows you to set up not only recording movies on a timer, but also be aware of when and what programs are on all TV channels. When you press the right button, a menu appears, which even indicates, in percentage terms, exactly how long this or that film or TV show lasts, and how much is left before the end.

You can encode video in hardware to MPEG2/DVD/Video CD formats, and in software to AVI and WMV. At the same time, you can use the full range of codecs for AVI, including DivX, XviD, ASF, and a host of others of your choice. The only feature is that you will have to install most of the codecs yourself. The manufacturer does not supply codecs with the tuner. Audio can be encoded to any format using an external codec. Finally, the tuner allows you to capture not only the video stream, but also individual frames, saving them to your hard drive in BMP, GIF or JPEG format.

Among the advantages of GoTView PCI DVD, we note the instruction in Russian, the Russified program interface and the Russian user support site www.gotview.ru .

Installing the drivers is smooth, but not very intuitive - you install the card in the PCI slot, close the case, turn it on, and insert the driver CD into the optical drive. After Windows startup XP Professional finds a new device and produces automatic installation its drivers from the CD.

After that, it is necessary to launch the distribution kit of the GoTView Pro shell from the "gotview" folder. Strangely, there is no installer autorun system or menu on the disk. Note that the drivers do not have digital signature WHQL, so you will have to select "Continue Anyway" when responding to the Windows warning. This does not affect the quality of the device in any way. You may need to reboot after installing the drivers. If you plan to capture video from a tuner or external sources (via "tulip" or S-Video) in MPEG2 format (with hardware compression), as well as authoring DVD, then you should install WinDVD Creator 2 from the second disk.

The CD supplied with the tuner contains the following subdirectories:

• Acrobat - Acrobat Reader 5 and 6 versions for reading documentation;
• DirectX - set of libraries DirectX versions 9c;
• DOC - Russian-language user manual in PDF format;
• DRV - drivers for 2000 and XP;
• gotview - GotView Pro distribution package; to install, you need to run GOTVIEW_setup.exe;
• IE6_russ - Internet Explorer 6.0, Russian version;
• WMV - Windows Media Payer 9.0 to work with the WMV format, as well as to transfer video over the network.

It should be noted that good detailed instructions in Russian. It even takes into account changes since Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. As already mentioned, after the driver, we installed the GotView Pro shell with a Russian-language interface. It allows you to implement all the basic functions of the tuner. Note that the GoTView software, already described by us in the early reviews of tuners from this manufacturer, makes the most positive impression with its functionality. Unlike many Asian analogues and even a number of well-known tuners, this shell demonstrates both a high saturation of features and an intuitive interface. It remains only to bring the appearance design to international standards. Read more about GotView Pro below.

The tuner comes with the GotView Pro shell version 3.0.0.441. We recommend that you check the manufacturer's website before installing it. www.gotview.ru. The fact is that the program is updated very often, and by the time we tested the latest tuner model, version 3.0.0.445 beta was posted on the site. We decided not to tempt fate, and downloaded GotView Pro version 3.0.0.444, as well as the more recent driver v.1.17.0.40.

Once launched, GotView Pro opens a main window from which you can access all of the device's features. Here, just a few tabs focus on the key settings of the device. For each channel, you can adjust image parameters (brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth, white balance and sharpness), set your own sound volume, fine-tune the signal, and perform a number of other functions. The information window displays the channel frequency and encoding. By the way, the image parameters are saved individually for each channel, so you don't have to change them every time - it's very convenient.

Six icons in the main window allow you to access the bookmarks:

• video capture;
• channel settings;
• task scheduler;
• system settings;
• television programs;
• channel preview.

We will look at these windows a little later.

Recording and capturing a frame can be easily enabled immediately on the main program window using the corresponding keys, which is very convenient. Finally, the "TS" button turns on the function of viewing the program with a time shift (Time Shift). Thus, at any time convenient for you, you can take a break from watching a movie or a news release, go for a smoke, drink coffee, have dinner, and then return and continue watching the same episode from the same place where you left off. The maximum amount of time a video can be delayed is determined by the buffer size. Theoretically, in the presence of completely free hard drive you can smoke for a whole week or more, and if you compress video in DivX and in low resolution, then at least a year. The limiting factor in this case will be, rather, your lungs.

When you press the video capture key, the AVI panel opens by default. In this case, compression is carried out programmatically using an external codec. If you plan to compress video programmatically, so as not to convert it from MPEG2 in the future, or in order to save space on your hard disk, first of all, make sure that your computer will have enough resources for real-time compression. This implies the presence of a processor with a frequency of GHz, a fast hard drive and a sufficient amount of memory. By the way, at the bottom of the window, CPU and hard disk load graphs are displayed to help you navigate.

As rightly stated in the documentation, for high-quality and error-free capture to AVI, you should make sure that the external codec settings are correct. So be careful. In the lower right corner, you can select the video source (tuner, cinch input or S-Video), as well as the audio source. Channels are switched there.

On the capture panel in AVI, all the necessary parameters are visible. Of the interesting features, we note the presence of a deinterlacing filter (bypassing the "comb" effect at resolutions above 352x288), frame cropping and resizing, setting a codec for video and sound. All functions are well described in the documentation, so we will not dwell on them in detail. The tuner allows hardware compression of the MPEG stream, so the most interesting is the capture panel in MPEG2. All parameters, again, are visible in the illustration and are described in detail in the instructions.

There are even fewer settings on the capture panel in WMV, and encoding is limited exclusively to profiles. It is worth noting that, in principle, in Windows you can edit these profiles and create your own, but this will require knowledge of Windows Media Encoder or other specialized utilities. Why pay attention to a format that is much less popular than DivX? The fact is that the new generation of personal media centers operates with video in the WMV format. Moreover, it is the files in this format that are best understood by handheld computers running Windows Mobile 2003. In addition, this format supports streaming over the network, and channels recorded on the hard disk can be distributed using additional software on the local home network. Perhaps in the future GoTView will release a wrapper that will support more Windows Media Video settings. Lest you get the impression that WMV support is poorly implemented, we emphasize that for an average-experienced user, basic profiles are more than enough. Manual settings needed, rather, enthusiasts, rather than the majority.

In addition to video, you can capture sound and individual frames - just use the appropriate panels for this. All settings are clearly visible in the illustrations.

The last "Network" panel is experimental - it allows you to broadcast transmission over the network to another computer, laptop or pocket PC. The function works only under Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and for it to work, you need to install Windows package media. It should be noted that the possibility of broadcasting local network, in our opinion, has interesting prospects. With its help, you can organize TV broadcasting in your home local network from a single tuner, or turn an ordinary pocket PC with Wi-Fi into a TV. The system still needs to be improved, in particular, it is impossible to control the stream transmitted to the network remotely. It would be useful to implement some kind of "IP-enabled remote control" based on PocketPC with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.

During the tests, we repeatedly used network broadcasting to Pocket PCs over Wi-Fi and to laptops over a 100-megabit network. The only pity is that the maximum bit rate for encoding is 2 Mbps. Potentially transferable to mobile device video with the same quality as shown by the tuner on the local PC. Of course, the PDA processor will not be able to decompress such a massive data stream in real time, but any modern laptop will do it without problems. And, by the way, video transmission over the network is carried out in the WMV format - to the question of previous thoughts about windows settings media video.

After installation, the preset channels for Moscow are already present in the tuner (with the names and icons displayed). If you live in another region or even in the nearest suburbs and use cable TV, then you should automatically search for programs.

Context menu called by pressing the right mouse button.

In this case, you can search in a given frequency range or in ranges characteristic of on-air or cable broadcasting. Having configured the channels manually, you can set for each of them your own icon from the vast catalog, or draw your own logo.

Also, for each TV channel, you can assign your own TV program guide, which will be useful if your air grid cable television completely different from the standard.

It should be noted that in this window you can adjust the image parameters for each channel individually. This is where the GotView PCI DVD tuner compares favorably with many TVs and competing models.

If the broadcast is broadcast in stereo, then the tuner has the opportunity to select the appropriate mode and standard.

The program allows you to set a schedule for recording programs using the "Task Scheduler". It is enough to choose the time, action, start and end time of the transfer - and the computer will do everything for you. Convenient feature, eliminating the binding to the broadcast time. Now you can watch your favorite program at any time. Recording in any format is supported - MPEG, AVI, WMV with the settings specified in the corresponding panels.

Note that, in addition to the basic functions of starting and stopping recording, the shell supports the sound signal before and after encoding, notification with a message, switching to sleep mode, turning off the computer, and a number of other actions. Well thought out.

System settings

This tab contains basic settings tuner. They are divided into four tabs: "View", "Interface", "Time Shift" and "About".

Here you can set deinterlacing, select the noise reduction mode (by the way, performed in hardware), and set other options. All of them are visible in the illustration.

Again, all possible options are visible in the illustration and are clear, so we will not bother readers with listing them. The "Devices" button allows you to set the hardware resources used and connect a second tuner for the "Picture in Picture" function.

Finally, the third tab allows you to set up delayed playback (Time Shift). Recall that this function allows you to leave the monitor screen at any time, and then watch the program from the same place. The tuner hardware encodes into an MPEG2 stream, and delayed playback will not particularly burden the computer's resources.

One of the main advantages of the tuner is downloading a TV program from the site www.gotview.ru. Now you don't have to bother buying newspapers with the program and visiting different sites.

Everything is grouped in the interface and uploaded as a single file, the volume of which is about 250 kb.

After downloading the list, the screen displays the name of the program and the time of the broadcast.

Here, pictures of 16 channels are displayed in turn on the screen, which allows you to quickly view current programs over the entire range of the air and select the most interesting one. With a mouse click, you can focus on one of the channels - as long as you hold the cursor and the left mouse button, the broadcast will be made for one "rectangle". It is also convenient that the window shows not only the image, but also the name taken from the program guide:

The green bar allows you to estimate how much time is left until the end of the program or movie. By double clicking on the "icon", the main window is switched to the display mode of the selected channel.

The package includes a convenient infrared remote control with many buttons that allow you to access all the necessary functions. The receiver is connected directly to the tuner via a mini-jack. Compared to earlier models of GotView tuners, the new console has become more stylish, compact.

The keys of the remote can be programmed with the appropriate utility, so the user really has freedom of action. In addition to actually working with the tuner, the remote control supports a number of popular applications: Microsoft Media Player, Zoom Player, BSPlayer and WinAmp. In fact, you get at your disposal remote control from the main functions of the computer. Perhaps in the future support for some other applications will be added. In our opinion, the ability to control DVD playback programs such as PowerDVD or WinDVD is missing.

We tested the reception quality under standard conditions. When the tuner was connected to cable local television, the GoTView Pro program was able to detect all channels plus two phantom ones, which we removed from the list without any problems.

On the most positive side, the GoTView PCI DVD noise reduction system showed itself. Even in the "weak filtering" mode, most background "noises" are filtered out on channels with an average reception quality, and in the "noise suppression" mode, interference is significantly reduced even on heavily noisy channels. Note that the stronger the filtering you turn on, the more inertial the image becomes. Also, suppression slightly reduces the sharpness of the image, but when viewing a recorded DVD on a TV, this is absolutely imperceptible.

Inexpensive TV tuner.

GoTView PCI DVD.

Pay attention to extraneous "noises" on the wall and faces. The screenshot cannot convey what it looks like in dynamics, although everyone has probably come across “noises” on a regular TV when one or another channel does not catch well. On GoTView PCI DVD there is much less "noise", and the image, in general, looks smoother and softer than on budget tuners. Let's also note the excellent image scaling - unlike inexpensive models, the GoTView PCI DVD tuner displays a picture without characteristic squares, with even straight lines on contrasting edges.

GoTView PCI DVD comes with InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 package. basic functions video editing - cut ads from a recording, overlay titles, menus, segment movies for ease of navigation on a household DVD player. In the course of testing, we digitized the "Black Boomer" clip from MTV in MPEG2 and then burned it to DVD. Several screenshots illustrate the process:

We open the video in the program, cut out the extra places and break it into segments (so that the scrolling on the DVD player works).

We search the Internet for a picture suitable for the topic to insert as a background.

We select the interface buttons (playback and viewing of segments).

By clicking "Make Movie" we choose the best quality and the name of the disc.

Select "save the resulting video to a hard drive for later recording."

We burn the disc using Nero Burning ROM (it was possible just in WinDVD Creator, but the drive was installed on a different stand).

Note the simplicity and intuitiveness of working with WinDVD Creator. Just a few clicks of the mouse, and you will be prompted to either save the video in DVD format to your hard drive for later burning it using third-party software (for example, Nero Burning ROM), or immediately burn it to a disc. You can insert the result into a household DVD player and view it just like any movie bought in a store. This allows you to record movies, clips or news releases from the tuner to your PC using the scheduler, and then watch them on your TV at home or away. You can create a schedule for the day with a few mouse clicks and, after returning from work, view all the programs you are interested in either directly on your PC or on your TV from a recorded "blank".

The GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner demonstrated excellent quality and functionality. Hardware encoding in MPEG2 allows you to significantly reduce the load on the system and implement video recording and delayed viewing (TimeShift) functions on systems with slow processors. The quality of the tuner's reception can be described as exceptional. Separately, we emphasize the high-quality noise reduction and video deinterlacing system, the possibility of hardware capture in high resolution not only from the tuner, but also from various external sources - a video camera, VCR or video surveillance system.

GoTView PCI DVD will be of interest not only to those users who would like to turn their PC into a high-quality and functional TV, but also to those who plan to transfer their video recordings from cassettes to DVD. Traditionally, the software is implemented at a high level, it is supported very useful feature downloading a TV program from the manufacturer's website. The GoTView Pro shell interface is intuitive, and access to all the main functions is well structured.

Based on testing results, we award the GoTView PCI DVD with the "THG RECOMMEND" medal.

Where to buy this product?

At the time of writing the review, the cost of the GoTView PCI DVD tuner ranged from $118 to $124. Detailed information and technical specifications of the product can be found on the manufacturer's website

One is grey, the other is white.
folk song

Despite the fact that the spread of digital terrestrial television in Russia in Lately does not give much cause for optimism, the domestic market for computer TV tuners is developing at a much faster pace. To date, such models have been presented by almost all major market participants. The price difference with analog tuners is usually small. In addition, in light of recent government initiatives to switch to H.264/AVC broadcasting, compared to some DVB-T-enabled MPEG2-enabled consumer devices, computer tuners only require software support for the appropriate decoders.

The company for several years has been stubbornly creating a reputation for itself as a prophet of hardware MPEG2 compression in its own country. In particular, the first tuner from GOTVIEW with DVB-T PCI DVD3 Hybrid support had a hardware encoder, which at the time of the start of sales provided this model with functional leadership. However, such an approach inevitably affects the final cost, so that the place of an affordable hybrid solution in the lineup remained vacant. Obtaining a younger model from an older one by cutting off excess circuitry in this case could not work due to the lack of a PCI bridge in the used ADC, so the element base was changed as a result of simplification. Note that the tuner considered in this review has become the first device under the GOTVIEW brand since the PCI 7135 that does not have a hardware compressor.

In order for our readers to better understand the positioning of GOTVIEW PCI Hybrid, here is a list of materials on potential competitors of this model:

• Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 - a hybrid TV tuner without significant drawbacks
• Leadtek WinFast DTV2000 H - hybrid TV and FM tuner with classic receiver and original antenna connection
• TV and FM tuner AVerTV Hybrid+FM PCI - a hybrid version for a common interface from AVerMedia Technologies
• Compro VideoMate E650 - hybrid TV and FM tuner with PCI-Express interface

Contents of delivery

The white-lilac color scheme has already been used by GOTVIEW in the design, however, none of the boxes with the latest models has this combination of colors.

Despite the modest dimensions of the box, you can find quite a few items inside:

• Tuner
• Remote control
• Remote sensor remote control
• Portable DVB-T Antenna
• FM antenna
• S-Video to RCA adapter for connecting composite video sources
• Adapter 2 RCA - mini-jack for connecting audio sources
• S-Video to S-Video cable
• RCA to RCA cable
• Bracket for installation in low-profile cases
• Tuner Installation Guide
• 2 CDs with drivers and software

The package bundle is completely identical to that of the PCI DVD3 Hybrid, so the manufacturer's attention to this aspect is once again worthy of praise.

Additional software is traditionally presented WinDVD Creator 2 from , designed to create VCD, SVCD or DVD. Serial number listed on the CD sleeve.

The codecs installed with this program also provide MPEG2 programmatic recording and Timeshift delayed viewing functionality.

Construction and specifications

PCI Hybrid illustrates the concern for the owners of compact cases and barebone systems, traditional for the latest products of the company, the board has a standard length with a low-profile design. In the tradition of GOTVIEW, there is also a combination of purple textolite and a gilded bar (oddly enough, unlike the PCI DVD3 Hybrid kit, the additional bar for installation in low-profile cases is not coated).

Reception of digital and analog signals lies on the silicon shoulders of the XC3028ACQ semiconductor hybrid RF unit from the Californian company, which is currently the leader in the production of receivers of this type.

According to the specifications, the microcircuit is protected from interference and does not need additional shielding. However, it should be taken into account that the achievement maximum quality reception when using the XC3028 and its analog counterpart XC2028, requires compliance with certain binding requirements. You don't need to look far for examples, PCI DVD2 Lite is noticeably inferior to PCI DVD3 Hybrid in this indicator.

The ADC is somewhat surprising. While most competing PCI models use Philips analog-to-digital converters (the semiconductor division is now a stand-alone company with corresponding changes in new batch labeling), the PCI Hybrid carries a 10-bit CX23883-39 on board with support for all existing video - and audio standards from Conexant Systems, Inc. . However, the image quality provided by this chip is in no way inferior to the popular SAA713x. As for the potentially interesting differences in the additional features of different ADCs, we will talk about them later in the text.

Support for the digital mode is implemented using the COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) demodulator Intel CE 6353, until the transition in November 2005, along with other solutions developed by ZL10353.

Unlike the PCI DVD3 Hybrid, the PCI Hybrid board layout does not provide for the installation of additional chips.

As for the older model, the specifications indicate power stabilization to reduce interference from other devices. The absence of a hardware encoder and buffer memory made it possible to reduce the number of integral stabilizers that help reduce possible voltage ripples from 5 to 3. An additional benefit from installing several stabilizers is an increase in the efficiency of heat load distribution, when the tuner is operating, there is no noticeable difference in the heating of individual sections.

With the exception of hardware compression support, the PCI Hybrid is not much different from the older model in its capabilities, the list of which includes the following:

• Support for terrestrial and cable TV
• Support for all television standards of analog broadcasting PAL / SECAM / NTSC
• Support for digital TV and radio broadcasting in DVB-T format
• Scan channels in any specified range, with any given step
• Deinterlacing filters, including double frame rate filters
• Individual settings for each channel: volume, brightness, warmth, color, sharpness, encoding type
• Assigning an icon for each channel
• Motion Detector
• Function "Picture-in-Picture"(PIP) if there are two or more video capture devices in the system
• Optional mute during program start, search or channel change
• Eliminate edge defects in the image (scaling and cropping the edges)
• Software support for recording to AVI/DV/WMV/MPEG4 formats with any codec installed in the system
• Support for all modern containers (AVI, WMV, ASF, MPEG-1.2, fvASFDirect, Matroska, etc.) when recording
• Capture TV window frames in BMP, TIFF, PNG, TGA, PCX, GIF (including animated), JPG formats by timer or by pressing a button
• Ability to automatically change the file name.
• Full Capture Information
• Processing the recorded image with filters
• Lazy View Mode timeshift
• Ability to temporarily pause recording
• Ability to correct settings (changing brightness, contrast, etc.) during recording
• Video over desktop
• The ability to turn off the image and sound in case of a long absence of a signal
• Network Broadcast (HTTP/UDP)
• Weekly TV guide support with update download option
• Displays the name of the current TV program, as well as the start and end time of this program, indicating the length of time elapsed from the start
• Ability to reserve disk space for recording a fragment
• Fully Russified interface

Test computer configuration

• CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
• Systemic Gigabyte board GA-965P-DS3 (Intel P965 + Intel ICH8)
• RAM 4 GB (4×1024 DDR2 PC6400 KingMax)
• Video cards HIS ATI RADEON X1900XT/NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX
• Sound card Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS
• 250 GB Hitachi HDD (HDT722525DLA380)
• HDD 120 GB Maxtor Plus9-6Y120M0
• DVD ReWriter BENQ DW1640
• DVD ReWriter NEC ND-3500A
• Power Supply Thermaltake Purepower 680APD (W0049 rev. 2, 680 W)
• Operating Windows systems XP Professional (SP2) ENG and Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit) RUS

List of on-air channels during testing

The source of the DVB-T signal was a transmitter broadcasting in test mode on the 34th television channel. The antennas are installed on a mast located in the Khoroshevo - Mnevniki district of Moscow at the address: st. Demyan Poor, 24. Testing was carried out on the street. General Glagolev (near the Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station). Reception was carried out on a compact antenna from the delivery set.

Connection

The location of the connectors on the bracket completely copies the scheme used in the PCI DVD3 Hybrid. The TV antenna is connected to a standard IEC connector, the FM antenna is connected to a 2.5 mm mini-jack connector. Note that the adjacent identical connectors for connecting the IR sensor of the remote control and the FM antenna require some care when installing the tuner. The composite signal is completely removed from the S-Video connector, the corresponding adapter is included in the kit.

Despite the fact that GOTVIEW PCI Hybrid is one of the few CX23883-based tuners with the ability to transmit audio over PCI, the board has a connector for connecting to an additional sound card input.

Installation and setup

Single Level Menu installation disk provides access only to software, the driver is installed by regular means of the operating system.

To remove the driver, use the utility available on the same CD and on the manufacturer's website. DriverTool, which can also help when installing / removing other devices (the program’s capabilities are expanded by launching with an arbitrary key up to “/” without additional options).

Traditionally, we recall the presence on the CD of detailed documentation in HTML format, which can reduce the entry threshold for inexperienced users, and help called by the textbook button F1 when working with the regular program.

When testing, the driver version was used 3.0.2.2 and program GoTView PRO 5.0.0.506 beta 2.

After installing the driver in the section Sound, video and game controllers device manager can be found GOTVIEW Audio AVStream Device, GOTVIEW Hybrid TV Tuner Card And GOTVIEW TS Capture Device.

The icon of the remote control program appears in the system tray, which also acts as a resident scheduler program.

The program supports various options design, some of which are contained in the distribution, the rest are available on the manufacturer's website.

The manufacturer is not disingenuous at all, promising "wide opportunities for searching and setting channels." The available options are not limited to standard search options by frequency (range and step are set by the user) and the list of channels, available options are not limited, offering automatic correction frequencies to the nearest standard values, faster searching, saving time when there are no channels with poor reception, and skipping encrypted digital channels. A feature of the program is a general list of analog, DVB-T channels and FM radio stations.

This approach implies a common search menu with the ability to select the format and set the default video parameters for analog channels.

Inherent in digital channels VPID(Video Program Identification) and APID(Audio Program Identification) are view-only, but editing the cnls.ini file allows you to change these settings. The inconvenience of this approach is offset by the lack of need to adjust these values ​​in normal conditions, moreover, some manufacturers generally do not provide access to such settings. Individual adjustment of video parameters (brightness, contrast, warmth, color, sharpness, gamma, software noise reduction) for digital channels requires image output using Video Mixing Renderer9. However, this mode is supported by almost all video cards on the market.

The CX23883 does not have a built-in equalizer, so the corresponding settings are not available. The lack of a full-fledged automatic color system detection system compared to the next-generation ADCs from Philips / NXP and Conexant could be considered a disadvantage if it were not for the possibility manual installation standard for each channel individually.

In the latest versions of the program, there are several tabs with large And The tree-like structure of the settings interface, which simplifies navigation through sections, occupied the m number of parameters on each.

Chapter Video contains scaling settings (common for all channels), aspect ratios (4:3, 14:9, 16:9, 16:10), deinterlacing filter settings (hardware and several types of software, including doubling the frame rate). In the conditions of our broadcasting, the ability to swap fields or shift a frame by a line may be in demand.

In subsection Options you can find the video stream output settings in the view mode - select resolution and renderer (VMR7 and VMR9 are supported). The tuner architecture eliminates the need for additional color conversion, so that owners of weak configurations may not be afraid of an increase in CPU load. The ADC works with standard formats, so the corresponding setting is not available.

There are also checkboxes responsible for switching the video standard and displaying the image on the desktop.

When working with digital channels only scaling settings, video renderer selection, and options for the selected decoder are available.

Decoder selection is made by editing the file decoders.ini. If the values ​​described there do not match (you can check them using the program), you can edit the file, or add a new decoder manually. The item is edited according to the selected decoder. Preferences, For example,

video=8
Audio=8

means that the decoder from NVIDIA is used with the parameters And . In the case of digital broadcasting in H.264/AVC, it is also enough to add the appropriate decoder, depending on the type of compression, the program will automatically select the appropriate option.

Button Graphs calls the interface built into the program for measuring and displaying such parameters of an arbitrary visible line of a television frame as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the distribution levels of color components.

Subsection effects is responsible for selecting video effects when switching channels (not available in digital mode).

In chapter Sound for this model, only the choice of playback and recording lines is available.

To control the volume, a separate subsection is assigned, in which, in particular, the volume control interface (system mixer or DirectSound) is selected.

A unique feature of the program is the connection of third-party Direct Show (DS) filters and DirectX Media Objects (DMO) both during viewing and recording, for which there is a corresponding section.

The section on interface settings contains a lot of settings - from choosing a design to showing a TV program in the menu.

In subsection Control There are two new settings. If the indicator flashes scroll lock on the keyboard during recording and in the mode of delayed viewing belongs to the category of pleasant trifles, then the checkbox that activates the mode master/slave deserves further explanation. Mode support picture-in-picture(Picture-In-Picture, PIP) if there is a second video capture device (the choice is made in the section Devices) was implemented in the program FlyDS, the developments of which formed the basis GoTView PRO. master/slave provides full work of two copies one programs with two devices without the need for this previously physical installation of the second instance, followed by changes in configuration files. Regardless of the exit sequence, at the next launches the program works with the main device. The only limitation is the lack of support for third-party tuners.

Advanced users may find it useful to show additional settings checkbox, which is responsible for accessing hidden parameters. The same subsection contains the shutdown timer and forced setting of the region, which can help with non-standard settings of the operating system.

Traditionally, access to setting up keyboard shortcuts is provided, implemented in a separate subsection.

The OSD (On Screen Display) section is responsible for the OSD settings. It is allowed to change almost all parameters that affect the visual design.

We already talked about the appearance of the weather display function (requires an Internet connection) in the PCI DVD3 Hybrid review, we will focus on one of the new features - signal strength display in both digital and analog modes, implemented for all tuners of the company equipped with Xceive receivers . Despite the fact that when working with analog broadcasting, the result is given as two values ​​with a step of 10 dB (“40-50 dB”, “50-60 dB”, etc.), even in this form it can greatly facilitate the search possible causes image deterioration. To display additional information button on the screen "WITH".

Delayed viewing mode settings (autostart viewing, deleting a buffer file, blocking channel switching, launching at program startup) is covered in the section timeshift. Stream parameter settings are also available in the recording menu.

When using VMR9 in this mode, you can adjust the video parameters in real time.

IN advanced settings(recall that for display is activated in the subsection Control) contains such options as accelerated launch of the program, operation on one processor/processor core, writing the operation log to a file (may be useful when contacting the manufacturer's support service) and launching the program without turning on viewing.

The recording interface with the ability to save and edit profiles has not undergone significant changes. Note, perhaps, the support for recording the Transport Stream when working with DVB-T.

Since the first introduction to the motion detector in the GOTVIEW PCI DVD review, this part has remained unchanged. However, the ability to upload screenshots to an ftp server with optional generation appeared in the program html pages(!) significantly expands the functionality of the tuner as a component security system.

Scheduler supports timeshift as a task and shutting down the computer/going into power saving mode after the task is completed.

In the settings of the TV program (available on the manufacturer's website, both manual and automatic update) added export in HTML or text format.

Quality

When working with digital channels, the display of signal strength is also workable. In contrast to the analog mode, DVB-T broadcasting provides a higher accuracy in determining this parameter (in our case, about 69 dB). Artifacts of MPEG compression and "slowdown" of the image, characteristic of unstable reception, were not observed during testing.

The image quality when working with DVB-T is determined by the provider and can vary from low resolutions with low bitrate to HDTV.

There was no desynchronization of image and sound in digital mode during testing.

PCI Hybrid did not follow in the footsteps of PCI DVD2 Lite, demonstrating good reception quality of analog channels. It remains only to rejoice, in the absence of hardware noise reduction, there would be nothing to correct the shortcomings of the receiving part.

The tuner provides good picture quality. Screenshots were prepared using hardware deinterlacing.

The default filter with a cutoff frequency of 1.5 MHz for SECAM in the driver, which reduces image clarity in most tuners on CX23881/2/3, is disabled for PCI Hybrid, which also has a positive effect on quality.

Alas, it was not without drawbacks. Under certain conditions (in fairness, we’ll clarify that they are quite rare, the effect may not appear even once during the entire time the tuner is used), there is a possibility of artifacts typical for the ADC of this series in the form of small green spots on saturated colors.

Strange behavior of the program in full screen mode on widescreen displays with software deinterlacing also does not belong to the category of problems that significantly complicate life, but it is also impossible to remain silent about this.

Six months ago, we expressed hope that subtitles will be supported when working with DVB-T channels, but this feature has not yet appeared in the program.

FM tuner

The program has a common interface for TV and FM modes. As we said above, the list of FM stations is combined with television (in our case, analog and digital) channels, the search is also carried out in a similar way.

A pleasant surprise was the almost complete coincidence of the automatic search radio stations with real ones. Interestingly, neither PCI DVD2 Lite nor PCI DVD3 Hybrid could boast of such a result. And the reception quality makes it possible to attribute the PCI Hybrid to the group of the best TV tuners in this parameter.

The sound quality deserves a good rating (download test fragment, 471 KB, MP3, 192 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz).

There was no delay when switching radio stations, as well as the deterioration of image quality noted in the PCI DVD2 Lite review after switching TV-FM-TV in analog mode.

Remote control

The tuner comes with the same remote control as the PCI DVD3 Hybrid/PCI DVD2 Lite, which is a classic example of slim design. Standard sizes and the distribution of buttons in functional areas provide good ergonomics, and membrane technology ensures that there is no internal contamination. The remote control is powered by the included CR2025 3V battery.

Supported self-configuration buttons, up to turning off the computer with a long press of the button power.

Emulation of multimedia keyboards allows you to use the remote in some third party applications, which include MS MediaPlayer, Zoom Player, BSPlayer, Winamp, etc. In order to prevent potential conflicts, this function is disabled in the settings.

conclusions

pros

• DVB-T format support
• Support for all used analog video and audio standards
• Stereo decoding
• Low profile design
• Good reception quality in digital and analog modes
• Good picture and sound quality
• Software support for third-party codecs
• Individual color system setting for each channel
• Individual video and audio settings for each channel
• Support for hardware deinterlacing
• Ability to connect third-party filters Direct Show and DirectX Media Objects both during viewing and recording
• Full function "Picture-in-Picture"(if you have a second video capture device)
• Mode master/slave(with a second tuner from GOTVIEW)
• Multi-channel preview
• Video playback over desktop
• Motion detector with the ability to post captured frames on an ftp server
• TV program support
• Network Broadcast (HTTP/UDP)
• Ability to turn off the computer after the end of the recording
• Ability to use the remote control to work with other applications
• Russian-language interface
• Support for Windows 2000/XP/2003/MCE 2005/Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)
• Availability of additional software

Minuses

• Lack of automatic color standard detection in case of PAL/SECAM
• Possible image artifacts under certain conditions
• Lack of subtitle support when working with digital channels (relevant at the time of the review release)

GOTVIEW PCI Hybrid is somewhat different from other current products from the company. Unlike them, this model does not pretend to various kinds of local revolutions, being, so to speak, workhorse. On the other hand, the quality of reception and the capabilities of the standard software distinguish the tuner from its closest competitors, and the reasonable price makes PCI Hybrid one of the most likely purchase candidates among hybrid devices without hardware compression support.

GOTVIEW PCI Hybrid in Moscow retail: N/A(0)

TV tuners GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD

Maxim Babenkov

GOTVIEW is an Taiwanese company specializing in the development and production of multimedia products and peripherals for desktop and laptop computers. The line of multimedia products of the company includes devices for receiving television and radio signals on a computer TV-FM tuners, as well as TV tuners with additional features to capture and digitize an image.

The company has been present on the Russian market for two years, but in such a short time it has already established itself quite well, since its products differ high quality, good equipment, functional software and full adaptation to the conditions of Russian television broadcasting.

In this article, we will focus on only two internal models of GoTView TV tuners with PCI interface: GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD.

The first model of the TV tuner GoTView PCI 7135 is made on purple textolite and has a gilded bar. This style is traditional for all TV tuners of the company.

The GoTView PCI 7135 model is based on the Philips SAA7135HL decoder. The bulk of the chip binding radio elements is located in the immediate vicinity of it. The board has several capacitors of large and small capacitance (LC filters), which serve to eliminate interference from other elements inside the computer, as well as from power interference.

The Philips SAA7135HL video/audio decoder processes PAL/SECAM/NTSC signals and supports A2 and NICAM stereo broadcasts. The decoder also provides advanced audio processing and lets you digitize audio at up to 48 kHz sampling rates. In addition, the decoder supports various effects such as Virtual Dolby Surround and Dolby Surround Prologic.

The third-generation Philips FM1216ME/I H-3 unit is used as a high-frequency unit in the GoTView PCI 7135, which supports PAL/SECAM/NTSC signals in the frequency range from 48.25 to 855.25 MHz. Most modern TV tuners are equipped with a similar high-frequency unit.

The device allows you to implement traditional functions such as video capture with sound, as well as receive FM radio stations in stereo mode.

The rear of the GoTView PCI 7135 has the following connectors: two antenna inputs (one for connecting television antenna and the other for the radio antenna), 2 mm IR receiver connector, composite and S-Video input, audio input and audio output. The bar with connectors, like in many other models of the company, has a golden color.

In addition to the traditional audio connectors on the backplate, the GoTView PCI 7135 is additionally equipped with internal audio input and output connectors. These connectors are useful primarily when connecting a TV tuner to a sound card, which allows you to leave the external line input of the sound card free. The audio input and output connectors are located on the outside of the printed circuit board, which simplifies device switching. We emphasize that in some cases there is no need to connect via these connectors, since the GoTView PCI 7135 TV tuner also transmits sound via the PCI bus.

TV tuner GoTView PCI 7135 is equipped with a remote control, which, in addition to working with the TV tuner itself, allows you to control various multimedia applications. The remote control shown is different from the remote control that is included with previous TV tuner models. So, the new remote control has an increased number of buttons and a more thoughtful placement, and in addition, the remote control buttons can be programmed using the utility supplied in the kit.

The GoTView PCI 7135 comes with a remote control with batteries, an IR receiver for remote control, an FM antenna, a mini-jackmini-jack audio cable, and an audio cable to connect the tuner's audio output to an external line-in motherboard or sound card, user manual in Russian and two CDs with InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 video editor in Russian and GoTView PRO software.

GoTView PCI 7135 is one of the best TV tuners on the market today. A well-designed board using quality components provides excellent picture and sound quality, and can reliably receive various video signals.

The second of the considered TV tuner models GoTView PCI DVD differs from the first not only functionally, but also externally. The printed circuit board, as emphasized above, is also made in purple, but in terms of size it is much inferior to the GoTView PCI 7135 card, especially in width.

The GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner is based on the Philips SAA7174HL and CONEXANT CX23416 chips, which allows video capture and MPEG compression at bit rates up to 15Mbps and audio sampling rates up to 48kHz. PAL/SECAM/NTSC standards and A2 and NICAM stereo broadcasts are supported. The main difference between the Philips SAA7174 decoder and the Philips SAA7135 decoder is the absence of a PCI interface, the function of which in the TV tuner is performed by another chip CONEXANT СХ23416. This chip serves as a hardware MPEG1/2 codec for video and audio streams. In addition, the CX23416 has a hardware noise reduction filter that removes noise from the video image and improves the MPEG compression ratio. On the reverse side of the printed circuit board there is one HY57V643220CT-6 memory chip manufactured by Hynix Semiconductor, which serves as a buffer for the MPEG stream. The specification of this chip is as follows: voltage 3.3 V, operating frequency 166 MHz, four banks of 512 Kbps

As a high-frequency block in GoTView PCI DVD, a third-generation Philips MK3 block is used, which supports PAL / SECAM / NTSC signals in the frequency range from 48.25 to 855.25 MHz. Unlike the above model, the GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner uses a high-frequency unit without an FM receiver Philips MK3 1216.

The main features of the device include support for terrestrial and cable television, wide possibilities for searching and setting channels, the ability to capture real-time video in MPEG-2 format with a resolution of up to 720S480, capture frames in various graphic formats, etc. Other features of the GoTView PCI DVD model include high-quality image processing with regular and double frequency noise reduction and deinterlacing filters. I would especially like to note that the program uses the hardware capabilities of modern video cards to process images with deinterlacing filters, which can significantly reduce the CPU load.

On the back of the GoTView PCI DVD are a composite video input, an IR receiver jack for the remote control, an antenna TV input,

S-Video input and audio input.

The traditional analog audio output in this model is not implemented at all, which, however, is not surprising. Audio is transmitted only via the PCI bus, so there is no need to complete the device with an audio cable to connect the tuner to the sound card. However, the GoTView PCI DVD comes with another audio cable for connecting external sources, one side of which has a mini-jack plug and the other side has two RCA plugs. This cable is useful when connecting various camcorders and a VCR to the tuner.

The GoTView PCI DVD remote control is fundamentally different from the first model. First of all, the remote control is very flat and equipped with a large number of buttons their number reaches 37 pieces. In addition, the buttons are touch-sensitive, which prevents dirt and dust from entering. Tactile sensations when pressing the buttons allow you to accurately assess whether a key has actually been pressed. In general, we can say that the remote control is compact, and in addition, it is lightweight and functional. The frequently used buttons for changing the volume and switching channels are very well located on the remote control. The remote control is powered by a 3 V lithium cell.

In our opinion, the GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner can today be considered the simplest solution for digitizing both TV channels and video signal from a home camcorder and VCR. The advantages of the TV tuner include the fact that during the digitization process a hardware noise reduction filter will be used, which will slightly improve the quality of the digitized signal.

An additional plus is that the GoTView PCI DVD can run under Windows MCE 2005, something that only a few tuner manufacturers can currently boast of. If you have two or three GoTView PCI DVD tuners on this OS, you can schedule multiple channels to be recorded at the same time.

The GoTView PCI DVD package includes a remote control with a battery, an IR receiver for remote control, an FM antenna, an audio cable for connecting various audio sources (mini-jackRCA), a user manual in Russian and two CDs - disc with InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 video editor and GoTView PRO software.

Now let's briefly talk about the software that comes with both models of GoTView TV tuners, and about its functionality. GoTView PRO 4.0.0.475 has a number of interesting and unique features, including, for example, PIP (picture in picture), which allows you to watch two channels at the same time with a second tuner. The possibility of separate recording of audio and video streams greatly simplifies and speeds up video editing, and also helps to avoid the use of additional software. A unique feature of the program is support for third-party filters Direct Show (DS) and DirectX Media Objects (DMO), designed for additional image and sound processing.

The "Motion Detection" function allows you to use the device as a video surveillance system. To do this, it is enough to connect a video camera to the tuners, which will record the controlled area. With support for unlimited skins appearance programs are fairly easy to change.

Installing device drivers and software does not cause any difficulties, especially if you follow the installation sequence, as well as the recommendations indicated in the user manual.

The main window of the GoTView PRO program contains buttons for switching TV channels, buttons for setting the reception frequency, a button for displaying all channels in a separate window that opens, a video capture button, a scheduler button, a button for updating a TV program via the Internet, and a settings button. There is also a display that shows various information such as channel number, channel name, current time, audio mode, TV standard, and more. The main window also contains sliders for settings of the general sound and separately channel sound, brightness, contrast and saturation.

The software allows you to capture frames in BMP, JPEG and GIF formats with a resolution of up to 768x576, record audio and video streams with the possibility of compression (for this, audio and video codecs must be installed in the system). Various functions are also supported, such as channel preview and Time Shift the latter allows simultaneous recording and playback of the video signal.

Of all the other features of the program, we note the functions that serve to configure the interface, video and audio signals, remote control buttons, display menus and indicators in the window and full screen modes, as well as to control the program using keyboard shortcuts.

On the whole, it can be said that shell has a very rich functionality and is currently one of the best, perfectly complementing and realizing all the capabilities of the hardware devices.

The editors express their gratitude to GOTVIEW ( http://www.gotview.ru )for the provided TV tuners GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD.

I think that I will not be mistaken if I say that the majority of users who are interested in computer devices about trademark GOTVIEW doesn't even suspect. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese industrial group of the same name presented a rather interesting range of multimedia products under this brand on the Russian market last year, among which was our today's hero - the GoTView PCI internal TV tuner.

All products supplied by this company are adapted to the conditions of each country separately, and our test subject is no exception. The manufacturer emphasizes its unique software, which will be very comfortable for the Russian user to work with. Well, let's see...

Equipment

The fact that this product did not accidentally hit the Russian market becomes clear after you pick up a nice box. Only from the information that I found on the box, the potential buyer gets a "well, very positive" picture of the capabilities of the board, especially after the loud statement on the box about the ideal television.

Inside this cardboard miracle of design thought, along with the tuner board, we found a remote control with a pair of AAA batteries, a standard T-shaped FM antenna, an audio cable for connecting to the line-in input of a sound card, an external IR sensor for the remote control, two CDs - one with drivers and working software, the second with a set of programs for capturing and processing video from InterVideo (WinDVR and WinDVD Creator) and a small instruction in Russian for installing drivers for different versions operating systems from Microsoft.

An almost standard set, except for one very nice thing - a CD with full versions of software from InterVideo, which greatly expands the capabilities of the board. Of course, I understand perfectly well that in our country getting any software is not a problem, but having at least some useful licensed software at home is a pleasant clearing of conscience :)

Design and specifications

Black lacquer, high-quality soldering, a golden plate with connectors are clear signs of a brand, moreover, a brand with a big name. It seems that GOTVIEW is challenging the famous brands whose names are on everyone's lips. But one polish is not enough. To claim leadership, the design must meet high modern requirements.

And this same design is based on the Conexant Fusion 878A chipset.

One can argue for a long time about the advantages of this or that chip, but still more modern microcircuits from the same Conexant or Philips provide better picture quality. However, they, like new, unbroken chips, do not yet have that choice of software and developments in it, which the 878th can boast of.

The TCL2002MB-33F analog receiver high-frequency unit is rooted in Philips' past.

The engineers obviously did a great job on the design of the board itself - everything is done quite compactly. As a result, the tuner does not extend beyond the PCI slot.

Even before the chipset, two four-pin audio connectors for connecting an input audio signal source and for connecting a tuner to sound card. For some reason, such a solution is far from often seen on TV tuners of various, even very prestigious brands. In the meantime, it is very useful, because thanks to these connectors you can free up external audio inputs / outputs, as well as overdub and mix sound from other audio sources.

The presence of these connectors speaks of some kind, but professionalism.

Well, the main connectors, of course, are located on a golden plug. There are: FM antenna connector, TV antenna connector, infrared sensor connector, low-frequency AV video input, minijack audio stereo input, composite S-Video input, minijack audio stereo output.

Well, in my opinion, everything you need that only happens on TV tuners is present here.

Remote control and IR sensor

The 30-button remote control with a special curved ergonomic shape fits perfectly in the hand. All rubber buttons are located not anyhow, but thoughtfully - for ease of operation. Even the bottom buttons are very easy to press, as the elongated shape of the remote makes it easy to hold.

The remote controls both TV and FM, so you don't have to get up from the couch.

The only complaint I have about the remote control is the variety of colors on its body. It could have been done more modestly, but this is my personal opinion, and, as you know, there are few like-minded people in terms of taste and color.

The length of the remote IR sensor wire is, as always, short. I don’t understand in any way, is it a pity for manufacturers to make it not a meter, but two? Well, if my computer is on the floor under the table, then where, excuse me, should I bring this sensor out? But that's not GOTVIEW's fault, though. The length seems to be some kind of standard.

Working with the supplied software

Driver installation was very fast and almost automatic. My Windows XP easily recognized two new devices in the system.

By the way, in the old version GoTView added four devices to the system.

After that, I carefully examined the CD and found an excellent instruction for installing and working with a TV tuner, where everything was described in great detail. The instruction is in PDF format, so to read it, there is a folder with AdobeAcrobatReader 6.0 on the disk. In addition, there is also a folder with Internet Explorer 6.0 and a folder with the main program for working with the GoTView Pro tuner, which occupies as much as 1.9 MB. But it's not about size, it's about quality.

Installing the program took no more time than installing the drivers. After the launch, it was proposed to edit the settings for a specific job, but for now we will take a closer look at its interface:

The player's interface is rather unusual and does not at all resemble the usual elongated control panels from the software of other TV tuners.

Another innovation introduced by the manufacturer concerns switching between TV and FM modes. Now everything happens in the same panel - you switch channels and TV switches to radio. This is the state of affairs if in the right corner of the three possible TV / FM / TV + FM modes you have chosen the last one.

The lower left corner is occupied by six sliders responsible for brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, etc. similar characteristics. They, along with the volume, are configured separately (!) For each channel. Indeed, each channel has its own display features, so why limit yourself.

To the right of these settings are the icons of six items of the main menu of the tuner - Capture, Channels, Scheduler, Settings, TV program and Channel listing. They are located in a completely incomprehensible way, so we will consider them in a different sequence.

Channels. The first thing that catches your eye when you enter this menu item is a huge table with names, frequencies and characteristics (system type, volume, color settings) of not only TV channels, but also FM stations.

Firstly, the presence of this table immediately in the newly installed program indicates that the manufacturer took care of the end user and created a database for all Russian television broadcasting (16 channels) and partial radio broadcasting in the FM band (6 stations of the Moscow FM band). The small number of FM stations can be explained simply - they have their own in each city, and it is simply impossible to keep up with the change in the frequency of their broadcasting, as well as their new names. Secondly, as you have already noticed, in the table both TV and FM are in one list. You can distinguish them only by the broadcasting system (varieties of SECAM, PAL, NTSC or FM).

The right part of the "Channels" field is reserved for editing certain characteristics of this table. Here you can not only change the name of the channel, the broadcasting system, adjust the volume and brightness, but also assign an icon for the channel or FM station. 16 icons for the main channels are already stored in the GoTView Pro database. In addition, here you can fine-tune the channel frequency with an accuracy of 0.01 MHz (!) Or simply set a new one by selecting it from the entire operating range of the tuner and writing it manually.

In the upper left corner is an extremely useful Scan button, which will definitely come in handy for you. You can scan both the entire frequency range and the range of the standard channel grid. The scanning range, as well as the step (minimum step 0.02 MHz) are selected manually. In addition, the user can decide for himself which search method the tuner will work with.

In my opinion - here are collected the widest possibilities for finding the right channel. The signal will not go unnoticed!

Settings. This menu item consists of three fields - "View", "Interface" and "About". In the "View" field, the resolution setting is organized during viewing, with the possibility of enlarging the image with cutting off at the edges, setting the aspect ratio, etc. The deinterlacing setting can rightfully be considered the most important here, which allows you to save your nerves. Let me remind you that interlacing is a comb that occurs on moving objects and spoils the whole viewing experience. Usually this function is implemented in the software of tuners, but not always with high quality. Here you can also set one of the five deinterlacing modes, well, or not use it at all.

The "Interface" field is responsible for customizing the messages displayed on the screen, for selecting the sound source and for other functions that you yourself can familiarize yourself with from the figure.

Capture. A rare TV tuner boasts so many settings for capturing Video, Audio and just pictures. No wonder GOTVIEW pays great attention to the ability to work with recorded video and even included a disc with a software package from InterVideo. Five fields allow you to fine-tune everything related to this - AVI, WMV, Sound, Snapshot, Network.

AVI. Perhaps even an experienced user will initially have some concern about correct setting all parameters displayed here. But this is only at first glance, because. everything is done simply, conveniently and accessible to any user. All possible settings of the video file resulting from recording are taken into account. For convenience, there are settings such as reserving disk space for a file, limiting recording time, setting the frame rate.

An important feature is the ability to display dropped frames when capturing. This is a kind of indicator of the capabilities of your machine. If this indicator is different from zero, then it would be nice to change the recording parameters to lighter ones.

In order not to contemplate the comb on moving objects after recording, it is possible to connect a deinterlacing filter during recording.

The function of setting the video capture resolution has a rather interesting addition that allows you to cut the image along any of the four edges (or all at once) to a width specified in pixels. In general, you can capture video with a resolution of 80x60 to 768x576.

Naturally, you can also adjust the compression settings for video and audio streams if necessary. In addition, GoTView allows you to set a timer for a single entry by date and time.

The right side of the AVI field is reserved for volume and color settings. And the bottom one shows the CPU usage in real time.

wmv. For this type of settings, a little less. For example, there is no possibility of reserving disk space, no possibility of setting the frame rate, as well as settings for video and audio compression.

Sound. The meaning of the settings of this field, I think, is clear to everyone. It is worth noting that the interface has not changed compared to the video settings field. Sound can be recorded, of course, in MP3 with any settings.

In addition, sound can be recorded not only from FM programs, but also from TV. There are situations when you do not need a picture. No problem - write only sound!

On capturing audio and video, it is worth adding one more thing. Real-time coding, i.e. directly upon capture, it can be carried out with any of your codecs, which greatly expands the capabilities of the tuner.

Snapshot. Even in this field of settings, GoTView has much more than its competitors. You can capture individual frames not only with any resolution possible for the tuner, but also in any of the three graphic formats- JPG, BMP, GIF, and the compression quality of the JPG file is adjusted manually.

There is also a great opportunity to set the capture every N seconds while browsing.

Net. Well, this is quite new. The function is experimental, as evidenced by the red warning label. The manufacturer suggests that you work with the tuner ... over the network, i.e. capture video over the network. True, the recommended resolution is only 320x200, but it is recommended, not strictly limited.

Scheduler. Well, it's just a great thing for scheduling automatic recording of not only video, but also audio, as well as taking screenshots. In addition to standard actions, you can execute any command both before recording and after. The command, of course, is written on the appropriate command line.

TV programm. An equally useful thing for downloading databases with programs for each channel. Well, here, everything seems to be so clear.

Channel listing. The last menu is for displaying a grid of 16 channels per page. Quite a standard feature. The only pity is that you can not adjust the location and number of displayed channels manually.

Summing up the software, we can safely say that of the software supplied with the tuners - this is the best. True, the manufacturer cheated a little - after all, in this case, high-quality alternative software for Fly DS TV tuners was taken as a basis. But in this case it is absolutely clear that its deepest processing has been done. Maybe it was the possibility of creating the perfect software that was the reason for choosing the classic Conexant Fusion 878A chip.

The second disc with the software package from InterVideo is not only a full-fledged licensed copy, but in the best traditions of GoTView, the main program for creating home video WinDVD Creator from the package is completely (including help) Russified, which makes it easier for a beginner to work.

Describing all the features of WinDVR and WinDVD Creator is probably pointless, because. it would take an entire book dedicated to making videos. It is only worth mentioning that the package serves both for capturing and for post-processing video, is recognized all over the world and will certainly appeal to many.

Reception quality

Testing the reception of TV and FM channels was carried out in two versions - with an external cable TV connection and with a tuner connected to an indoor antenna. Test computer configuration: Athlon1200 processor, Soltek 75SL-75DRV2 motherboard, NVIDIA graphics card GeForce2 MX400, 256MB RAM, ESS 1969 sound, Windows XP SP1 operating system.

Having connected the cable to the tuner, naturally, I had to search for channels again - the frequencies set by the manufacturer, of course, did not match. I did a search over the entire operating range with a step of 0.1 MHz (Well, 0.02 MHz is too cool). This process is not fast, so I managed to drink tea a couple of times during this time. But the result exceeded all expectations. Due to the small step, a lot of repeating channels were caught, but the tuner caught 17 channels that my TV receives with excellent quality. Almost nothing had to be adjusted.

Channel examples

Naturally, I immediately noticed an interlacing comb on all channels and hurried to get rid of it. Of the five deinterlacing modes, the second method from the list, Blend, turned out to be the prettiest. Copying lines gives a too rough result, the errors of which are too noticeable when stretching the picture. The last two modes TwoFields and Weave (especially Weave) get rid of interlacing very little. The Weave filter also gives a good result, but the image quality after its application is noticeably worse than when using Blend. The Bob filter is somewhere between a good Blend and a rough Line Copy.

Below you can see footage of fast-moving skaters taken without deinterlacing and with deinterlacing applied in all five filters. The sequence is like this - no filter, Copy lines, Blend, Bob, TwoFields, Weave.

Also pay attention to the channel logo (the sequence of applying filters is the same).

Well, it seems to me that the real work of filters is evident.

After switching from cable to simple indoor antenna I didn’t have to configure anything - the manufacturer’s channel grid perfectly matched what it really is. The reception quality was somewhat worse, but these are the errors of my antenna (if you can call it that at all). The telly catches on it no better.

The processor load while watching TV is clearly visible in the screenshots of the capture menu located above in the text. When recording video, it was also not possible to load the test machine to failure. That is why all trial avi-shki were recorded without missed frames and other glitches.

I was very pleased with the possibility of downloading TV programs from the Internet. You just have to press the button, because. all necessary site addresses are already entered into the tuner database.

FM reception does not cause any complaints at all, tk. all the stations that I only know in Moscow were caught clearly. Moreover, the reception was clear, even despite the position of the antenna. Well, in general, its length is quite enough to hang it anywhere.

Total

This is a serious claim to one of the leading positions in the TV tuner market. The capabilities of the device are simply amazing. In addition, the tuner is perfect for those who are going to often record TV programs. This tuner software is simply flawless - do not undermine. An excellent dessert was a licensed disk with a package from InterVideo. The downside, of course, is the use of an outdated chipset, but without it, most likely, there would be no such omnipotent software. So I would like to wish the actively developing GOTVIEW to release a tuner based on a modern chipset, but with the same software. The Conexant Fusion 878A chip does not process the signal of the most common SECAM standard in Russia in the best way - the colors are slightly, but walking. So five with a minus! By the way, online technical support is organized on the company's forum.