- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 5 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Software fundamentally flawed."
Pros: Picture quality is great.
Cons: Horrible channel selection and initial channel search results
Summary: I'm running XP-64 and had to hunt for the appropriate drivers and software versions on the ATI website. The X64 versions on the CD would not install, even as Administrator.
Once the latest versions of the software was installed, the channel search found more than 70 digital channels in my area - far too many. Unfortunately, about sixty of them were listed as repeats of three local PBS channels. I could get the correct audio of many channels, but the screen images were PBS , frozen images of some channel, or snow.
There appears to be no way to search for channels and have them presented to you by the channel number found AND the call sign. I never had to learn call signs before and have on intent to start learning them today (assuming the software can learn them correctly in a future version). The software needs an ability to add or delete channels manually or a provide a "favorites" list.
The scrolling feature for selecting channels is not friendly. I prefer a scrolling list of a length I can control and contents of the list including channel numbers and call signs just like my TV Guide presents.
There appears to be no way to eliminate the Spanish language channels from the list of supported channels (almost all identified by PBS call signs with snow for a picture).
There appears to be no way to easily enter a channel number and go to that channel. It is all "channel up" or "channel down", which does not work well in large cities whose channels are numerous and half foreign language channels. This might be tolerable if I could eliminate channels from the list I don't need (if they were correctly identified). Channels of snow are a real problem.
The software is high on glitz and short on functionality as defined by simple navigation and user-friendliness.
And, tech support is unavailable on weekends, but I suspect they would have been little help.
Documentation was a small pamphlet whose text size was about the width of a pencil lead - that is the whole letter width. Paper is not that expensive! I have a new magnifying glass now.
The minimum size is a quarter of the screen - more than I want to surrender to the TV when I have work to do.
I like the hardware features that caused me to buy the unit, but the software makes using the unit frustrating. It goes back tomorrow. The old WinTV card will go back in for now. It's GUI was good, but its hardware is limited.
