MYKE CLEMENTS | ONLINE EDITOR
The Gadget of the week for this wednesday will solve a common problem that many students have on campus. Lack of over the air television.
Do still have an old school Analogue Television?
Can’t find one of the digital converter box?
Are you also fed up with the APU network causing you to spend three hours watching a twenty two minuet episode of The Office online?
The answer is a USB ATSC HDTV receiver. Now you probably are scratching your head in wonder at the amount of random letters. Don’t be alarmed it is really simple, you should be familiar with USB, most printers and ipod cables use this interface. HDTV stands for High Definition Television. And that completely foreign jumble of letters in the middle means that the device will pick up digital Television signals in the air.
What this device does is allow you to plug a TV antennae into it and send it to your computer, essentially allowing you to watch broadcast television on your MAC or PC
As with all products there are many different choices for TV receiver, and many different price levels. There are some TV tuners that are exclusively compatible with PCs for under $20 however, as with most tech related things, you get what you pay for.
When it comes to which one you should buy, that is not a decision for me to make, however I can make a few suggestions based on price and reviews.
The lower priced option is the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-950, Google products has it for $37 new. This TVreceiver is compatible with both PC and Mac, included in the box is a TV antenna, a USB extension cable, and Elgato EyeTV Lite, WinTV 6 software that allows you to change channels, and record live TV. Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Vista and Windows 7, along with Apple MacOS X 10.4 or later are required.
For a high end TV receiver still compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems, check out the Elgato EyeTV One there is large price jump her as it is on average about $100 each, but Elgato products have received the best reviews. However this is an option for those that have at least Mac OS X v10.5.8 or laterwith an Intel Core processor , or for PCs you’ll need 2.0 GHz Intel/AMD CPU or Intel Atom CPU,Windows 7 Media Center. This option doesn’t come with an antenna but it does come with the EyeTV3 which allows you to view the channels, and record and edit television. Also included is one year of service to TVGuide Show Data.
Thats all for this week. Email any and all tech questions to Online@theclause.org
Until next time. Thanks
Myke Clements
Online Editor
online@theclause.org