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August 7, 2010

3

Gigabyte TV USB Dongle U7000 RH Review

Please note this is a review, and the content expressed in this review is respective of the author, not Coburn’s Domain as a whole.

About 2 to 3 years ago I’ve purchased a Gigabyte TV USB Dongle U7000, so that i could watch and record live TV on my laptop, which I got the same year. When I unpacked the device, I put it to the test straight away. Installation was a breeze, and no major problems surfaced.  The software included allowed me to display my own videos, photos and play music in addition to recording and viewing live TV.

What do you get with this Gigabyte TV USB Dongle? Included in the box you’ll get a remote control, TV antenna, USB Extension Cable, the TV USB device itself, a copy of Cyberlink Power Cinema and the converter to plug a standard household antenna into the device. At the time of this review I’m unable to get a price of any of the Gigabyte USB TV Tuner products.

The TV tuner’s features include:
  • Watch high quality Digital TV (DVB-T)
  • Mobility – Good reception when moving at high speed
  • Thermal – total thermal solution increase stability and durability
  • Support HDTV
  • Remote control (10 foot interface design)
  • USB interface – easy setup for both laptop PC and desktop PC
  • Supports world-wide SAP and Stereo sound
  • Supports Teletext and EPG system
  • Instant or scheduled TV program recording
  • TV Time Shift viewing – Pause the Live TV programs or go back to the previous section without missing a second
  • Capture snapshots of TV images
  • Play a range of video format, such as .mpg .dat .avi
  • 10 foot user interface – easy to control in 10 foot distance
  • Twin TV – supports PIP,POP (only install 2 TV tuner will activate this function)
  • Supports Windows® XP MCE
  • Supports 9 languages (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, French and Italian)
  • ROHS model – endeavor for environment protection
The system requirements are:
  • Intel Pentium® 4 1.8GHz (or higher) processor (For the Time-Shifting function, Pentium® 4 2.4GHz (or higher) processor is recommended.)
  • One open USB slot
  • 256MB system memory (recommended 512MB or more)
  • Graphics card (supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 or update)
  • Sound card
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM player
  • 1GB free hard disk space is recommended for the Time-Shifting function.
  • Windows® XP Service Pack 1 or update, Windows® XP MCE
  • Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 or update

The only problems that I’ve experienced so far are:

  • PowerCinema 5 won’t work on Vista, Win7 or Mac OS X
  • The actual Gigabyte TV USB Device won’t work on Mac OS X
Over the years of using this product, I personally have enjoyed using it. My verdict is 3/5 Stars, which is due to the fact that you might get weak or no signal for certain channels, and sometimes you have to unplug the device, let it cool for a bit, and then plug it back in to continue watching or recording live TV. Another downside is that you can’t do multi-channel viewing and recording, you either watch the channel you’re recording while the device is recording, or you play a game, video, etc until it’s finished recording. The latter could be a software limitation, however.

Brief Bio of the reviewer:

donttrythis from the Coburn’s Domain Message Forums is a close friend  of Coburn, the lead Coburn’s Domain founder. He’s the sidekick that’s  responsible for going out and testing new gear, before Coburn gives the  verdict. He’s also a major apple fan, in which Coburn sometimes has to  pull him out of the Apple Store when shopping.

References:

Gigabyte: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2440#ov

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3 Comments
  1. Bowser Ball 2
    Aug 22 2010

    Gracias por compartir su maestría en esta área. Hay mucho Info inútil en esto que flota alrededor y aprecio su trabajo duro.

  2. Website Ranking
    Aug 22 2010

    Hey mate, greetz from the UK !

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