Hardware Bistro

Product: Plus  TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro 325U
Manufacturer: KWorld
Supplied by: KWorld
Price: USD91/RM308 (3 years warranty)
Launch Date: April 2008

Nowadays, most of the people keep on saying work life balanced but how to split up the work and entertainment is a tough topic which can’t be explained or learn up in a short while. Before you can master the work life balanced skill, let us introduce you a great product which allow you enjoy while working. It is next generation of TV turner card from KWorld; Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro.

 

 

Company Profile

Among the well-established multimedia video peripherals providers, KWorld Computer is the youngest one who is consistently devoted to developing, manufacturing and promoting PC multimedia video peripherals to the world ever since it has established in 1999. How Kworld did it in such a short time period is to provide the Best multimedia video technology, the Best video, audio quality and the Best service. These were and will be KWorld's commitment to meet the ever-changing consumer demand in the world.

As the sales, research and development expands, KWorld Computer Co., LTD recognizes the importance and core value in brand development. Since 2004, KWorld Computer Co., LTD has registered “KWorld” as its trademark brand for all multimedia products at the Intellectual Property Office in countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, United States, Japan, Russia…etc. The name “KWorld” comes from “King of the Multimedia World”. KWorld visualize itself in becoming the leader in the audio video industry by delivering quality, and developing consumer based technology to the world.

 

Features

 - Supports worldwide Analog TV reception and watch free-to-air digital terrestrial TV and Listen Digital Radio (not DAB) on your PC or laptop
- Compatible with Microsoft Media Center
- Additional AV/S-Video Input for connecting other video sources (such as DVD Player/VCD/VHS/Camcorder)
- Listen to FM Radio
- Stereo Sound support (BTSC, EIAJ, NICAM, A2)
- Power-off PC by a Fully Functional Infrared Remote Control
- Powers-off PC/NB by Remote Control
- 10-bit analog-to-digital conversion + Noise Reduction
- Hypermedia Center application: User-Friendly interface with powerful functions. 

• Watch (or record) digital TV /or analog TV
• Multiple channel preview
• Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/Hue Adjustment
• Supports HDTV
• Supports EPG, Subtitle and Teletext for Digital TV (DVB Standard)
• Supports Time-Shifting and Scheduled Recording function
• Supports Still Image capture in JPEG or BMP format
• Auto channel scan and name recognition
• De-noise function for Analog TV.

Specifications

 

 

Interface	USB2.0 interface
TV Tuner	75 Ohm (UHF / VHF) TV Antenna	Coaxial RF
Video/Audio  Input	S-Video Input	4-pin Mini-Din
	Composite Input	RCA jack
	Audio Input	RCA L/R Audio Input
FM Radio Input(option)	FM Input	RCA jack
	Frequency	80 – 130.00 MHz
Analog TV system	Frequency	45 - 865 MHz
	Video	NTSC , PAL , SECAM
	Audio	Stereo & Mono
IR	Remote Control	Infrared Remote Control
Digital TV system	Frequency	45-865 MHz
	Transmission Mode	2K FFT or 8K FFT COFDM demodulator (Fully DVB-T compliant : ETS 300-744)
	Code Rate	1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8
	Guard Interval	1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32
	Constellation	QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
	Band-Width	6, 7 or 8 MHz
Dimension	Dongle Size	102.8mm(L) X 30.5mm(W) X 11.0mm(H)

 

 

System Requirements

• Pentium-IV 2.0 GHz or higher recommended
• 512MB RAM of system memory or above (recommended)
• One available USB2.0 port
• Graphics Card (Must support Microsoft DirectX 9.0c or above)
• Sound Card (AC97 compatible sound card)
• 1GB Free HD Space
• CD-ROM Drive (For software installation)
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0c
• Microsoft Windows® XP SP2 / XP MCE / Vista

Packaging

 

Although KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro is an USB TV turner card but it doesn’t packed with a small packaging instead it is a complete and attractive packaging with detail information on the packaging itself which is good reference for customer if the customer doesn’t go through any online survey yet.

 

Here is the complete packaging for KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro which contains USB TV turner card, remote control, DVB-T antenna, FM antenna, USB cable extension, multi-cable (AV/S-video, audio input), cypherlink combo CD (Driver, Power Director & HyperMedia software) plus a 3V Lithium cell for remote control.

There is only basic and simple quick start guide but it should help the user to setup the KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro without much hassle as we didn’t go through this guide as well. However if user would like to understand further, a complete installation guide is included in the driver & HyperMedia center CD. Besides the installation guide, there is another guide for HyperMedia center and we would suggest user to go through this briefly which will save the setup time. CyberLink PowerProducer & PowerDirector are included for another CD. Below are the some introductions for these softwares.

 

CyberLink PowerProducer 4 is a powerful, but easy-to-use video production program. With full capturing, editing, customizing and burning functions, plus the addition of fantastic DVD menu templates, CyberLink PowerProducer 4 is the best way to produce your home videos on disc.

   

PowerDirector comes complete with the most advanced yet easy-to-use tools for creating professional video productions. Plus, it offers Smart Video Rendering Technology (SVRT) to allow you to complete your movie projects and preserve its quality quicker than any other software program available on the market! PowerDirector also includes an amazing set of Magic Tools for you to conveniently edit your movie quickly and powerfully.

 

KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro 325U

KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro is one of the latest products from KWorld and the greatest features of it is able to supports both digital (DVB-T; Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) and analog TV. As usual for a TV turner card, it will have FM radio function as well; this is same for KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro (DAB; Digital Audio Broadcasting is not supported). Time Shifting and scheduled-recording are supported which allow users not to miss any great shows. Please refer to the specification section to find out more great features for this KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro.



As we have mentioned before KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro is an USB TV turner card and the USB stick is called as dongle which have dimension around 102.8mm(L) X 30.5mm(W) X 11.0mm(H). The dimension for this dongle is considered pretty small and slim if you have come across or owned a USB TV turner before. The dongle has glossy top surface with grey color. The dongle USB connector doesn’t come with any lip cover for the USB connector which may not a good idea where user may damage the connector while transferring or not using condition. Hope to see KWorld includes a lip cover for upcoming models.

At the back of the dongle, it is in black color with some validation holes. During our testing, we found that the dongle was quite hot and we believed why the validation holes exist on the dongle. However the validation holes still doesn’t really dissipate the heat quick enough, maybe more validation holes will able to help on this.

You may wonder where the remote control sensor cable is during our packaging introduction. Actually the remote control infrared sensor is integrated inside the dongle (blue LED light). It is extremely good to integrate the sensor inside the dongle especially for those are going for cable-less management. However we found a slightly problem during our testing where we have connected this dongle to USB port at the back of the laptop. However KWorld has included a short USB cable extension for those users who might experience this situation.

 

The dongle basically have 3 ports; USB connector, antenna connector and a firewire connector.  The firewire connector is for AV/S-Video input (including CVBS and S-Video where user can connect it to any devices likes DVD, VCD, VHS player, Xbox, PS3 and etc.

 

Remote control is important and cannot be neglected especially for those are after home entertainment. The remote control is extremely slim as some of the remote control for PCI TV Turner card is too bulky if you know what I mean. The remote control needs a 3V lithium battery which is included in the packaging. Table on the right explains the functions of this 32keys remote control. Overall the remote control has most of the buttons that user requires and all the functions were preprogrammed together with HyperMedia software so user need not configure by themselves. However, it will be better for the F3 function to allow user to switch between TV and radio rather than just can switch to TV.

There are 2 antennas provided; one is DVB-T antenna while the other one is FM antenna. FM antenna is only for receiving FM radio and not AM radio & TV. DVB-T antenna is for TV and it still can be used to receive FM radio but the quality is not as good as FM antenna. An additional male antenna connector is given for those needs it for connecting to longer antenna in case the receiving is not good enough for given antenna. Bottom of the DVB-T antenna is a magnet base and it is great for user to stick this small antenna somewhere near the window or door in order to receive the TV/FM much clearer.

 

Here are all the cables that are provided by KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro (FM antenna, USB extension cable, AV/S-Video input & DVB-T antenna).

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 
 

Installation is pretty simple where user just needs to load the CD and select quick installation. It will install the driver plus the HyperMedia Center software. Of course, custom installation is available as well for user to select and install only required software.

  

 HyperMedia Center is an all-in-one entertainment solution from KWorld which is software to control the KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro. For those are first time using this HyperMedia Center, it might not so easy as the GUI of it is not really as flexible as other PC softwares but after gone through some learning curve, we fall in love with this software by just using the remote control. It is extremely nice and easy to use it. I believe KWorld purposely designed in such way to let user feel that they are really watching a TV show from TV.

 

During the first time installation, the program will automatically guide the user to setup the TV setting for the first time. However, we failed to setup during the first time because not familiar with the GUI of the HyperMedia Center. There are still pretty much of room of this HyperMedia Center for improving; one of suggestion is to include the scroll down/up arrow as an indicator to inform users as during the testing we really not aware that some of the setting can be changed. 

HyperMedia Center has quite numbers of interesting features like record & playback, time shifting, scheduled recording, power off the PC by remote control, resizable & multiple color users interface selection, multiple channel preview, support HDTV, EPG, subtitle, teletext (only for DVB), support still image capture and etc. All these are great features which most of the home entertainment are looking for and time shifting is really good for those need to go away for a short moment without miss out the important part of the show.

 
For the performance, this KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro is pretty good and during one week testing on TV and FM radio, we didn’t find any stability issue. The quality of the sound and video are really dependant on the area whether it have good signal or not else even you are using the best TV also will not able to receive a clear signal. The recording result is good where it have exactly same video and sound quality compare with the live version.

 

CPU usage spiked from 10% to 40-50% when playing TV and 30-40% when play FM radio. This is why the system requirement for KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB stick Pro is bit higher than other normal TV turner card. HyperMedia Center is supported for window XP SP2, window Media Center, vista as well as Window XP SP3 where the driver was just updated in KWorld website.

 

Conclusion

KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro supports both digital and analog TV but do you need both of them? I believe most of the users do not require a TV turner card that need to have support both of them except for those who is always traveling from one country to another then it is good to have this kind of TV turner card. If the price doesn’t much higher than normal digital or analog TV turner card, then it is no doubt why not get it. Overall, we are quite impressed by the KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro by it great features and performance so it deserved a gold award from us.

Pros:
* Slim Size
* Great Features
* Both Digital & Analog TV are supported
* Integrated remote sensor within the dongle
* Comes with tiny & good TV antenna

Cons:
* HyperMedia Center still can be further improved
* No lip cover for USB connector
* Running at pretty hot

Thanks to KWorld for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

Only registered users may post a comment.

Mattias (Guest)	4.0 / 5	Wed 7 Jan 09
Hm..

Administrator	5.0 / 5	Tue 6 Jan 09
Anto, From Kworld website, it shows that DVB-S 300U can support Microsoft Windows XP(SP2)/Windows Vista, so we suggest you check with kworld technical support team. thx

Anto (Guest)	1.0 / 5	Mon 5 Jan 09
I bought Mini DVB-S 300U satellite TV Box and it doesn't work with Windows Vista. Did I make the wrong choice or is there anything I should know. Answer to my e-mail anto52@yahoo.com