Hardware Bistro

Product: USB Analog TV Stick Pro (VS-PVR-TV 303U RF)
Manufacturer: KWorld
Supplied by: KWorld
Price: USD57/RM198
Launch Date: NA

Just a moth ago we have just brought you a review on an USB Stick TV turner card from Kworld; 325U. Today we are going to introduce you another Kworld USB Stick TV turner card; 303U RF. It is a purely analog TV turner card which only supports analog TV and of course it is cheaper as well. Stay with us to find out more of this USB Stick TV turner card.

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

• USB 2.0 Plug-and-Play interface
• Support worldwide analog TV systems reception
• HyperMedia Center application : User-Friendly interface with powerful functions
  • Enhanced 16:9 wide-format display
  • Auto channel scan and name recognition
  • Multiple channel preview
  • Continuous Snapshot
• Support Time-shifting and scheduled-recording functions
• Support real-time video recording
• Supports still image capture in BMP format
• Additional AV/S-Video input for connecting other video sources, such as DVD Player/ VCD/ VHS/ camcorder.
• FM Radio record & playback.
• Power-Off PC via remote control.

Specifications

Interface	USB 2.0
Video Input	TV Input	75 Ohm (UHF/ VHF) TV Antenna
	Composite Video	RCA Jack
	S-Video	4-pin Mini-Din
Audio Input	Input	RCA L/R
FM Radio	FM Input	RCA Jack
	Frequency	Japanese (76 to 91 MHz) & US/Europe (87.5 to 108 MHz)
TV Receiving Frequency	NTSC: 55.25 - 855.25 MHz PaL: 48.25 - 863.25 MHz
IR	Remote Control	Infrared Remote Control
Dimension	104mm(L) X 32mm(W) X 19mm(H)

System Requirements

	For KWorld HyperMedia Center, Time-shifting and Recording	For Microsoft Windows Media Center, Time-shifting and Recording
Hardware	Intel Pentium IV, 2.0GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon 256MB RAM of system memory or above1 available USB 2.0 portGraphics Card with 64MB memory or above (Must Support DirectX 9.0)Sound Card (AC97 Compatible Sound Card)2GB Free HD SpaceCD-ROM Drive (For software installation)	Intel Pentium IV 3.0GHz or equivalent AMD CPU higher DDR400 1024MB RAM of system memory or above Graphics Card (Windows XP MCE 2005 certificated / Windows Vista certificated for Vista) Sound Card must compatible with Windows VistaFree HD space for recording
Software	Microsoft Windows ® XP SP2 / XP MCE 2005 / Vista	Windows XP MCE 2005 / Windows Vista Premium above

Packaging

 

Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro is using the same dimension packaging with KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro but the packaging box is in yellow color instead of blue. If you have a chance to browse through Kworld website then you will notice that Kworld analog products come with yellow packaging while digital & hybrid products come with blue packaging box. This is quite a good idea so users can differentia them easily.

 

After opened up the Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro packaging, the dongle of USB Analog TV Stick Pro is placed inside a cardboard unlike Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro where it has another plastic packaging to secure the dongle and the rest of the components.



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

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KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro 303U RF



Currently Kworld has two products for USB Analog TV Stick; Pro and non Pro. USB Analog TV Stick Pro supports much more features than non pro version like FM Radio, power off PC via remote control, additional AV/S-video input, real-time video recording and etc. It is always good to have a better version unless there is really a budget constraint.



Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro is a USB2.0 analog TV turner card which only supports analog cable or air TV. It supports NTSC (55.25 - 855.25 MHz) and PAL TV (48.25 - 863.25 MHz). Besides that, Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro also supports FM radio; Japanese (76 to 91 MHz) & US/Europe (87.5 to 108 MHz).

 

The dimension dongle of Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro is 104mm(L) X 32mm(W) X 19mm(H) which is much thicker than Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro where its thickness is only around 11mm while the rest of dimension is slightly same. Slimmer products are always more expensive than those bulky products like LCD, hard drive, memory and etc as the components are squeezed much more and made by expensive components. Hence it is expected to have cheaper price for Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro.



Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro comes with lip cover which is not available for Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro. The lip cover is useful and able to help to protect the USB connector which is important as one of the reasons where user will purchase for USB TV turner which is much more expensive than normal TV turner card is because of its flexibility.



At the other side of the USB connector, there are two round connectors; antenna connector and multi cable connector. Unlike Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro, this multi cable connector is replaced by firewire connector in order to keep the dongle as slim as possible. However since space is not a concern for Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro, it comes with standard connector for remote control sensor, AV/S-Video, Audio input & FM input.



As we mentioned previously for Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro, it has poor ventilation and causing the dongle a bit overheat. However for Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro, we don’t see this issue maybe it has plenty of ventilation holes at the back of the dongle or the components that it use are not so compact where it will normally generated less heat.

 

Remote control of Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro is same with Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro which is the slimmest and smallest remote control from Kworld (there are around 5 types of remote control; 32key, 32keythin, 36key, 44key, 41key or 45key). Slim remote control is good for carrying but it can be lost easily; maybe accidentally kept somewhere like in between the newspaper and throw away J. Hopefully you don’t have this problem. Anyway, on the right table are some explanations of the functions of this 32keys remote control.

 

Same with standard TV turner card; 2 antennas are provided; one for FM Radio and one for analog TV (magnet base). FM antenna is only for receiving FM radio while 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. Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro doesn’t have integrated remote control sensor inside the dongle so if user needs to use the remote control, this multi-cable must be connected to the dongle which it is quite troublesome.


Installation, Testing & Performance

Installation is pretty simple and same with Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro where user just needs to load the CD and select quick installation. It will install the driver plus the HyperMedia Center software. Custom installation is available as well.

HyperMedia Center is an all-in-one entertainment solution from KWorld which is universal software to control the KWorld TV turner card. As we mentioned before there are plenty much of room for this HyperMedia Center software for improvement, we hope to see some improvement in the future. Overall this HyperMedia Center is pretty well software so far we have seen on the TV turner card.

 

The program will automatically guide the user to setup the TV setting for the first time. 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.

For the performance we compare side by side for KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro with KWorld Plus TV Hybrid USB Stick Pro. There are slightly performance lagging for Kworld USB Analog TV Stick Pro in both FM Radio and TV reception. Base on the product spec, both of these USB TV turner cards are very similar but there still slight performance differences for these two USB Tv Turner card; may be both of them are made by different componenets. KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro should be using cheaper components since its price is cheaper. However there isn’t any reliability and stability issue during the testing of for KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro.

Besides TV and Radio functions of the HyperMedia Center software, basically it offers much more like watching video, picture, and music. We believe these features will not be used often as there are plenty of other great software that available in the market which is much more great. However there is no harm to have these additional features and it should be useful for home entertainment users.

 

Conclusion

If you are not hunting for the slimmest USB TV Turner card then KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro should be one of your great choices because it still has great functions just like Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Pro Stick except not support Digital TV. KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro is much more cheaper which around USD40 and I would say it is more stable as well because it is running very cool condition which should last longer in ideal case. There is just one concern from us is the remote control where it isn't integrated inside the dongle but why bother if you don't use it often like us unless your PC is located quite far away from your seat. We would recommend this KWorld USB Analog TV Stick Pro for you if you are looking for a more flexible USB TV Turner card.

 

Pros:
* Good ventilation
* Small Device, Great for Notebook users
* Support Worldwide Analog TV
* Good HyperMedia Center Software

Cons:
* Just a bit bulky compare with Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Pro Stick
* Remote control isn't integrated 
* Reception is a bit lagging behind than Kworld Plus TV Hybrid USB Pro Stick

 

 

 

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

                                                 
                                                                           
                                
          

Only registered users may post a comment.

Administrator	3.0 / 5	Fri 26 Sep 08
This is only for US as far i as know. Yeah, Analog TV turner is not as good as digital but whenever there is still a market, supply will be there. More info: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

Jack (Guest)	1.0 / 5	Fri 26 Sep 08
With analog on-air broadcasting comming to an end in Feb 2009, why would anyone buy one of these?