Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Deluxe Tuner Review Author: Matt Date Posted: July 1st, 2003 SLRating: Bottom Line: The Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Deluxe comes with an impressive list of features including TiVo functionality, recording, time shifting, FM radio and the ability to edit video. Whats it like and what did we think, read on in our official review... Article Navigation Introduction Contents/Features Installation Use The Remote Software Conclusion Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> Discuss This Article

Use

The WinFast software is always running in the task bar in the form of the WinFast Wizard, waiting for the user to hit the power button on the remote. When the power button is hit WinFast PVR, the TV software, turns on and begins showing video. There is a control panel with all the necessary buttons, but frankly I find the remote easier touse because the buttons are labeled.

There are various settings for the video quality and the aspect ratio that you view or capture at. Standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9, which I can't picture being useful (unless it works natively with HDTV) because it just stretches the video.

This card comes with the ability to Time Shift video, or "pause live TV" like they used to say in commercials. Initially I had the impression that time shifting was sort of a constant buffer that allowed you to pause and fast forward TV, but with an inherent delay from the live feed. It is not that functional however, Time Shifting is merely the ability to record the TV while you get up to go do something, and then come back and watch what you missed, usually during a commercial. I was slightly disappointed by the whole idea in general when I learned what it actually was. In fact I found it rather useless, at least for me, because I tend to stave off bodily functions when something good is on TV anyways. However, if you are familiar with Time Shifting you will most likely feel right at home with the TV 2000 XP.

Despite my opinion of Time Shifting itself, the execution of the technology was performed flawlessly by the WinFast PVR software. When time shifted video is played back, the live feed can be displayed in a Picture in Picture (PIP) so you can monitor when commercials end and the show begins again. The PIP can also display the recorded video so you can watch both it and the live feed at the same time. The shift between PIP modes is done easily with the push of a button.

The TV 2000 XP is also able to record video like a normal VCR, and has the ability to create numerous scheduled record times either for reoccurring shows or for one time use. I tested the auto recording and it worked very well, it was not even necessary for the program to be open when the preset time occurred, WinFast PVR turned itself on and started recording. Make sure that you have enough space on your hard drive when you are recording video though, as movies can take up around 31MB per minute.

Another feature that the card… features… is the ability to take screen shots of the video feed. Here are some examples of the screen captures:

The picture quality is not particularly impressive, but it is a nice… feature… to have for whatever reasons you see fit. One annoying thing with the screen captures is that the file names of the captured pictures contain the time the picture was taken. This wouldn't be a problem except that if you take more than one capture a minute you write over previous captures. As a result of this problem I lost many good screen captures of the Miller Lite Girls.

I was unable to test the card's channel detection and surfing with antenna TV, as I only have cable TV. Users of this card will most likely have some form of cable TV or satellite TV though because TV fans rarely settle for local channels. It must be noted that with a cable or satellite TV you will need to change the channel with the receiver box's remote, the Leadtek remote will not work.

This brings us to the FM radio functionality of the card. While radio reception will largely depend on your geographic location, the included FM antenna worked very well in my suburban location, noticeably better than the reception in my car or by my other radios. The radio program interface looks very similar to the TV control panel, except that it has seek, scan and 10 preset station buttons. The receiver's frequency range is from 76 MHz up to 108 MHz in 50KHz increments, this makes it very easy to find the exact frequency that you receive best from a given station. The radio feed is also recordable.

The Remote

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Article Navigation Introduction Contents/Features Installation Use The Remote Software Conclusion

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