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Note: I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I did not have a digital camera available at the time of this review.
Introduction
When it was finally time to start getting everything ready for college, I realized something: I'm not going to have jack for space. My roommate at the time brought a 13-inch TV; my 17inch monitor was noticeably larger than that! When the summer came, and after switching roommates, I decided that, if I wanted to have any sort of TV access, I'd have to supply it myself. Given the already cramped quarters, I thought it wise to have everything serve more than its original purpose, if possible. So I bought an internal ATI TV Wonder VE card for my computer. The size of my monitor would even be an improvement over what I had dealt with the year before. I know many people, even computer literate ones, who have no experience with the installation of, well, anything to their computer, and are afraid to even open the case.
Fortunately, there are solutions external solutions available (some USB based, some not), for those that dare not tread near the innards of their computer. One such solution can be found in AverMedia's "AverTV Box."
What's Included
AverMedia, in all promotional material I've seen (and received), stresses the "no-computer-required" facet of this product. As such, there's no drivers required, no hardware configuration process to go through, and, therefore, software included.
The AverTV Box requires only two things not included in the box to watch TV on your monitor: a monitor, and speakers.
The package I received looked to be a standard box that one might find off the shelves, and included the following:
- The AverTV Box itself
- Remote control (requiring 2 AAA Batteries, which were included)
- Audio cable (left/right to a 1/8th inch jack)
- VGA cable (a pass-through cable, from the computer to the box)
- The user manual
The packaging itself was solid. The TV Box itself was packed in snug-fitting bubble wrap. All the wires were neatly twist-tied, and the batteries were plastic-wrapped (not plastic wrapped, per se, but enclosed in plastic) separately from the remote. The manual was on the bottom of the box. The sensor, the black area on the top of the unit in the picture below, was also taken care of. It has a semi-sticky piece of plastic covering it, so as not to allow it to be scratched. Impressive packaging, not in a glamorous sense, rather, in that all the little things that are often taken for granted were well taken care of.
One thing worth noting is the fact that, on the box that was sent to me, under the "Features" section on the back of the box, it says "Available in NTSC or PAL Versions", however, where it said "…PAL Versions," it was instead crossed out with a black marker (I was still able to read through the marker, however). In the media kit sent to me, this correction was not made. Having checked out AverMedia's website, the same material present in the media kit was available, with the omission of "…PAL Versions." Though I managed to figure it out, apparently some units, and even media kits, have been sent out that have not been updated to reflect the fact that there are no PAL versions available.
>> Features
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