Product Reviews

TV cards don't have the best reputation, as many of them suffer from poor software and annoying configurations. It's something of a relief, then, to discover Nebula Electronic's DigiTV USB.

As the name suggests, it's an external digital TV receiver, so you don't need to take apart your PC to install it. Simply load the software from the supplied CD, plug in the box and you're ready to run.

The first time the software starts it asks if you want it to tune the TV automatically. This process was surprisingly quick, and we soon had all the digital channels we could receive. It stores channels in alphabetical order, but you can sort them by channel number or organise your own list of favourites. The scan also finds digital radio stations that are broadcast over the TV network, These are not to be confused with Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) stations, which need a dedicated receiver.

The favourites list is also a good way of hiding channels you don't subscribe

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to, such as those offered by Top Up TV. This service offers premium channels for £7.99 a month but requires a Conditional Access Module (CAM) to accept the smartcard subscribers get. The DigiTV doesn't support this yet, but Nebula Electronics is in the process of developing a USB CAM.

Once you've arranged the channels to your liking, using the DigiTV is easy. Nebula Electronics' TV application is a joy to use. A main menu provides access to TV, radio and the EPG (electronic programme guide), and the results appear in a small window. Bizarrely, though, you have to hit Exit button on the remote control to get video into full-screen mode.

Once you're watching TV, the picture quality is excellent, giving us no cause for complaint. You can even pause live TV using the remote, although the first time you do this a small control panel pops up and blocks part of the screen. You have to shut this down using the mouse, which we found a little annoying.

Fortunately, the rest of the software more than makes up for it. The onscreen display shows you what's on now and next for each channel, and the software downloads seven-day programming information, which you can use to set recordings as you would with Windows Media Center or Sky+. The software is also very well designed, so that if you press Mute, for example, the subtitles are turned on automatically.

If you have digital TV in your area and want a simple digital TV tuner, this is the perfect device. With the USB CAM down the line, it should also cope with future improvements.