Product Reviews

Digital TV is continuing to grow in popularity and content. Some regions of the UK will soon rely on it, as the analogue signal is being phased out from 2008. Consequently, digital TV cards are now appearing in all shapes and sizes. Compro's VideoMate DVB-T200 is an internal PCI card.

Installation is marginally harder than most TV cards due to the extra features it supports. Fortunately the manual is helpful and takes you through this process. Once the card is safely nestled in a spare PCI slot, you have to connect it up to the power switch pins on the motherboard. This enables the card to turn the computer on and off.

Compro's software is easy to install, but it consists of lots of different programs, including TV, DVD and photo applications, not all of which are necessary. The TV software led us automatically to the channel scan function, which found all the expected

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Freeview channels. Image quality isn't an issue here and we spotted no excessive artefacts, while noise was at a minimum.

The options menu is comprehensive and well laid out. You can even adjust the brightness and contrast on a channel-by-channel basis. We took this opportunity to reduce the garish shades of the shopping channels to more manageable tones. You can also set the aspect ratio of your monitor and adjust the time-shift buffer for live TV.

The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) isn't bad, but you can only view programmes from one multiplex - a small set of channels that are broadcast together - at a time. We've seen better examples, such as CyberLink's PowerCinema 4, where you can see a whole evening's viewing laid out on one screen.

Scheduling also comes with lots of options, such as repeat recording. It is enhanced by the option to power up the PC to record, which means you won't have to leave your system on all the time. Unfortunately, the quirky EPG means it may take a while to find the programme you want. The EPG and options aren't designed for use with the remote and we were forced to revert back to the mouse to use them.

This a good piece of hardware that is let down by disappointing software. Hopefully Compro will soon implement an EPG system similar to Sky+. Until then, we'd recommend the straightforward Freecom featured in our Hotlist on page 38, or Nebula Electronics' DigiTV products if you're after more advanced features.