Author: Michael Holtz, Terren Tong
Editor: Howard Ha
Publish Date: Thursday, May 13th, 2004
Originally Published on Neoseeker (http://www.neoseeker.com)
Article Link: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/winfast2kexpert/
Copyright Neo Era Media, Inc. - please do not redistribute or use for commercial purposes.
The Winfast TV 2000XP Expert tuner card from Leadtek contains just about everything a retail consumer would want in one affordable package. This TV Tuner definitely packs enough utility to match its low price point. As a person who threw out the VCR long ago in the hopes of upgrading my computer with a TV Tuner, the Leadtek quickly has fulfilled my longing desire for an ability to have an affordable TV Tuner that accomplishes everything the old VCR did and more. My experience with TV Tuners has been completely secondary up to this point. I have never owned such a product in my own PC and as such I will approach this review as a consumer who finally stepped up to upgrade their computer into the media centerpiece that the technological world is trying to make it.
I was initially struck by the quantity of products inside the box. The packaging is a bit smaller than other TV tuner cards that I have seen and so as such I expected less inside. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Leadtek supplied enough cables and accessories to complete the TV Tuner package that I would expect if I wanted to get set-up and recording right away. As a low price point item I would have expected to have to supply and purchase some of my own cables, I was wrong. Included in the box I found:
The card itself is of average size. The Winfast card is powered by a Conexant CX23881 chip. Conexant is regarded fairly highly in this theater - many other brands including Happauge and ATI use chips from Conexant also. The back panel of the card accepts a coaxial for TV input, a connection for an included FM Antenna, an A/V dongle that accepts both RCAs and S-Video and finally, a mini jack that attaches to the remote.
Left to Right - FM / TV / Dongle / Remote
Set-up and installation of the card took a bit more technical know-how than I would expect of the average consumer. I would not describe this product as user-friendly for the every day computer user. It did take a bit of know how and luck to get the card going, get the programs installed and understand how the software works. As an example, The connection of the auxillary audio cable is not explained, both how to physically connect it and how to get the sound outputted from the computer. I thought that like many other audio devices the audio would transmit through the PCI bus, when I didn't receive any sound I tried using the cable. Again the PVR was running and there was no sound being out-putted. Finally I went through the options on my sound card and discovered the hidden volume control for auxiliary. However, now that I have run the sound controls through the sound card the software driven volume control on the PVR is rendered useless and does not control audio levels at all, which also means the volume control on the remote doesn't function, very confusing. The Non-WHQL driver warnings during set-up also came a lot more frequently than I am used to, a little disconcerting and might possibly frighten enough non-computer orientated people into abandoning installation and retuning the product.
The other knock I have against this product is the lackluster software manual. It didn't explain the different interfaces too well (I actually missed recording the first program I wanted to record as I couldn't find the scheduler too well). It also didn't explain the different video formats and pro's and cons of many of the features it provides. The direct to DVD could have been explained further and so far I have only created coasters with this feature.
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Following the highs of the initial purchase and the excitement of opening up of the product, and the customary break in period the Leadfast Winfast TV 2000XP is really quite a fantastic TV tuner. It allows you to record in Mpeg 1, 2 and 4 as well as as an AVI file. It allows you to not only adjust the traditional brightness, hue and colour settings but also slight frequency changes that ensures a great picture quality. The picture quality is just that, great. I have seen many competitors tuner's and while some come close to the output I am getting on this tuner, I have yet to see one look better.
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The remote control is very handy and turns the computer screen into a television very quickly and easily. The IR sensor could be a bit more effective as you really have to learn to angle the remote towards it. This product comes with Timeshifting, something that everyone has been seeking, evident in Tivo's rise to fame. The video editing software that comes with this Leadtek product should not be considered another free disc to throw into the drawer. I have used both Ulead Video Studio and DVD Movie Factory and both are excellent pieces of beginner software for creating and burning videos as they are fairly easy to use but at the same time they produce pretty good results. No they are not likely to win you an Academy Award for editing (the votes are rigged I tell you!) but they will impress family and friends. The software has been somewhat future proofed as it allows for both 4:3 aspect ratio and 16:9 for those lucky enough to have a widescreen display on the desktop.
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The remote is easy to hold and understand, it fits comfortably in the hand and all the buttons are easily accessed. I found that I actually did use the majority of the keys and that the "41 button" advertising was not just a few useless buttons that many remote companies throw out just to increase their numbers as the snapshot, full screen and power buttons were very useful. The volume control was rendered useless as soon as I connected it through the auxiliary cable although it may have been due to an error during set up.
Many companies are including tuners into set top boxes, especially for PVR type devices whether it is a classical PC or a Tivo-like system. Unfortunately, even higher end processors tend to chug when trying to encode into a high quality video format like MPEG2. That said, it is important for the Tuner to offload some of the encoding work from the CPU onto the tuner itself to ensure an acceptable level of system responsiveness while recording/encoding and also to prevent dropped frames.
There were several recording options as well as straight forward TV playback in a window. Processor usage was guaged from Task Manager using the scientific 'eyeball guestimate' method made famous by such engineers as the ones from the Hindenburg Blimp and Titanic amongst others. Note that CPU Processor percentages fluctuated a bit, roughly +/- 5% from the stated results, but in general it stayed around the range summerized in the table below.
| Task | CPU Usage 640x480 (unless otherwise noted) | Filesize (30s clip) |
| Television Playback | 16% | - |
| Direct to DVD (MPEG2) | 75% | - |
| MPEG2 Optimal Quality | 68% | 26.8 MB |
| MPEG2 Good Quality | 64% | 24 MB |
| MPEG2 Normal Quality | 58% | 24.2 MB |
| MPEG1 Optimal Quality | 33% | 19.1 MB |
| MPEG1 Good Quality | 21% | 11.8 MB |
| MPEG1 Normal Quality | 17% | 8.2 MB |
| WMV | 57% | 1.8 MB |
| Uncompressed AVI | 6% | 141.1 MB |
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The quality differences were quite noticeable between the different modes. The biggest jump is of course going from MPEG1 to MPEG2. MPEG2 at normal quality had more compression artifacts than either Good or Optimal quality where as Optimal and Good Quality were fairly close. WMV was surprisingly good for such a small file size whereas uncompressed avi looked only slightly better than MPEG2 Optimal quality and is not worth the size difference for recording TV. This is another issue if capturing from a higher quality source. For the relatively small differences in file sizes, I would suggest Optimal for MPEG2 encoding. Even the difference between MPEG1 at high quality and MPEG2 and normal quality are not hugely different as far as file sizes go. Processor usage however is another situation. MPEG1 would be recommended for those with lower end machines as they may not be able to keep up in MPEG2. Using the record to DVD mode, even though processor usage was simliar to MPEG2 optimal quality, the machine felt noticable sluggish.
Leadtek has put together a solid package with the Winfast TV2000 XP. There were some minor issues with regards to the UI especially with the scheduling of programs - this should not be hidden within several layers of menus but it should have a convenient button on the main screen like the record button. The Record to Disc function might be able to use some tweaking also as the actual burner was active but upon the completion of the burn, both the DVD-Drive on the computer and a stand alone DVD player refused to play the disc and claimed it was empty.
Overall, I was really impressed with the Leadtek Winfast TV 2000XP Expert TV Tuner. It accomplishes everything I expected a tuner to do and it does it well. Picture quality was very good and could be considered to be amongst the leaders in this segment. The only problems I have with this product is during the initial set-up and installation, beyond that this product produces more than enough good television experience on the computer to equate to its economical price point. The software bundle is good and should keep aspiring video enthusiasts busy with the inclusion of the Ulead suite of products that allow the end user to manipulate, add effects and burn their masterpiece to DVD. Processor usage was a bit on the high end- no it did not hit 100% but realistically users with lower end computers will not want to be doing anything but PVR duties when using this product as such. TV on the desktop is a great feature and the Leadtek will definitely be getting a lot of use.
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