ulyssesonline.com

I just bought an ATI USB TV Tuner and it rocks. I can now watch TV on my laptop or any other desktop with a USB port. Just install the software, connect to a TV antenna or cable and that’s it. A small TV screen will show up on your screen.

The really neat feature is having a PVR, a personal video recorder. Now, I can record any show on TV I want, record what is being played back on DVD, VCR, digital camera, video camera, and even another laptop’s presentation. It also has a built-in timer when you want to record a show unattended.

Recording formats are in MPEG 1, 2, 4, AVI, VCR, and a couple of other formats which I don’t remember at this time. You can record in several screen size options as well. Record it in a small screen setting and you’ll be squinting or worst will have a permanent cross-eye.

Recording it in a 640×480 screen will gooble up valuable hard disk space. A normal recording uses about 1 mb per second. So, a one minute show will take up 60MB. A one hour 360MB. Recording in higher resolutions will take up more disk space. If you have a big drive, then space is not really an issue.