Not only was the
installation painless but all of the controls and
options are well laid out and easy to
access. We took a few screen shots to give
you an idea of what they all look like...
 
Setting
up the audio and scanning for channels was as easy
as clicking on a single button and following the
wizard. Setup is very quick and easy.
Here
is a peek of what the default skin looks like once
you've completed the installation:
What
you should also notice is that with all the
options available, you have a virtual TiVo on a
card. You can set up times to record just
like a regular VCR and store the video on your
hard drive. There are two things to remember
when recording video, one is that you can chew up
hard drive space very quickly.. For instance, 10
minutes of MPEG 1 video will use approximately
110MB of hard drive space and 10 minutes of
uncompressed AVI capturing will use over
2GB! And two, the software must be running
for the recording to start. The quality of
the recording is very good but if you intend to
use the highest quality setting you will need a
minimum 600MHz processor.
Besides
all of the great video functionality the Voodootv
200 PCI also incorporates a powerful, high
quality FM tuner.
The FM
Tuner functions like a virtual stereo with very
simple controls. The one feature worthy of
some special attention is the ability to record
directly to an MP3 file. Other tuners have
the ability to record but they use WAV files which
are much larger and take up more valuable hard
drive space. Having the ability to save
files directly into the much more compressed MP3
format is great. Napster users will
especially like this feature. Your favorite
songs can go directly from the radio to MP3 to the
net. :) You also have the option to assign
your favorite radio stations to any one of the 9
preset buttons.
The
3dfx Voodootv 200 PCI is an excellent all
around product. 3dfx wants to be known as an
entertainment company and with the Voodootv
now in their product line, they are headed in the
right direction. With the personal computer
becoming more of a fixture in the family room as
opposed to the office, we can expect many similar
products in the coming months. The only
feature we would have liked to have seen is the
ability to import video via a Firewire port but
that would have added significantly to the
cost. Overall we were very pleased with the
Voodootv 200 PCI.
Hey!
The silence is deafening!
Get into the HotHardware Conference Room NOW!
|
