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Being one of the trendsetters on the TV tuner market, AVerMedia Technologies Inc. couldn't have kept out of the thriving movement to manufacture these devices with USB 2.0 support. The model tested in this review is currently the only device offered by the company in this series. Package Content
The
box is in the orange-white brand colors. Traditional sport scenes gave way to a transparent
insert, which allows to see the TV tuner inside the box. 
The
box contained the following items: 
We
were pleasantly surprised to find out that the package contained additional software
from Ulead
Systems Ulead
VideoStudio 7SE to
capture and edit video 
and Ulead
DVD MovieFactory 2SE to
create your own VCD, SVCD or DVD 
You can see that there is no remote control. A strange move from the developers' side, I can say. Design and SpecificationThe main tuner features are already described in similar reviews AVerTV Studio Model 305 and AVerTV Studio Model 307, this model differing only in its interface, lack of FM and stereo audio decoding support (we shall return to it later). So we'll just point out such parameters as compact dimensions (91.5x86x16 mm) and power supply by USB 2.0 Port.
Designers,
responsible for the device appearance, managed to distinguish their creation. Their
efforts resulted in a rectangular metal case resembling an expensive cigar-case.
You cannot deny this solution to be practical, AVerTV USB 2.0 boasts good
resistance to mechanical effects :-) . 
Besides,
the device can be protected from scratches by the bundled leather case, which
does not hide connectors. 
The
design does not promote exact topographic definition of front and back panels. Let's
take the blue LED power indicator for the front side of the device. Next to the
LED are a USB connector and an audio jack. 
The
opposite side contains a standard set of audio and video connectors and a mini-jack
for antenna. Earphone to F-Type/ IEC Cable comes with the package. When connecting
to notebooks, which have only mic-in, it's better to use the bundled potential
divider to avoid problems with sound levels. 
Several
words about the circuit technology. 
The
signal is received by a compact selector LG INNOTEK TALN-S205T. 
AVerTV
USB 2.0 is the second tuner after Compro
VideoMate For You/Stereo ,
which uses 9bit ADC TVP5150AM1 from Texas
Instruments Incorporated. 
USB
2.0 operations are organized by the two devices video controller CT-DC1100 from Crescentec Corporation 
and
USB transceiver ISP1501 from Philips
Semiconductors, Inc. 
Engineers from AVerMedia Technologies didn't install an additional audio decoder, that's why this model does not support stereo sound decoding. Testbed Configuration
List of Air Channels Used in the Tests
Configuration
The
language of the install menu depends on the operating system localization. 
After
the installation, a new device appears in the system 
and
the program icon Quick
TV appears
in system tray. 
The
AVerTV program is
described in detail in the reviews AVerTV Studio Model 305 and AVerTV Studio Model 307. 
The
list of deinterlacing filters was modified and offers just two options (except for
disabling, of course) Bob and V-Sharp.
The latter offers better quality. 
The
program contains a complete list of frequencies without the cable/air division. The
program also offers a rare option of individual video format settings for each channel
in the list. 
Despite a small size of the selector, it detected all my channels. The only problem was that the tuner failed to get Channel 11 audio (215.25MHz) with intermittent reception, but its full-sized brother LG TPI8PSB12D, installed on VideoMate For You/Stereo, coped with this task well. However, taking into account that the popular selectors TCL2002MB-33F from Huizhou TCL King High Frequency Electronic Co. do not detect this channel in my place at all, it can be considered a fair price for compactness.
It
supports video recording using any codec installed in the system 
and allows
to adjust codec settings. 
Time
Shift settings
let you vary the video resolution in the wide range. But the indication of
CPU clock sufficiency for the selected settings sometimes needs adjusting, e.g. Athlon
64 3000+ performance (even with its actual clock frequency) is, to put it mildly,
quite sufficient for MPEG-2 at 720๕576. 
We had no problems with this TV tuner in third-party applications (we used iuVCR and WinDVR 3.0 from InterVideo). Quality
Not bad at all. ADC and High Frequency units from the same manufacturer, identical with those of VideoMate For You/Stereo, resulted in the same image quality in these two models, despite different videocontrollers. Unfortunately, DC-1100, unlike controllers manufactured by EMPIA Technology Inc, does not support contrast adjusting. Image side borders, which can be removed by the scaling function leading to inevitable loss of some (little) vertical visual region, can be classified as petty criticism. Sad things in the end. As we have already mentioned above, the tuner does not support stereo sound decoding, which is getting increasingly popular. It has nothing to do with video capture from external sources, in this case the audio stream flows directly. On one hand, we do not except that the situation will repeat itself and there will appear a new model with stereo support like in case with AVer Studio Model 305. On the other hand, how many notebook owners (who are constantly in a hurry) will notice this event? And the lack of remote control is not a good idea at all, especially when its support wouldn't have caused any technical problems. Conclusions
Despite
the drawbacks described above, the tuner design merits our web site award.  We should also point out the decent package content.  Pros
Cons
This
time we cannot confer clear victory to the object of our review, because its main
competitor (Compro VideoMate For You/Stereo) offers a stereo sound decoder and an impressive remote control at a lower price.
However, due to the combination of such parameters as image quality, compact size,
software features, package content, and design, AVerTV USB 2.0 has deserved to occupy
one of the leading places among tuners with the USB 2.0 interface in its price range.
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