Here you can find v2.10 (the tuner comes with v1.55). Moreover, it doesn't have deinterlacing support, that is why you'd better not use it to spare your eyes.

In all other respects, this is a nice program with a funny interface looking like the Lego system:-). Now, when the installation is completed, let's see how it works.

In the WinDVR window

choose SECAM_D and TV,

in the next window select Antenna (or Cable, depending on the input type) and country (in our case it's Russia)

and press Autoscan

Two minutes later we get all channels available in our region. That is why the tuner gets A for sensitivity since it's the first tuner (including tuners of TV sets and VCRs) that confidently receives one of our channels.

No problems with Cyrillic symbols.

Mind the Mute non-favorite channels function. I advise that you tick it off and check the whole list to exclude noise and pickups. WinDVR.chan with the data on channels is stored in Documents and Settings\All Users\ApplicationData\InterVideo\WinDVR. When I finished all these operations the screen turned black and soundless in the playback mode. But after rebooting everything got right. In other programs like ShowShifter, FlyDS or iuVCR such effect didn't take place.

The tuner has excellent screening. The card was tucked between the video card and modem but it didn't affect  the image quality.

Quality

Here the EZ-TV performs well (thanks to its nice filling).

Additional features

I couldn't get Timeshifting work. Well, actually it works but when we stop recording or simply try to close the WinDVR the PC reboots.

I tried to change settings in the record buffer,

change the power supply management mode from S3 to S1 in the BIOS and install WinDVR 3.0 instead of 2.0, but it didn't help. Other programs that I know don't support this function, that is why I couldn't test it. Maybe this is a peculiarity of my system, and other PCs can have it all right. Channel Surfing works well.

has one strong point - when you close the stills gallery the stills remain there and the next one is added to them. ATI's All-In-Wonder has a similar feature called Stills Gallery, but when I accidentally closed it, the stills captured disappeared.

Schedule looks standard (it's actually difficult to think out something new here)

Capture

Although it's the epoch of DivX, WinDVR offers only MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 in various modes

with profile editing supported,

but it fully complies with the specs.

On the other hand, any program supporting MPEG4 capture, excellently copes with it (we checked it with FlyDS and iuVCR).

FM tuner

Probably, InterVideo has no software for FM tuner management, and Elitgroup had to develop it itself :)

The channel scanning carried out with the full forward and rewind buttons is somewhat tiring especially because you have to manually type in stations found.

There is a good help program looking like a pseudo calculator for direct input of frequencies.

The sensitivity is good, all stations of our frequency range were found. But there are only 10 cells!, that is why if you have more stations in your frequency range, you have to make a choice.

Press Setup to bring the channels table to the display. To edit them wait a little before clicking the left mouse button again.

Also, there is a list of recorded files

You can record only in *.wav, - mp3 is not supported again. Also, there are no schedulers, recording is entirely manual.

I hope that alternative programs can help us, for example, Fairy Radio

but in its settings you have to set ASUS TV 7134 as a tuner.

I can't say that this is a very reliable program (still, it's not ASUS), but it supports mp3 encoding, any number of stations, has a good scheduler and Timeshifting (!). Well, this can be a very good substitute.

Remote Control

The remote controller gets power from two AAA batteries. They come bundled with the tuner. The buttons are arranged quite well, but they are very small and it's not convenient to press them. The combination of colors was already discussed.

A good advantage of this RC is its multifunction support, i.e. support of all applications installed. The upper buttons can be used to switch between them.

The ShowShifter makes me hope that the remote control can work not only with the software supplied. But when you close it the RC refuses to switch to other programs until you restart the EZ-TV Remote Control.

I didn't get the sacral idea of the black window with the RC depicted. Every time you switch between the applications it shows the buttons pressed.

I'm not against such screen, but it looks too obtrusive. Why wouldn't they let us disable it...

Earlier I mentioned the Voice Help function. Let's see how it works. The Help button invokes an assistant like in the MS Office. Here it is called ECS Tutor.

It explains functions of a button pressed. The explanation is followed by a respective text in a small window, that is why if you don't have the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1 installed, you can read the text (in English).

Conclusion

Highs

• Good reception and image quality
• Excellent screening
• Deinterlacing supported (at least, with the WinDVR)
• Good suite of software
• Multifunctional remote control
• Support of software from third manufacturers
• Voice Help :-)

Lows

• Software versions are not the latest
• Problems with the Timeshifting function
• No MPEG4 support (in software supplied)
• The FM tuner mode is not handy in management 
• Sound card connector is not soldered out (let's see whether the production models will have it)
• Inconvenient buttons and a specific combinations of colors of the RC

I'm glad that ECS has entered a new market with such an attractive product without considerable downsides and with certain individual features. Taking into account traditionally low prices for products from this company, this tuner can soon get the title of the Best Buy. 
 

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