So you want to record live television, but you don't want to pay any subscription fees. There are a number of ways to do this and Plextor has just added another with the introduction of a $99 solution called the PX-TV100U.
The TV100U is a member of the ConvertX PVR line from Plextor and connects your video source and your PC, which acts as a media storage device. Since most desktops and laptops typically have gigabytes of storage-space available, we like this option over other units that record only to portable media.
Additional features include a built-in TV tuner, fast USB 2.0 connectivity, and the ability to capture video from a camcorder, VCR or DVD player as well. Included with the TV100U is a rich software set comprised of Sage Lite TV and Ulead Video Studio SE DVD. Sage Lite provides PVR capabilities as well as a three-day Electronic Programming Guide (EPG), while the Ulead application provides editing and authoring of interactive DVD's.
A particularly nice function is the ability to record and edit directly to DVD. If you have a DVD-burner on your computing device, the TV100U turns your workstation into a real-time DVD video recorder at a price that's hundreds less of a standalone recorder.
There are several output formats supported; MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX are all possible. In terms of video quality, your video can be as small as 176 x 144 resolution, as large as 720 x 480, or one of several resolutions in between. This can come in handy when wanting to save programming in a format for a smaller-sized mobile device screen. Plextor has a full listing of specifications for you to see if fits your PVR needs.
Remember that your file size is a combination of the video resolution and the bit rate (or quality) of your video. Plextor provides a nice chart indicating what how much storage you need to record at various formats and bit rates:
The good folks over at Plextor have sent out a review unit, so watch for us to put it through the paces and provide honest feedback. For the price, the TV-100U looks like a feature set winner.
1. Does anyone know if you can upgrade to the full version of SageTV?
Posted at 7:40PM on Jul 18th 2005 by Richard