To be perfectly honest, I never realized just how many PVR related products there are on the market until I started writing for PVR Wire.
Between software and hardware, the offerings are numerous, and outside of a brand name there usually isn't a great deal that differentiates one products core features from another.
AutumnWave's OnAir HDTV GT makes a respectable attempt at not being just another me-too PVR product in its effort to cater to the portable high definition TV tuner market.
The HDTV GT was only recently released in the United States thanks to a distribution deal and is currently available for purchase at Buy.com and suprisingly, Wal-Mart .
According to this Forbes article, Autumn Wave's president, Patrick Castellani, fully expects the unit to be available in major retailers like Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City here by the holiday season.
The USB 2.0 tuner purports to be the "first-ever mobile HDTV device to allow on-the-go consumers to receive high definition 'over-the-air' and digital cable (QAM) television broadcasts on laptops, as well as analog 'over-the-air' and cable broadcasts."
Whether that's true or not, this pocket sized device provides the features necessary to turn your latop or PC into a high definition capable PVR.
Features:
- Supports HDTV resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 (ATSC)
- Watch Digital (ATSC), Analog (NTSC), or Digital Cable (unencrypted QAM) TV
- The latest 5th-generation LG Electronics tuner/demodulator offers unsurpassed metro and fringe area reception with virtually no multi-path problems
- Pause Live TV and Timeshift using PVR features (Digital TV)
- Playback HD stream files (ATSC)
- Select from six speeds for fast forwarding or rewinding through recorded files
- Schedule to record up to 80 programs
- Real-time or Scheduled Recording on Digital / Analog TV
- Still image capture on Digital and Analog TV (JPEG or BMP format)
- Time-shift support (Digital TV)
- Record while in time-shifting mode (Digital TV)
- Recording during playback (allows editing / saving of previously recorded material)
Prices range from $169 at Wal-Mart to about $190 at Buy.com.
