MSI Personal Cinema FX5200-VT128

MSI's latest offering might look like just another graphics card but a closer inspection reveals something much more interesting. This card incorporates nVidia's new CineFX personal cinema technology, which turns your PC into an entertainment system.

Along with fast graphics, the FX5200 offers high-quality DVD playback, an analogue stereo TV tuner, real-time video capture and software to turn your PC into a video recorder. This last option can even time-shift, which lets you pause live TV or start watching a recorded programme before it has finished recording.

Setting things up is mostly painless, although there is a lot to plug in, including the USB receiver for the remote control and nVidia's Media Hub. The hub houses all the audio and video inputs, that are used to record from different sources, plus a TV output. You need to plug the card into an aerial to use the TV tuner. The supplied InterVideo WinDVD and Ulead VideoStudio packages handle TV and recording functions. The results of our video capture tests were mixed. We got surprisingly good results with WinDVR, especially at the best quality setting, but got nothing but static in VideoStudio when using the TV tuner.

Everything else worked a treat and we found that prized recordings could be edited and transferred to CD or DVD with MovieFactory 2 SE. The time-shifting feature is impressive and you can even set the software to record programmes at certain times, provided you remember to leave your PC switched on.

If you get bored with the recording functions you can always play a few games. Our tests showed that this card can handle the latest games without breaking a sweat. It's worth noting that this card is silent, as it has no fan on it, which is great for people who want to use the set-up in the lounge without being disturbed by lots of PC noise.

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