Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T

The second digital tuner here, the WinTV Nova-t brings the Freeview digital terrestrial service to your PC. You can tune in to free-to-view channels including BBC3 and 4, CBeebies, ITV2 and even a crystal-clear Channel 5.

Despite being a simple plug-and-play USB2 device, the Nova-t took a surprisingly long time to install on our system. Moreover, the Teletext application must be installed separately after the main software. Eventually we were up and running and it only took a minute to select our TV region and set up the channels. The tuner picks up paid-for channels as well as free ones, but there's no way to subscribe to these at the moment.

Hauppauge's software provides everything you'd expect including instant and scheduled recording, timeshifting and Freeview's Now and Next information. You can't click on the latter to record an upcoming programme but the software supports a full EPG function that should come to life when Freeview decides to broadcast one. By the time you read this it should also come bundled with Showshifter, which supports a subscription-based online EPG.

In general it's all easy to use, but the timeshifting controls could be a little more precise and the icons aren?t as intuitive as Pinnacle's. A real remote control rather than a virtual one would also be a huge plus.

One thing we weren't prepared for was the picture quality. With an outdoor aerial in line with the Crystal Palace transmitter, reception was superb, with crisp images and sparkling sound. While some of the analogue systems here offer good images, the Nova-t blew them away. The unit can also pick up a variety of DVB radio stations.

Being a purely digital product the Nova-t offers an RF aerial input only, lacking the video capture facilities found on more common analogue models.

While you can buy a dedicated Freeview box for around half the price, the added functions and image quality make the Nova-t tempting.

Contact: Hauppauge 020 7378 1997
www.hauppauge.co.uk

Specifications:

• USB2
• Digital tuner
• DVB Radio
• Terrestial compatible
• Freeview
• TV in a window/full screen options available
• Stereo
• Timeshifting
• mpeg2
• Teletext
• Electronic Programme Guide
• Scheduled recording