Customer Reviews

ADS Instant TV USB

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my first PC TV Tuner. It was really easy to setup, had it up and running in 5 minutes or so. I've just set up some scheduled recordings for tomorrow morning so I'll see how that works. So far I think I'm going to like it. I'm primarily going to use it to record shows to watch on my IPod. I don't see watching TV on the computer that often. ONe thing is I wish you could have a "Keep on Top" option on the TV screen. That way you could make screen small and be surfing or whatever and still have the screen up.

Leads me to next point. So far I'm not a huge fan of the software. To me its not very intuitive. Initially, I tried scheduling a show w/ the "InstaMedia" software and it was painful. You had to scroll the time by minutes when setting up, you couldn't type it in directly. Then, I decided to use the other software it came with, "Video@home" and that was easier to do. I guess the "InstaMedia" software is prob. mainly for making DVDs b/c it doesn't have a nice "floating" TV screen, its all part of the app which is maximized. Also, when you are first bringing up the software to watch TV, it takes a while to initialize, probably a good 30 seconds. Also, like the other person said, the time-shifting isn't like I expected. I think I should just have to hit "Pause" and it pauses and starts time-shifting. But you have to select it from a menu item to begin time shifting.

Even though I've written more on the negatives, I do like it so far. For the money, you can't beat it. I originally wanted to get the Hauuppauge WinTV USB 2.0 but that required Windows XP Media Center. I just have XP Personal Edition. But for $99, I don't think I could have done better. The software is lacking a little but it does the job. Just a few quirks, nothing major.

This device didn't work on my XP OS PC (Pentium IV at 3 GHZ, 1 GB ram, 160 HDD). I did have video but not sound. After downloading the updated drivers, I got sound for a while and then not sound at all...unless you download the drivers AGAIN!!

Get yourself instead a PCI TV tuner card...

The item was defective, it made a spark and smoke while connecting to my laptop but, my laptop's system board is burnt. But they wouldn't refund the whole, only refunded item cost out of total (item + original shipping + return shipping), not to mention my laptop's cost. Tigerdirect and ADS Tech are both not customer minded at all.

Although it has a good cost x benefit relation, it's somewhat bulky and you need kind of a strong computer to use it...In mine it works without problems but we tried to use a friends PC and in there we realized it uses tons of memory and it doesn't specify how many video memory it requires or stuff like that...which should be announced because it's useless to make such an inversion and to find out later...that you cannot use it.

I bought this a bit reluctant for its price but the unit works really fine, just as stated. Its just a pitty that it comes with so outdated software and you need to purchase the new versions if you want all the new features the competitors have, but its a lot affordable and works just great. I do recomend.

Installation is very easy and only takes about 5-10 minutes. It is very easy to watch live tv, but it is kind of difficult to record and use the time-shift mode.