Customer Reviews

Avermedia ULTRATV PCI 550 ( MULTRAP55 )

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As stated in AverMedia's product description "The AVerMedia UltraTV Media Center PCI 550 satisfies your complete PC entertainment wish list!"... I purchased this card, installed it, used it and can testify that the description is accurate. I purchased the AverMedia UltraTV 550 primarily to transfer some old family VHS tapes to DVD. Since this card accepts almost any video input, it's ideal for capturing all types of video from TV, DVD, VHS, CamCorders. This card not only does this adequately, it does it flawlessly and easily. I never had any real desire to watch TV or listen to FM radio on my computer, but I find myself hooked on the possibilities of recording TV shows, movies and FM radio. I chose AverMedia over other brands (AVD, Avid, ATI, Haupage, Pinnacle-Dazzle, Plextor) by doing a lot of research and reading a lot of reviews. AverMedia seemed to have a higher satisfaction rate by end users. AverMedia 550 is identical to the lower priced 500 except that the 550 offers FM radio. I also chose the PCI card versus the USB external model due to the fact that I don't have an especially fast computer, nor do I have enhanced (USB II) ports. If leaning towards the USB model you had better have a fast Pentium IV processor or AMD Thunderbird (2+MHz) and lots of memory (512MB). The PCI card uses the motherboard bus (direct channel) and performs much more smoothly. The PCI 550 card also uses its own onboard hardward to process video, instead of putting a load on the computer's processor. Don't let the fact that you have to open your computer's case and install a card keep you from selecting the AverMedia PCI UltraTV 550. It's really a straightforward simple process. You can install the card backwards, and it only fits in the slot it was designed to fit - which is the PCI slot on your motherboard. After the card is installed, the rest of the process is pretty much automatic. Turn your computer on, Windows will recognize the new device you just installed and prompt you to install the software. The entire installation process went without a hitch on my computer. I conected the coax from my DirecTV into the applicable port on the card, clicked on the UltraTV icon on my desktop and had immediate video and sound. The 550 also comes with a full-featured remote control which is a really handy addition. AverMedia uses a process dubbed "V Sharp" which produces a high quality, smooth video image on your computer. I'm really impressed at how well the software and hardware integrates. Bundled with AverMedia's own UltraTV Media Software is a special edition of Ulead's VideoStudio 7 & DVD Movie Factory 2. This software is adequate for manipulating your video captures, however both software packages are not the most recent versions. I also purchased a Pioneer DVD/CD Writer model DVR-A09XL to create my DVD's and Pioneer bundled Ulead's VideoStudio 8 & DVD Movie Factory 3.5 which are more feature-rich and less buggy than earlier versions. The AverMedia 550 integrates very well with DVD burners and will record video/audio directly to DVD's versus using the computer hard drive as an intermediary. To sum this up, I was really leery about buying a video capture device because of the negative reviews I've read. If I can be of any reassurance to you, let me say that I can't understand any of the negative reviews of AverMedia and Ulead. If they perform so well on my average computer, they should work well on almost any computer that meets AverMedia's minimum requirements. Save yourself some time and confusion and buy the AverMedia UltraTV 550. You won't be disappointed... in fact, you'll be quite surprised and satisfied. Oh, and in case you aren't aware, as things currently stand, effective on July 1st of this year (2005), every, and I do mean every, new device capable of receiving a digital broadcast, and sold in the United States, must also be capable of receiving, recognizing, and honoring the broadcast flag ( It's an anti-copying scheme for digital broadcasts which has been mandated by the FCC. The broadcast flag is essentially a two-part scheme: part one is the flag itself - a little bit of data included in the digital broadcast stream which says "hey, I'm copy protected media, you can't redistribute me!"). This includes, among other things, digital television tuners for your PC, along with digital televisions, VCRs, DVRs, and PVRs. In the meantime, those who care are advised to purchase their digital receiving devices (such as that PC tuner card) before July 1st, 2005.