Streaming Cable TV program on a LCD monitor directly can help you extend your PC usage. Or you can stream the same through a portable device on your PC and also schedule and record your favorite shows. Today these things are quite easy. There are ample of portable devices that can help you to get HD Streaming quality and many other features. We are going to review one of these kinds. It is a Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner. It is a portable external TV Tuner device by AsiaPower. It is an easy to use device that allows you to stream Cable TV on your computer screen and at the same time you can also record that. It is an effective solution for those who want a combination of Cable TV and computer screen. This portable USB TV stick can be also used on LCD TV. It provides a direct connection with Set Top Box. The card becomes complicated to use if you are having a Set Top Box or your coaxial Cable port far from the PC. And the Cables that come in the package are very short.
Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner is an external device that provides a bridge between your PC/laptop and your Set Top Box. It will help you to simply streaming programs and offer you an easy UI where you can record them and view it later on. For this purpose usually HTPC's are recommended. But they are different setup which is most costly than having a simple external TV Tuner. Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner fulfills all the requirements. It is portable, comes with different type of connection and somewhat easy to configure. It costs around Rs.2300. It also comes with a fully functional remote so that you can sit back and enjoy your shows. After connecting, you can play programs on full screen and in HD mode. It has an additional 3D graphics support, which is sometime effective. But still it is limited in terms of 3D quality. It works with BlazeDTV6.0 Player. You can download this from the official website.
Features:
- Advanced scanning frequency technology – to provide ultra sharp quality.
- Full HD TV resolution for real viewing pleasure.
- Next Generation Silicon Tuner.
- 4/9/16 unique picture visit function.
- Super 3D graphics for stable picture.
Package:
Design:
Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner is a compact external TV Tuner device. You can place it easily on your desktop. All connectivity ports are on the top sides which are easy to access. Once configured properly on a PC or on a lcd monitor you don't have to make any adjustment. It is lot better to use on a PC where you have to connect it for once. And then you can launch the BlazeDTV player to stream programs from a Set Top Box. In the box you get a few set of Cables for connectivity. You might have to buy a separate one for connecting a Set Top Box. And if you are having a coaxial Cable then you can connect that directly. There is a VGA Cable in the package. Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner is a portable external TV tuner device. It has a few buttons on the front side that allows you to check the menu, adjust volume and change channels. It also has light on the right side. You can place it behind your monitor and use the remote instead.
All ports are placed on the left and on top side. At the bottom you can see an Antenna in port. Above that is power port. There are two 3.5mm audio jacks on the top with blue and green color. In the green port you can connect speakers or any model with 3.5mm audio connector. And the blue one is used for PC. You can connect the TV Tuner device with PC through a 3.5mm audio Cable that is provided in the box. It can be connected to the board on the sound card where there is an identical blue port. Above that is VGA in. A Cable is provided in the box and above that there is the regular VGA connector. Here you can connect a PC monitor directly to the device. On the top side lie common connectivity ports for Set Top Box.
Connectivity and UI:
The usage is quite simple. One you connect your Set Top Box or an Antenna connection, the device is capable to identify it automatically. There is no need to go in the menu settings and adjust the same. For testing I had connected the same to a monitor where it displayed a bluish background layout with simple menu. The UI is not very complicated to understand. Using remote is lot easier than using the button on the TV Tuner device. Just connect it properly. For example if you want to connect your Set Top Box then the top three connectors will be used. Which are in red, white and yellow color. And if you are using an Antenna then the port is different. There are two ways of using this TV Tuner card. First, as mentioned above, you can connect this directly to a LCD monitor or a regular monitor or a TV which has a VGA connection. And then you can connect a speaker to the audio in jack. And stream it. Second way is connecting the TV Tuner device directly to a PC through VGA in. And then you have to use BlazeDTV6.0 Player to stream the content and control the recording and other stuff. It works well and is very easy to use. The only complication sometime lies with the PC connection. I tried connecting this to my laptop and it was not getting connected. But later it started to work normally. The BlazeDT tool is not a very high end one. You have ample of features on it but still it looks to be missing some advance options for video streaming. And 3D is not so effective.
Conclusion:
Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner is an easy way to convert your extra monitor to a TV or your regular home PC to a video streaming and recording on PC. It gives you HTPC type of features. It does not provide you storage, but you have an option to play all your TV programs on your computer and at the same time you can also do some recording as well. It just acts like a bridge between your Set Top Box and PC. The cost of this TV Tuner devices lies around Rs.2300. This price is high according to me as there are more budget devices available in the market. Like a simple USB TV tuner which provides limited features, but is cheaper and can be ideal for laptop system. A few issues with Power TV 306 LCD TV Tuner lies with channel scanning sometime. It is not able to identify few channels, but most of the time it works well. And the 3D here is of not much use.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Easy to Setup
- Stream and Record Live TV channels on PC
Cons:
- Not so effective 3D graphics
