DEAD!

NO QAM (digital cable) support.

You CANNOT tune HD channels via cable with this product. If your carrier has moved its basic service channels from analog to digital (as Comcast has done in many parts of the country) this product will NOT tune those digital SD channels either.

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its this product right here... $75.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro..._-15306011

I have this device. Summary: For $20, it's an awesome deal, since I'm pretty happy with having spent $60 for it (granted, like 2 years ago). I posted on the Woot message board to answer some questions I was seeing there:

1) Gaming: I played through most of Odin Sphere using a PS2 connected through the S-video input on this to my laptop when I was waiting for most of my stuff to arrive during a move. It's a Core Duo 1.86 GHz (not Core 2 Duo), and it worked fine. I didn't notice any lag, which isn't to say there wasn't any--Odin Sphere isn't exactly the most demanding game on precision twitch reflexes. However, occasionally the sound, oddly enough, would lag by a noticeable amount. You don't need an ATI video card (I have one, but this device doesn't care).
2) HD Recording: Since Composite and S-Video cap out at SD resolutions, you can't record HD on those inputs. However, you can record at least 720p HD over the coax input (input from the antenna, cable box, DVD player/VCR, etc.) I verified that I had an old 1280x720 recording from this device. I don't know if it supports 1080p, and I'm not sure where you'd get the signal from, anyway.
3) OTA Signal Quality: There are online resources (www.antennaweb.org) that can tell you where your local stations' transmitters are. If they're more than about 10-15 miles or so away, I wouldn't count on being able to pick them up with an indoor antenna like this one.
4) Cable: If you subscribe to cable/satellite, you should be able to take the output of your cable/decoder box and route it to the coax input on this device and watch/record it on your computer. If you stop subscribing, you will no longer have this ability (though over-the-air broadcasts will still be available via antenna).
5) Recording Games: No idea whether you can go over 30 fps on a game recording, but why would you need to? For playback/passive viewing, 30 fps seems like plenty.
6) File Sizes: HD (720p) recordings come in at about 4 GB per hour. I don't have any old SD recordings to compare file sizes.

I think that covers most of the common questions I saw on the Woot forum.


[B]Operating Systems
Windows® XP Home Edition
Windows® XP Professional Edition
Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Certified for Windows Vista®
Per Newegg user review:
"USB works with windows xp, vista, windows 7 beta, windows 7 RC both 64 and 32 versions. Works with Windows Media Center. "
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Note: The Composite and S-Video connectors are great for playing game systems (eg Wii, Playstation Xbox 360) on your desktop or laptop.