Leadtek WinFast Walkie TV Review

Introduction

TV capture is a small yet very popular subset of the ongoing multimedia frenzy. Almost every major video card manufacturer currently markets either cards that are dedicated solely to TV tuning/capture or combination cards that allow the user to view TV and capture it in various video formats in addition to the card's graphics capability. Initially, most of the offerings were internal cards that fit in either an AGP or PCI slot in your desktop PC. More recently with the boom in laptop sales, manufacturers have introduced small, efficient external boxes that are virtually unlimited in their function.

These compact devices offer not only excellent solid state tuners that are quick and reliable, but also a vast array of capture features allowing you to use your computer much in the same vein as the considerably more expensive devices such as TIVO™. Video editing software of various types is usually packaged with the device to allow the user to manipulate the video capture to his/her liking.

Leadtek Research, Inc., well known for their quite successful line of video cards, also manufactures several internal cards as well as stand alone TV capture devices. It is indeed our fortune today to review one of their newest external capture systems, the WinFast Walkie TV.

Features...WinFast Hardware

• True hardware MPEG 1/2/4 encoding:   Freeing up your CPU loading
• DirectBurn:   Capture video directly from external video devices to DVD/SVCD/VCD ¡V saving both time and valuable hard-drive space
• De-interlacing:   Produce the highest quality fast-motion videos, with no noise or flickers on the edge of objects in motion
• Picture in Picture:  With one picture for live and the other for captured images, the sub screen can be displayed anywhere in any size, and the main and sub screens can be easily alternated.
• Scheduled Power-up:  Schedule your TV recordings on a daily, weekly or once only basis, and select Stand by/Hibernate (S3/S4) mode for scheduled power saving.
• Time-Shifting:  Interrupted during your favorite show? No problem! Use the Time Shifting function and then on your return you can choose to view the part you missed, or you can search for a particular scene.
• Support worldwide analog TV standards:   Including NTSC, PAL, and SECAM
• Support worldwide audio decoding standards:   Including NICAM, A2, MTS, BTSC, and EIAJ
• Remote control:   With TV-like power-on and off functions

Features...WinFast PVR Software

• WinFast PVR Version 3.0.10.79
• Supports closed captioning.
• Supports MPEG1, MPEG2 codec, and MPEG4 compression format. Note:   The MPEG4 codec can be downloaded from some websites for free. You can download the codec and use it in your capture format profile.
• Picture-in-picture screen with easy switch between main and sub screen.
• Time Shifting support that allows you to view recorded video when the recording is still in progress.
• Scheduler for pre-set recording and power-on.
• Delicately designed software saves time in running the applications.
• Unique Signal Indicator on the margin of screen.
• Multi-function and quick-response software supports MP3, MIDI and many other different kinds of image formats.
• Synchronously records live radio and plays recorded file.
• Allows ten preset FM channels.
• FM and TV applications can record the video and audio from any device connected with your capture card and sound card such as CD-ROM, VCR, camcorder, and a LDNCD/DVD player.
• De-interlacing support for high quality video.