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AVERMEDIA AVERTVHD MCE A180
Windows XP and MCE 2005
Performance
The AVerTVHD MCE A180 installed without problems,
both hardware and software-wise. The latest
driver and application packages are found on the
company's website. The latest driver versions
allow the use of two AverTVHD MCE A180 cards in the
system simultaneously. One can be used to
record while the other would display live TV.
Below is the AVerTV application setup screen.
It takes about 5 minutes for the program to scan the
entire spectrum for HD stations:
The AVerTV app has the typical skinned interface as
shown below. When switching channels, the app
shows station info such as current and upcoming
programs, OSD-style. The app also allows
screen captures, and its thumbnails are displayed in
a smaller applet on the lower left side.
Because of hardware overlay, the screenshot below
does not show the TV image. Refer back to the
ChannelMaster 4228 Antenna and 7777 Pre-amp review for
the actual screencaps.
There are very specific requirements that need to be
met in order for AVerTVHD MCE A180 to properly work
in MCE 2005. The following is stated on the
AVerMedia website:
NOTE: Under Windows
XP Media Center Edition 2005, there are specific
hardware and software requirements to enable the
AVerTVHD MCE A180 as a separate Digital TV Tuner
device for Media Center.
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A supported DirectX
9.0 compliant graphics adapter is pre-installed.
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Users will need to
have an analog TV tuner card (like UltraTV 1500
MCE, AVerTV PVR 150 or AVerMedia M150)
pre-installed in the system in order to get
AVerTVHD MCE A180 to work properly in Windows®
XP Media Center Edition 2005.
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The Update Roll up 1
for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with
HDTV Support (KB873369) is required prior to
installing drivers for AVerTVHD MCE A180. More
information is available from Microsoft.
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A Windows XP Media
Center Edition 2005 certified MPEG-2 Decoder is
required for proper operation of Media Center.
Please refer to the Windows XP Media Center
Edition Partners site for details on available
DVD Decoder component suppliers.
Below is the test bench setup.
In order to meet the other requirements above,
the Windows XP MCE updates and roll-ups were
downloaded and installed, and the requisite .NET
1.1 and 1.1 SP1 framework. Lastly,
nVidia's PureVideo decoder was installed as the
certified MPEG-2 Decoder.
After rebooting, new
Digital TV options appear:
Digital stations are
listed in the 1000s:
There is also an option to check the DTV signal
strength:
Normally, MCE only adds the main DTV channel.
However, MCE allows manual addition of sub-channels.
When you enter the main channel, MCE automatically
adds the next subchannel:
The next screen lets
you change the subchannel name:
The newly added channel 18.3 is actually the
FUNimation channel:
Here is a screenshot of the FUNimation channel,
which is broadcast in 720p:
Below, is CBS-HD, which is in 1080i:
Below, we had MCE record one HD program while tuning
into another:
Bottom line: The
AVerTVHD MCE A180 performed remarkably well both in
XP and XP MCE 2005. Drivers showed no
instability even with two tuner cards, and image
quality was simply excellent. CPU utilization
did not exceed 10% at any time. The recorded
programs were seamless in the recordings, and its
quality was indistinguishable from live TV.
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