New NVIDIA Dual-Analog TV Tuner Turns PCs Into Home Entertainment Centers
NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in graphics and
digital media processors, today introduced the NVIDIA DualTV tuner, the first
TV tuner for PCs to offer two TV tuners on a single card with comprehensive
personal video recording functionality, unique MediaSqueeze disk space saving
technology, and support for the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE)
operating system.
The NVIDIA DualTV tuner is available immediately for $169 USD from the NVIDIA
Store Web site at www.store.nvidia.com.
With its unique two-tuner technology, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner transforms an
MCE-equipped PC into a bona fide home entertainment system. With a touch of a
mouse button, users can schedule recordings of their favorite TV shows and
watch them when they want, record two TV shows simultaneously, or watch one
channel while recording another, as well as watch pause, and rewind live or
recorded TV shows.
With the emergence of portable media players and ubiquitous broadband
availability, NVIDIA DualTV users can watch their programs from almost anywhere
-- in the home, on the go, or over the Internet. Programs recorded with the
NVIDIA DualTV tuner can be transferred to personal media players and portable
game players that play back video and many other portable media players. Live
or recorded shows can be streamed throughout the home to game consoles or Media
Center Extenders; and with Orb Networks software (www.orb.com),
NVIDIA DualTV tuner users can watch live or recorded TV shows from anywhere in
the world over the Internet for personal use.
The NVIDIA DualTV tuner offers a unique MediaSqueeze technology that allows
users to store more of their favorite TV programs on their hard disk, DVD, or
portable media player. Users can record live TV shows at a lower bit-rate than
normal or "transrate" previously-recorded TV programs into a lower
bit-rate to preserve disk space, without significant loss in picture quality.
In internal testing using a Tektronix PQA300 MPEG image quality measurement
system, NVIDIA found its picture quality rating at medium bit-rates scored
consistently better than competitive products recorded at a higher bit-rate.(1)
NVIDIA has applied its renowned PureVideo technology to the DualTV tuner
enabling the highest possible picture quality on a PC to date. In addition to
PureVideo, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner features:
- 3D comb filter -- to create
high-quality color separations and enhance image detail.
- 3D noise reduction hardware
-- to clean up the signal, thus removing artifacts.
- In-line TV amplifier -- to
boost weak signals.
- Multi-stream hardware encoder
-- to record crystal clear TV shows with low CPU utilization.
In addition to these picture-quality enhancing features, the
NVIDIA DualTV tuner carries the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) certification,
signifying that it meets ISF standards for home theater-quality television
tuning and recording. Since 1994, ISF has provided comprehensive testing and
certification of performance quality, and a publicly recognized logo program for
high-end consumer electronics products that consumers identify with superior
quality.
"There are other TV tuners in the market today, but the NVIDIA DualTV
tuner offers some key differentiators that make it stand out," said Scott
Vouri, general manager of multimedia at NVIDIA. "Based on our internal
testing, it's measurably the best picture quality of any dual tuner card and
saves disk space. It's easy to use and install, and is designed for people who
want to watch what they want, where they want, whenever they want."