Over the past few years the Taiwanese company TeVii has recognized the trend for satellite viewing via addon cards/usb boxes and PC’s. Today they’re back with one of their latest products, the TeVii DVB-S/S2 PCI-E S470 PC Card.
This new model is connected directly to the motherboard via a PCI-E slot. This is perfect for HDTV reception. According to the manufacturer, the minimum PC requirements are a 2 GHz CPU for SDTV or 2.4 GHz for HDTV, 512 MB RAM for SDTV and 1GB for HDTV as well as a graphics card with 128 MB of memory. The TeVii card supports the Windows 7, XP and Vista as well as Linux operating systems. The software supplied however is Windows flavor only though.
The TeVii card includes a remote control, IR receiver, software CD and installation instructions. The S470 is plug & play compatible and simply requires “plugging in” to your existing motherboard. This isn’t really out of the question for those inexperienced with PC’s, and on a similar level to upgrading memory or a video card.
It is also possible to select whether just the drivers and software should be installed or if the TeViiData program should also be installed. This program permits the use of Internet via satellite services. There is also a demo version of ProgDVB available on the included CD.
The Software
When the TeVii software is started for the first time, it initially greets the user with a blank screen. A pre programmed channel list isn’t activated nor does the software ask the user to perform a channel scan. The TeVii developed user interface provided us with a very clean and organized impression. On the right side are the channel list and available satellites; the currently selected channel is displayed to the left. An EPG bar at the bottom of the display window provides information on the currently running program. The size of the playback window can be adjusted to your liking; the TV picture can also be viewed in full screen mode. Clicking the right mouse button opens the Options menu giving the user access to all of the necessary settings. The TeVii software itself is very international; it can communicate with the user in a variety of languages: English, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
The settings menu comes with a variety of options and settings possibilities. Nearly every aspect of the software can be matched to the users requirements, such as, how content is displayed, the storing and operation of the channel lists, the control of LNBs, the use of multiple monitors, setting up recordings and time shifting, the video and audio Codec’s, the IR receiver, the parameters for the EPG display and last but not least an Expert menu that provides access to the basic parameters of the software. Despite all of these settings possibilities, the Main menu has remained clear and easy to understand. TeVii accomplished this thanks to the window architecture that is part of MS Windows. It would not be possible to clearly present so many settings in a standard set top box. Once all of the needed settings are taken care of, the TeVii card must then become acquainted with the antenna system with which it will be used.
Everyday Use
Thanks to the PCI-E bus, the S470 can switch between channels very quickly; it makes channel surfing a breeze. It doesn’t matter if you’re switching between HD channels or SD channels or if you’re switching from HD to SD or vice versa, the switching time is just a little over one second. It is also possible to make the EPG information as well as channel data visible on the on-screen display.
In addition to the playback of live TV, the S470 naturally also comes with recording and time shift functions. Recordings can be manually started and can also be started at a specific time through the EPG or programmed manually.
CPU Load?
In SD mode, a PC with half way decent hardware will have no problems at all. But with HDTV the outlook is different. If your PC has anything less than a Core2Duo CPU, 1080i playback will be choppy. On suitable hardware though, you’ll find the card performs admirably no matter what is thrown at it.
Additionally, with a little jiggerypokery on the codec front, this card can perform better than most set-top boxes.
As the S470 is missing a CI slot, it means that PayTV reception is not normally possible. However, there are solutions to this! Using other software such as ProgDVB however, will allow card sharing to some extent.
Rating 8.5/10
The S470 would have been better with a CI slot, but that should be available in the next version. Our advice is to hang on and wait for that. If it compares well to the S470 they’ll be on to a winner!
Contact – TeVii
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