Founded in August 1986, MSI has continued to uphold a business philosophy that stresses "Award-winning product quality and outstanding customer service." MSI specializes in the design and manufacture of motherboards, add-on cards, servers/workstations, barebones, optical storage devices, communication devices and IA accessories. Overcoming a challenging industry environment, MSI have raced to the head of the pack and are now ranked among Taiwan’s Top 3 and the World's Top 5 motherboard manufacturer. Besides, our VGA production has been on the No. 1 position in the world for four consecutive years.
Watch DVB-T digital TV up to HD Resolution
Schedule/Live Record DTV Programs (PVR)
Listen to DVB-T digital radio
Support Time-Shifting
Support Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and digital Teletext
Support Still Frame Capture (BMP / JPG)
Support Channels Auto Scan
Video Desktop to display video as a motion desktop background.
Support Remote Control
Microsoft MCE compatible
Support Multilanguage including: English, French, Germany, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
The Contents
Let’s start off with what you have in the box as you can see below you receive the MEGA SKY 580 a slim remote control and an antenna.
Just for your interest the USB dimensions are 8.5 cm in length and 3cm in width, a bit bigger than a standard size USB thumb drive. The adapter is used to connect the aerial to the tuner using the supplied mini aerial or connecting to an external one.
The first thing to do is install the software supplied on the CD and then restart your PC and the insert the tuner into the USB port.
As you can see from the screen shot you are presented with Presto PVR which used to watch and record programs.
Tune in
On to the setting up procedure with everything connected up your first port of call is to click on the small hammer icon on the control interface which brings up the following control panel. The first thing to do is to click on the program tab and then select your country and then the scan button. It will take roughly just over 2 ½ minutes to scan available channels as you can see in the picture.
The Picture
The picture quality is very good as seen in this screen grab below which is not actual size. Also the picture quality will depend on your reception area the stronger the better also depending whether you are using the supplied antenna or connected on an external one. The screen can be resized from small to full screen.
There are over one hundred channels to choose from TV and radio. It is pretty straightforward on how to choose what channel to watch by either clicking on the plus or minus on the control panel. Also you can get a list of all the channels by bringing up the Program List Viewer as seen below.
The other featuresThe included software Presto PVR can record screen grabs as already shown and has the ability to record programs either by click on the record button. You are also able to set a schedule of when and what channel to record, also pause live feeds and watch where you left off if for example if answering the door. There many other features that are available just too numerous to mention.
Conclusion
We think it’s a great idea to have a USB tuner that you can carry around with you and which you can plug into a laptop which it’s been designed for. And you can use it on a desktop pc. The bad point is that the location of where you use the MEGA 580 can affect the signal using the supplied small antenna maybe weak or non existence. If used in the home we would recommend it being connected to external aerial to get the best out of it.
Pros:
Small size
Plenty of features
Able to pause live feeds
Schedule/EPG
Loads of channels to watch or listen to
Cons:
Signal strength depend where it is located
Gets slightly warm
Score 4.5 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment