Pros: Compact with built-in remote control sensor; perfect for laptop/traveling; no power source needed; no audio cable needed; captures from composite sources; burns directly to CD/DVD.
Cons: Poor audio quality; no “last channel” button; no “sleep” function; no channel suites; program starts and changes channels slowly; small remote control.
Verdict: The ADS Instant USB TV is quite affordable, but it's not the best TV/PVR solution.
The ADS Instant USB TV is an external TV tuner/PVR (personal video recorder) capture device that requires Windows XP and Hi-Speed USB at a minimum. This limits its market – for a while anyway. Most people will meet these requirements soon enough. The Instant TV can capture analog video (camcorder, VCR, gaming console) and record it or display it with the included Ulead Video@Home program. Since very good PCI TV cards are readily available, we must suppose that the target market for the Instant TV is a laptop user, people who have no spare PCI slots or those who prefer not to open their PCs. Those markets will be well served with this type of TV/Capture device.
Getting Ready The package contains the tuner unit, a remote control, AV cables for capture, a USB cable, software/driver CD, and a fairly comprehensive manual (rare!). Setup is pretty easy. You install the drivers/software, connect the USB cable and the TV coaxial antenna. You then instruct Windows to search for drivers automatically. It works quite well. In fact, you must search for drivers each time the unit id connected. That can get tiresome. There is no audio cable to the PC with this unit. The audio feed is carried over the USB cable. This reduces cable clutter, but may carry a penalty with it. We will cover that later. In the connectivity department, the tuner has coax, S-Video, RCA video, audio in, audio out and USB connections.
Turning on TV The Ulead TV/capture software is a bit slow to start, perhaps because of all of the features it has. The program took about 30 seconds to start on a very powerful Athlon 3200+ PC. While starting, the entire system audio is muted. This may be because the Instant TV would otherwise generate a lot of white noise during startup. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to lose all system sound. Configuring the Ulead is a bit fractured. There is a Preferences panel, but it’s small. The real power of the Ulead software is in right-clicking the video display.
Not only can the Video@Home display TV and external video sources, but it can actually burn your videos to CD or DVD – either after capturing to the hard drive or directly to CD/DVD using MPEG1, MPEG2, VCD, SVCD or DVD encoding. It works this magic by using XP’s inherent burning capability (remember that XP is a requirement) and the Windows Media Encoder 9 package from Microsoft. Burning direct to optical disk still requires free temporary hard disk space, but nowhere near as much as one would need for recording everything to hard disk. Speaking of which, the quality of the recoding (resolution chosen) determines the size of the video file created. Higher resolution makes for very large recordings!
Quality & Usability In testing, we were able to verify the above features. Since we are using analog video with the Instant TV, the captured video quality after burning to DVD was less than stellar, but that is to be expected because it is not a true digital solution. There were some video and audio “losses” in processing. For archival use, the quality is more than adequate. Also, it’s nice to be able to control CD/DVD recording from the same program rather than juggling something like the Nero or Roxio burning apps while viewing.
Real-time recording was fun. The Instant TV records the feed to a file on the hard drive and keeps recording while you can pause, rewind or fast forward what you’re recording. Some things are just plain magic. This is one of them!
Video@Home automatically offers to scan for channels on first use. Both NTSC and PAL TV standards are offered. External video capture worked as one would expect.
Gotchas As mentioned previously, Video@Home starts slowly. It changes channels slowly too. It’s easy to overshoot your target channel when scanning manually. There is no “last channel” button or switch. There is no channel scan with thumbnail previews. There is no “sleep” switch for automatic shutoff after a preset time. You cannot create TV channel “suites” or categories. There is one master list and the user can only edit this. TV video quality is quite good, but requires a bit of adjustment. It’s a bit dark and dull at default settings, but this was easily changed in the Video preferences.
Stereo audio is included, but we found that audio quality was the most glaring problem with this package. The sound is flat and dull. Worse, it is plagued with an intermittent clicking noise. It’s not unbearable, but it can be annoying. This may be a side effect of running video, audio and power over the single USB cable. When the PC was left alone, the clicking subsided for the most part. Unfortunately, who leaves their PC alone?
The Bottom Line At $80 street, the ADS USB Instant TV is not an expensive device by any means. It’s quite affordable and we should not expect it to be perfect. It’s not the best TV/PVR solution. It does work and has a lot of features and capabilities. If you want top-flight performance, a PCI TV card or an “All-in-Wonder” video card is a better choice. If you have a laptop or cannot add a PCI card, this is the way to go.
- William DeVercelly, Contributing Editor
Where to buy ADS USB Instant TV?
User Review(s)
"Problems with the soft" Hello.
I have a problem with th soft lead i think.
When i change the video format, mpeg to dvd, or other, then i can see some horizontal lines on the bottom of my tv window.
Uninstall the soft, reinstall again and work ok. But, when i try to change again the video format, the same problem, and impossible to fix. Only uninstall it and reinstall.
There are others softwares for to use with instant Tv.
Thanks a lot. From Abel, November 04, 2004
"Great Device with a little know how" The device is great, you just have to know how to configure your system. mostly by turning on all the sound sections. Wave, video, everything. also needed to configure the the audio device it installs, it acts as it's own microphone, so it installs drivers accordingly. the equivilant to installing another soudn card. Great video quality, i play playstation on it all the time. the coaxal imput is a lil lower in quality but great non-the-less From Sargeant HacK, July 10, 2004
"i get a good picture but no audio" The ADS USB instant TV is a compact computer TV tuner and recorder, however I get no sound with any picture. I have downloaded all MS software updates for XP bit still no sound. I use USB for standard sound out, CDs, MP3s, etc. but this device offers not a peep. Can someone out there help me. From Larry, July 02, 2004
We're currently upgrading our user review system; so we won't be accepting new reviews for now. USB Instant TV Specs
Extras Turn on and off this self-powered device automatically with your PC.
Lost a USB cable? Get a replacement USB cable.
Running out of USB ports? Get an extra USB hub.
You may need a new USB card to achieve Hi-Speed USB speeds.
Confirm with our USB 2.0 FAQ if you have Hi-Speed USB on your PC.
Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Everything USB
The Ulead TV/capture software is a bit slow to start, perhaps because of all of the features it has. The program took about 30 seconds to start on a very powerful Athlon 3200+ PC. While starting, the entire system audio is muted. This may be because the Instant TV would otherwise generate a lot of white noise during startup. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to lose all system sound. Configuring the Ulead is a bit fractured. There is a Preferences panel, but it’s small. The real power of the Ulead software is in right-clicking the video display.
