NTSC/Analog TV Observations, Continued
NTSC/Analog TV Observations, Continued
| Test Name | Max. Score | Native | TVCard | Explanation/remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De-interlacing colour | 10 | 10 | 10 | Able to show small colour bars flicker-free |
| De-interlacing jaggies 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | Native showed top 2 lines OK, only top line OK for card |
| De-interlacing jaggies 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | More edge artifacts for card, but edges still pretty smooth |
| De-interlacing : flag test | 10 | 10 | 5 | Actual video of Old Glory flapping away ; more noticeable jaggies for card |
| Detail enhancement | 10 | 10 | 10 | Enhanced detail of blurry parts in video scene |
| Noise reduction | 10 | 5 | 10 | Ability to remove compression artifacts ; card clearly outperformed native |
| Motion adaptive noise reduction | 10 | 5 | 10 | Ability to show motion with no motion trails of smearing artifacts ; card clearly outperformed native |
| Film detail (2:3 pulldown) | 10 | 10 | 10 | Conversion of film to video, flawless for both approaches |
| Film Cadence | 40 | 20 | 20 | Eight tests of 5 points each ; pass or fail ; tests for flicker or jaggies (identical results for both approaches, but a little more edge action with the card) |
| Scrolling titles (horiz) | 10 | 10 | 10 | Looks for jaggies or artifacts in title text |
| Scrolling titles (vert) | 10 | 10 | 10 | Looks for jaggies or artifacts in title text |
| TOTALS | 130 | 98 | 98 |
We can’t help but observe that while the TV card doesn’t do as well with deinterlacing jaggies as the native playback chain - the path through the card posted lower results on both jaggies tests - it is visibly better at both types of noise reduction. This came as a surprise to us, because we went into this test believing that the card would match the native path at best, and not be able to beat it in any test. Interestingly, this resulted in a wash on the score, so that both paths produced the same overall result despite these minor differences. This kind of noise reduction is a welcome effect of the latest generation of circuitry : we’ve seen nothing like this from the previous generation of TV capture cards.
Digital And HDTV Handling
When it comes to digital TV, you either get enough of the signal to play it back correctly or you get nothing. Consequently, we merely affirmed that the HDTV tuner in the M780 could indeed play back or record the HD channels available to us through Time Warner. Then we checked its ability to pull in HD channels over the air. We input our location and our capabilities to the titanTV Web site, which produced a list of 10 available HD channels, of which two shared channel 10, two shared channel 14, and 4 shared channel 18. We used the small whip antenna included with the M780, but couldn’t pick up any of those stations, though as soon as we plugged in a Zenith SilverSensor antenna (a widely used HDTV accessory that costs about £10) we picked all of the anticipated channels up without difficulty. We did have to adjust angles and attitudes differently for the pair of channels from our north (Waco) compared to those to our south (Austin). We observed signal strengths between 74% (Waco) and 89-95% (Austin) for this set-up, all of which are at least adequate for OTA HDTV pickup.
Digital handling in the card shows evidence of the same excellent noise reduction circuitry that we observed when comparing results for analog signals with the HQV material. Overall, this card appears to be quite capable of pulling in and cleaning up digital signals, provided that it’s outfitted with a decent antenna for OTA HDTV material. Of course, it’s still impossible to capture HDTV signals from the digital cable through a PC capture card, though the reasons are more legal than technical.
While reviews of this card have been gleaming, I'm hesitant to purchase one because a key feature in TV tuner cards is not mentioned: Closed Captioning. Does this card support that feature or not? Unfortunately Avermedia does not provide a manual for this product on their web page... such a document might hold the answer. Since there is 1 hearing-impaired member of my household, this is some important information which determines which card/manufacturer that we'll go with.