Photograph: Marc SimonIf you're like me, you spend far more time staring at your PC than at your TV anyway. So why not go whole hog and record your favorite shows on your computer, complete with TiVo-style time-shifting abilities? CTX Technology's TV Studio Xtra is an inexpensive PCI Card-and-software combination that receives TV signals via cable or an antenna, burns DVDs, transfers videos to hard disk, and even plays FM radio. It's far from perfect, but it's easy enough for anyone to use.
To record a show, you either press Record on Xtra's handheld remote or use the device's scheduling software, which mimics the remote motif with a one-click capture button. You'll need a big hard drive: A 30-minute MPEG-2 recording gobbles up 1GB of disk space (you can also record video in MPEG-1 or MPEG-4 format). Transferring analog videos from my camcorder was easy, too, thanks to the supplied set of audio/video cables.
The bad news? Images from cable TV were grainier and darker than I'd expected. The FM tuner had trouble receiving several local stations. And the Help file lacks troubleshooting tips.
Jeff Bertolucci
DW Verdict: Some TiVo-like features, but could be better.
PRICE: $70
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