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Plextor Mini Digital HDTV Receiver (PX-HDTV500U)This portable USB TV tuner turns your notebook into a walking billboard. Price:
$99
By Mike Spitalieri 
 The Plextor Mini Digital HDTV Receiver may have a difficult time winning over prospective viewers. While USB tuners are a cheap way for consumers to dip a toe into the torrid waters of HDTV, we didn't get much more than a handful of over-the-air channels, most of which are typically standard definition. Plus, the antenna is one of the most garish things we've ever seen.
The device looks like a small silver USB thumb drive with a green power light. A coaxial cable and adapter protrude from the USB device; the black coaxial cable snakes into a plastic antenna that has a suction cup for mounting but doesn't reliably stick onto any surfaces besides smooth notebook lids. The antenna also clutches an 8 x 4.5-inch piece of circuit-wired cardboard, displaying a large version of the Plextor logo, for signal enhancement. The card is so obnoxious, that at first glance, we thought it was surely a placeholder for some other smaller, less obtrusive antenna card, but after much tugging and prying, we discovered the mini Plextor billboard was a permanent fixture to this tuner solution. To get high-definition TV, you'll need a pretty powerful notebook: It should have a Pentium 4 3-GHz processor (or equivalent), 512MB of RAM, and a 128MB graphics card. Picture quality was impressive-some of the time. The smattering of HD channels available in our area looked fantastic over the air, but most stations played in standard definition; these looked passable, without the snowy effects you sometimes get with over-the-air tuners. TV in full-screen mode, however, appeared grainy. Using the bundled ArtecMedia TV software, a Core 2 Duo notebook delivered decent frame rates, but weren't amazing. Once we switched over to Vista's Windows Media Center, however, we saw a marked improvement: High-def video was silky smooth. This leaves XP users who don't have Media Center in the lurch, so we would recommend alternative software suites like BeyondTV (www.snapstream.com). The ArtecMedia software had its fair share of quirks, too. We had trouble exiting the Program Guide menu without restarting the application, and our recording sessions often failed to initiate or copy video to the hard drive, forcing us to miss our favorite shows. Vista users will definitely get the most out of this device, because they'll be able to take advantage of the operating system's Media Center. The Plextor Mini Digital HDTV Receiver delivers high-def goodness on the cheap, but you'd be better served with the $150 Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2. It costs more, but you get better software in more portable package. Suggested Stories: Joost: Battle of the Sexes Does Joost have a place in the future of Internet television? Two of our staff writers couldn't disagree more. What's Next for Web TV YouTube is so 2006. The latest Internet video sites emphasize quality over homebrewed content. Best & Worst: First Half of 2007 The gear we loved--and the products that seriously missed the mark. Compare Prices | Plextor Mini Digital HDTV Receiver (PX-HDTV500U) Specifications
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