AverMedia Hybrid Volar HD USB TV Tuner Accessories   Page 1

Reviewer: RWL Staff Article Publish Date: 11/8/2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Although i have never been much of a TV person myself i have to accept that most people do like watching TV, perhaps that's amongst the many reasons as to why i have 5 TV sets in my house. Regardless that i have received quite a few emails asking my opinion regarding which i believe to be the best USB TV Tuner currently available in the market for use with notebooks, primarily that is, and since i always like to deliver on such requests my quest led me to one of the best companies in that particular field, AverMedia.

 

 

 

 

    AverMedia Technologies is a global player in the design and manufacture of presentation and multimedia products. Founded in 1990, Aver Media's ideology has remained consistent - to turn advanced technology into innovative commercial products at affordable prices for consumers worldwide. In 1997, we were proud to become a public listed company in Taiwan. Due in part to our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and cutting-edge Research & Development technology, AverMedia is currently the leading manufacturer of TV tuners, PC-to-TV converters, document camera and security DVRs in Taiwan. Aver Media's ISO-9001 / ISO-14001 certified factories and the advanced SMT and DIP equipment can easily fulfill channel and ODM customers' large orders every month. Through the years, Aver Media's document cameras, PC/MAC-to-TV converters, TV tuners and security DVRs have received high praise and numerous prestigious awards from dominant critics in the field including PC Magazine, CHIP, PC World, Presentations Magazine, Computex Show and Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Today, we are expanding our product line to include Digital Video Maker, TV Photo Viewer, and an even wider range of unique presentation, security and multimedia items. Due to our sound reputation and significant market share, AverMedia has formed strong alliances with national distributors, retailers, e-tailers, mail-order resellers and value-added resellers (VARs). Today, AverMedia staffs over 1300 employees worldwide with over 35% professional in-house design engineers who understand the past, present and future of multimedia technology. Branch offices are strategically located in the USA, UK, Spain, Germany, French, Taiwan, Thailand and China. Here at AverMedia, our goal is to consistently be one of the top 3 manufacturers worldwide in each of our product categories. We will continually introduce new and innovative products in the multimedia, security and presentation fields.

 

 

 

 

    The product in our hands today is the AverMedia Hybrid Volar HD, both a USB TV Tuner supporting both MPEG-2/H.264 HDTV formats and a FM receiver. Now the only issue i found with this unit from day one is that it lacks support for MPEG4 channels and since in Greece we do have both MPEG2/4 broadcasts i was unable to receive all of our digital channels. Still as you will see later on support for analog channels and digital MPEG2 ones was perfect so i expect those to cover the needs of most of you out there.