Prolink Pixelview PlayTV MPEG 2 (PV-M4800 FM.RC)

I notice many of you come here looking for a driver...I suggest you do not buy this card or that you return it, I tried and failed to find a driver better than the one that was packaged with their card.

With it's high resolution capturing, time shifting, FM radio, remote control, and low price. The PlayTV MPEG 2 Capture card seems like a great buy. But be careful, this card will fight back, with bad drivers, not only will the software crash, but the drivers will cause the computer to crash.

Package Contents/Presentation 10/10
This thing had it all. A remote, a short audio cable for going between the audio out on the TV tuner to audio in on your sound card, a remote reciever, FM Cable, driver cd, quick installation manual, and a driver/software CD. All this without one of those hard to open plastic packages like for memory cards made the packaging great.

Installation: .0003/10
As with many other TV Tuner Cards, this one was a pain. Sticking it in the PCI Slot and turning on the computer was simple enough. Hooking up cables and all that was easy, as was putting the cable from the audio out on the TV Tuner to the AUX In on the sound card (optional, you could use the audio out on the Tuner (external) to the external line in or mic jack on the sound card. Yep, hardware installation was simple enough eh?
Now comes the installation of software. Boot up, insert cd, auto run comes up, click TV Tuner Card Series. Then it goes through the installation of drivers and software. Picking out drivers is a challenge, often many to choose from that should work, so I choose all the drivers and install them, after a reboot or two, the marathon of driver and software installation is over. It would have been nice if it were easier but that is the way it was, I had to give them some points because I was able to install it completely.

Functionality of FM Radio 6/10
This is a really nice feature, being able to listen to FM Radio on the computer is a nice thing. It works pretty well too. The reception is crisp and the software that controls the tuner is easy to use. Allowing for setting favorite stations. Very impressed. BUT: Bluescreen of Death because of poor drivers. every once in a while. I didnt get to try the FM Radio recording feature of this card because of the instability it caused to my computer.

Functionality of Video .00000000000001/100
Yep, option of capturing resolutions of 720x480 in MPEG Format is nice. Worked very well for the first 20 minutes then: badabadabadabada bluescreen of death. OK, ill reboot. Seems ok, everything loads. Yep can work the video, watch vcr footage. Can record it ok. Then the video freezes up. Close it. seems to close successfully. Try opening it. Negative. Wont open up again. So, naturally, I give my computer the 3 finger salute: CTRL+ALT+DELETE. I see that 2 instances of WINDVR are running, no problem, happens all the time, I close them both, try opening another, nothing, then BOOM: Bluescreen of death, I reboot again. This is getting frustrating. So I just forget about it and surf the internet. Boom, bluescreen of death, I reboot again. Everything loads, boom, bluescreen. Argh, so i boot into safe mode and do system restore, before installing the card, everything works fine and dandy. So of course I try again. The cycle continues two or three times and finally I give up. System restoring to before I even installed the thing. I then turn off my computer and pull the Tuner card out and box it back up to go back to the store it came from.

But my struggles are not over, I still get programs crashing and bluescreens, each bluescreen I reboot. Finally, cant boot without a bluescreen. So now I have the default background and settings after the wonderful reinstall of Windows XP, Now I must reinstall the programs I want, RMA the Tuner card and buy myself an ATI 9600xt with VIVO. (Video In Video Out)

Conclusion: HORRIBLE
This card seems like a good deal, good quality video and radio reception, but unless you love to see the bluescreen of death or enjoy reformatting your computer, or not having enough time between crashes to enjoy your purchase, DO NOT BUY THIS CARD.

I recommend a different product such as a video card with video in
Try the ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 AGP for $100 from JR.com, if the budget model doesnt satisfy your gaming performance needs, check out their search results for the All In Wonder, there's also the Visiontek Radeon X800

If a video card isnt for you, check out their results for TV Tuner Cards, be sure to check reviews first, I dont have any other reviews for these because I stopped at a VIVO card and it works great, no TV tuner but I had a spare VCR available

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