Verdict: A star of networked TV

The PVR card market is full of specialist companies that concentrate on just a few products. Nebula Electronics probably won't be a name you'll have heard of if you haven't bought a TV tuner before.

The DigiTV is a pretty basic PCI card, with RF pass-through, a composite video port and an IR sensor mini-jack. However, once you load the PVR app, the DigiTV reveals its unique approach. Unlike most other PVR cards this month, the software supplied with the DigiTV doesn't try to look like Windows XP MCE, nor is it a sofa-unfriendly Windows application. Instead, Nebula has put together a kind of hybrid. The more complex features still require use of the mouse, but you can perform virtually all of the everyday watching and recording functions using the remote.

The EPG is part of the PVR main menu, and everything is easily legible from a distance. You can view a list of all the available channels in a scrollable window at the bottom. Highlighting a show calls up the short DVB-T guide description in a box below. A single click of the remote lets you switch channels or schedule a recording. File playback is particularly remote-friendly, with recordings automatically split into chapters.

But the DigiTV's really unique feature is its ability to rebroadcast TV across your network. Simply load the DigiTV software onto another PC, and you'll be able to change channels, access the EPG and even schedule recordings remotely.

There's a Web interface available too, which can stream video over the Internet at bit rates from 128Kb/sec to 1Mb/sec, and also lets you view the EPG and set recordings remotely. You can watch recordings via the Web interface, but with the standalone app, you'll need to share the video archive directory manually.

The Nebula DigiTV has a very well designed interface. However, considering that Leadtek's DTV1000 T is less than half the price, it's poor value if you're just after a basic digital TV PVR card. But if you plan to take advantage of the networking and Internet streaming abilities then this is a great TV tuner.

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