Asustek Unveils My Cinema-PE9400 Combo TV Tuner

Asustek has just unveiled a new TV tuner in the My Cinema series, that allows users to enjoy both digital and analog TV using their desktop computers. The new offering connects to the PC via a PCI-Express interface and can support both digital (ATSC/QAM) and analog (NTSC) TV programs formats.

The built-in MPEG2 hardware encoder offloads the CPU workload while providing high-quality video output for a fully versatile multimedia experience. The PCI-Express TV tuner comes out of the box with recording capabilities: users can record their favorite TV shows even when watching another station.

Thanks to the PCI Express x1 interface, the tuner can deliver enhanced data transfer rates of up to 500Mb/s - more than three times the capabilities of the conventional PCI bus running at 133 Mb/s. The MPEG2 hardware decoder allows the tuner to keep the resource consumption at a minimum, so users can perform additional tasks while watching or recording TV shows. Also, the PE9400 Combo sports brand-new hardware noise reduction algorithms that deliver superior image quality as compared to a standard TV set.

The new offering from Asustek brings an interesting blend of analog and digital TV technologies, that lets users watch analog TV with digital TV over the air at the same time. If you're one of the TV fans who like to scroll between stations frequently, Asustek's My Cinema-PE9400 Combo comes with built-in PBP (picture beside picture) and PIP (picture in picture) functions, that displays multiple stations on the same screen.

The device comes bundled with specific software, that allows users to schedule recordings, edit home-made movies, edit and burn DVDs or Video CDs, listen to FM and MP3 streams over the web, as well as perform additional sorting tasks for videos and images.

Asystek bundled a "Microsoft MCE Certified" remote controller with the tuner, in order to allow users to control the device from the sofa.