Avermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 review

We reviewed Avermedia's original DVB-T back in July 2004, and gave it our Best Buy Award for its great price and picture quality.

The DVB-T 771, is only slightly different. The remote control looks identical, and the only change we could spot on the card is that the composite video input socket has been removed. This isn't a problem, though, as there's a composite to S-Video adapter included in the box for camcorder users.

Installing the DVB-T 771 hardware is easy - as long as you have a free PCI slot and a screwdriver, it shouldn't take more than five minutes. After turning the computer on again, Windows XP detected the card and installed all the drivers it needs from the CD. All you have to do is run a setup program to install the software.

Last month we reviewed an Avermedia analogue TV tuner card. We found its setup incredibly easy. Tuning the DVB-T 771 isn't quite as straightforward. When you run the software for the first time, it prompts you to choose your country and scan for channels, but the layout is confusing, and it isn't always clear what to do next.

The same criticism applies to the entire DVB-T 771 interface. Avermedia's software looks individual, but it's not always obvious what the buttons do.

The remote control interface is equally disappointing. When watching TV in full-screen mode, the tuner displayed channel numbers rather than names, which is a pain. More annoyingly still, the channel up and down buttons seemed to be reversed - if you're watching channel four, for example, pushing channel up sends you to channel three.

Fortunately, the DVB-T 771 has excellent picture quality. Using a rooftop aerial we picked up dozens of channels, all of which were displayed at far higher quality than any analogue TV tuner we've seen, with no visible signs of 'de-interlacing' - jagged edges caused by the difference between the way the picture is built up on a monitor, as opposed to a TV screen. The only problem we found was with a news channel, whose rapidly scrolling headline ticker was illegible. Programmes recorded to MPEG-2 format were of equally impressive quality.

Picture quality is largely excellent, but overall, we can't recommend the DVB-T 771. Its interface makes using it a pain. Unless you really need an internal PCI tuner card, the Hauppauge Nova-T USB (opposite) is better.