Compro VideoMate U2700 review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Sep 2007

Price when reviewed: £45

Supplier: http://www.aria.co.uk

Reviewed By: Seth Barton

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Most modern USB tuners use a stick design, but Compro's VideoMate U2700 is housed in a small but sturdy black box with lots of ports.

One of these is a power socket, which must be connected to a USB port. Compro provides a special lead so the USB connection and power can come from a single port, but it still results in a mess of leads.

The RF input requires an adaptor to fit a full-sized RF connector. The video input comes with adaptors for both composite and S-video inputs, while the audio input can take a standard minijack input, or there's an adaptor for phono leads. Video can be captured only as MPEG1 or MPEG2 at a variety of settings. Analogue reception was unwatchable using the mini antenna, but looked fine with a rooftop antenna.

The interface consists of a control panel and separate viewing window. The controls are small and fiddly to use, and often have unhelpful icons to identify them. To switch between the various video inputs, you click on the current input's name, and it cycles slowly to the next one.

The EPG displays only the currently viewed multiplex of channels, making it hard to plan an evening's viewing. You can't access the EPG when recording or timeshifting a show. It will wake your PC from standby to record a programme, though.

The U2700 is a compact tuner with plenty of options for capturing analogue video and audio. However, the poor software lets it down.

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