[ad#review1008-top]There are five TVs in my house…a 42″ HD LCD, a 32″ HD LCD, and three 25″ conventional TVs. All are used daily. I can see the largest one from my workstation, and I am usually listening to news, “House”, “NCIS”, The History Channel or Discovery while I am working. I don’t watch movies on my rig, and I have never really considered watching TV on it.

But I have actually considered a TV card for the recording aspects. I’m too cheap to get a TiVo from my cable company, but it would be nice to record some television shows I like. I have to be at my day job at 5:30AM, and like to be in bed by 9:30PM, but there is something nearly every night that I’d like to see that comes on at 9:00PM.

Our friends at ASUS have released a cool new TV tuner card, the Asus My Cinema EHD3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/MCE RC. This is a dual Hybrid TV card, with inputs for both digital and analog TV, complete with a dual stream hardware MPEG2 encoder. The card interfaces via PCI-E x1. Read on to find out about the Asus My Cinema EHD3-100!

As luck would have it, the day before I started this review, the television in our bedroom died. The EHD3-100 was right on time, allowing me to continue television viewing there to keep my wife happy.

Specifications

Model: My Cinema EHD3-100/NAQ/FM/AV/MCE RC
Video/Audio Decoder: NXP
Channel Decoder: NXP
TV Tuner: NXP
TV System: Digital, Analog
Bus Standard: PCI-E
Bracket: ATX, LP

Connectors:
- Analog TV Input
- IR Sensor Input
- FM Input
- Video-in
- Audio-in

Operating Systems: MCE, XP, Vista 32-bit, Vista 64-bit

Bundled Software: Power Cinema, Asus Video Security Online

Features

- Powered by PCI-Express port for faster data transmission
- Hardware MPEG2 encoder built-in for unprecedented multitasking efficiency boost
- Hardware noise reduction technology built-in to enhance best video quality
- Watch analog or digital TV (or digital TV through a standard coaxial cable) and record another, or record two different channels at the same time
- Watch one digital and one analog TV channel, or 2 digital channels, or 2 analog channels at the same time on your PC
- Auto-launch a Vista sidebar TV on startup with “ASUS GadgeTV Technology”
- Remote control kit for easy channel surfing
- Listen to FM radio
- Dual AV inputs for capture external source
- “ASUS VideoSecurity Online Technology” for making your private security system on PC
- Microsoft Vista Home Premium / Vista Home Basic / Vista Ultimate / Windows XP certified

Packaging

The My Cinema EHD3-100 comes in a bright orange box that is covered with features and specs.

Inside, the card, bundle, and hardware is protected by a two-layer blisterpack. On the top layer is the card, the remote, and the IR unit. The rest of the hardware, along with manual and drivers is in the bottom layer.

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