Device and bundle
You could fit a decent sized PCI card in the box, but don't be fooled, this device is no biggy
To those of you asking "is that it?" the answer is "yes!". That's a TV tuner. A TV tuner that supports USB 2.0, DVB-T and analogue. That's it. My 256MB MP3 player is bigger
If you look at it from the back, it's just as small. Incredible! Seriously though, very little happening on the larger surfaces of the device, except for an LED on the front and some vents on both sides
It's at the end of the tuner where it all happens. A small jack socket for the aerial input and a high-density port for other connectors such as the IR sensor and inputs for composite video, S-video and audio
The bundle dwarfs the tuner itself. Included are a comparatively massive (but appropriately-sized) remote control; batteries for said remote; a breakout connector for IR, S-video, composite and audio input; a coaxial converter so you can hook up a normal aerial to the tuner; a 30cm USB extension cable; and, finally, a mini aerial. A software CD is also included but not pictured. Imagine a CD and you're pretty much there.
The remote is fairly comfortable to hold but requires a bit of shuffling to get from top to bottom. None of the buttons is keyed so finding the right one in the dark can be tricky. However, the navigation buttons are all the usual shape, so easy to recognise.
The aerial looks small and flimsy but does feature a magnetic base. We weren't aware of this initially and were wondering how Terratec expects it to stay upright on a desk, until we accidentally knocked it against a piece of metal sat on the desk, and the penny dropped. Quite handy, as long you happen have a bit of metal in an ideal place for television reception. Unfortunately, reception was something this aerial didn't deliver. In areas of weak signal strength, portable aerials don't yield very good results. Analogue television viewing was possible but of the poorest quality; digital reception was along the lines of 'sod all'. Fixed aerial it is, then, and no blame for that can really be passed onto Terratec.
The CD has the necessary drivers (although a newer version is available from the Terratec website), along with DirectX9.0c, Acrobat Reader and Cyberlink PowerCinema 4. While this isn't a review of PowerCinema 4, the next page focuses on what you can do with the tuner, based on the functionality of the bundled software. At the time of writing, only Windows support appeared to be available. Whether the likes of MythTV will work with it remains to be seen, and is outside the constraints of this particular review.
