OnAir GT Review – A USB HDTV Tuner and DVR

The USB HDTV-GT

The OnAir GT is a USB HDTV tuner for your notebook or desktop computer.  The GT model is made smaller and lighter and does not require external power making it well suited for the mobile business user. 

The box puts it all out on the table — turn your laptop or PC into a high definition TV.  According to the box you can connect either an antenna or cable connection as well as record, edit, create, copy and burn videos.  You’ll also notice that there is a Dolby logo on the box as well as the NVIDIA PureVideo decoder logo indicating which decoder software is in use. 

Here’s the little device with all the magic in it — a sleek black appearance will complete most any system or notebook configuration.  Along the front of the device (to the left in this image) there are two LEDs: one for power and one to indicate an unlocked HDTV signal.

The bottom of the OnAir GT has some small air vents and a serial number for the device. 

For a sizing comparison, here is the OnAir GT placed next to a standard size mouse; in this case the new OCZ Equalizer I have been playing around with.  For users interested in taking this device with them on the go you can see that its size makes it pretty mobile and the weight is a bit more than most USB mice. 

Looking at the back of the OnAir GT we see the various connections it uses for input and output.  A standard USB 2.0 port is the only connection that goes to the computer for both audio and video.  The A/V In connection is for an included dongle that allows you to connect any kind of component such as a VCR or even a video game system to be used in conjunction with the recording software. 

The antenna connection is actually a removeable RCA-type connector so you can twist it on to the antenna cable itself or a cable connection before plugging it in.  This works with both over-the-air and domestic cable.

Here is the OnAir GT with the included antenna installed — its pretty small and since the device only has power from the USB connection, you can guess that the power to it is fairly low.  As such, reception in my house (I live in a valley somewhat) was poor; but in most areas it seemed to do very well.  The antenna extends to about 15″ in length.

The instructions and software included are pretty straight forward and offer a user interested in this device enough information to get it installed and working.

Other extras that come with the OnAir USB HDTV GT include a remote control for the software (receiver is built into the front of the GT itself), a pouch to store it in for mobile users, a standard USB cable, a screw-in OTA antenna and a dongle that allows for composite video and audio connections (stereo, red RCA connection got cut off in the picture) and S-Video as well. 

The remote control is pretty standard and looks like something that might come from your local cable provider.  It has buttons for all the functions you’d expect to have with a TV and DVR including pause, rewind, fast forward, etc.  There are also eight programmable buttons (F1-F8) that you can set to any kind of function in the DVR software.  The remote itself is very light and feels like a hundred other remotes I have used.