OnAir GT Review – A USB HDTV Tuner and DVR

Performance, Vista and Final Thoughts

Performance

My testing was done a Core 2 Duo E6700 processor based system with 2GB of DDR2-800 memory and an ATI X1950 XTX graphics card.  Using my cable connection the CPU power required for watching analog and digital channels seemed to be the same to me.  However, when recording, the CPU utilization did go up.

Performance watching analog cable

Performance while recording on analog cable

Based on my rough estimates here, the OnAir GT requires about 30-35% of our CPU power to run efficiently.  Keep in mind that the application is set to high priority as well.  While recording, the CPU utilization went up another 10% or so 45%.  The increase isn’t too bad consider the extra work going on, but I am sure some of you will note that 45% utilization on a Core 2 Duo E6700 seems pretty high. 

The minimum specs that OnAir lists for this card are very meager:

• ATI Radeon 7200 or higher
• NVIDIA GeForce MX 440 or higher
• 32MB of video memory
• Pentium III 800 MHz or Athlon XP and higher
• 256MB memory

Those are MUCH older specs than the system I was running, and as such, I think that OnAir is under estimating the power required to run this software in order to get smooth and reliable playback. 

Windows Vista Support

After all the hoop-lah around the ATI All-in-Wonder cards and their inability to function in Vista correctly, I was eager to see how the OnAir USB HDTV GT tuner could do in the new operating system.  Using the publicly available drivers and those that came on the disc with the unit, I was able to get it running on Vista 32-bit without a hassle.  The driver team told me that an upcoming driver (v3.0.0.0) and application (v3.01) release would allow full support for 64-bit mode as well.

I set the OnAir GT up on my desktop system running Vista 32-bit and found the application to work the same as it did on our Windows XP testing system.  Hurrah!

But what about support for the Media Center application in Vista home versions?  According to the AutumnWave team, with the updated drivers that are currently in beta, Media Center can detect and use the OnAir GT device.  However, since the Media Center software does NOT support software encoding for analog TV and also does not support digital cable channels, you will be limited to watching digital over-the-air TV.  So in that respect, the Media Center app in Vista is still somewhat crippled. 

They were quick to point out though, that with the OnAir software, Vista users will be able to support digital TV on unencrypted cable and over-the-air as well as analog TV from cable and OTA. 

Final Thoughts

The OnAir USB HDTV-GT is a unique device in many aspects and stands out among other TV tuners.  The small size and weight of the unit, and because it doesn’t need an external power connection, the OnAir GT is perfect for notebook users that might want to take an HDTV tuner with them on the road.  The OnAir software is basic and doesn’t have a lot of frills — but I consider this a good thing!  With little bloat in the application, it performs its functions very well and offers some interesting twists like the ability to create custom clips of videos (or even external inputs) and then export them. 

The only things that I would have liked to see improved is an OPTIONAL power cord for better reception and an integrated hardware encoder for timeshifting on analog TV (though this IS included in another OnAir device).  Overall though, the OnAir GT is a great little accessory that you can find for around $175 to add HDTV support to your PC or notebook. 

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