Diamond Multimedia XtremeTV PVR600 Review

The Diamond XtremeTV PVR600 gives your PC TV and media features without the need of an internal add-in card. Plus they throw in a killer remote control.

Summary

The Diamond XtremeTV PVR600 is a nice bundle of hardware and software.  With a little work, you can add Personal Video Recorder abilities to your PC, and still maintain a stable system while you pause, rewind and record live TV.  The package does not include everything you need, and it requires an additional $100 investment to use all the advertised features with full functionality.  If you are building a home theater PC or just want to add TV to your laptop, check out the Diamond XtremeTV PVR600.

 

*Edit 7/14/05 – The score has been changed from a 6 to a 6.5 to reflect new information.

Diamond PVR600

 

Many video cards come with video in and video out capabilities, and that gets their owners thinking about the possibility of merging their PC and TV experiences.  With the more recent convergence technologies found in nearly all modern consumer electronics, the field has fragmented somewhat.  Many TVs have PC or DVI inputs, and many PCs have s-video in and out.  Add to that the PCs based on Windows Media Center Edition, and the playing field can appear confusing.

 

The XtremeTV PVR600 is a simple, all-in-one solution for adding live TV and PVR capabilities to your PC, whether a desktop or notebook.  What the consumer should know is that this is a package of capture hardware by Diamond with drivers, and remote plus recording software by Snapstream.  What that means:  You can get the same user experience with any of the supported tuner cards.  Also, you can use other software with the Diamond tuner card.  What is nice is the fact that each of these components is sold together.  That means everything you need is included in one package, it has all been tested, and you have one source to go to with any problems.

 

This review is actually a review of three separate items:  The Diamond PVR600 USB 2.0 tuner, the Snapstream Firefly remote, and Snapstream’s Beyond TV and Beyond Media software.  These are all included in the Diamond PVR600 Power Pack, along with all required wires.

 

Image Courtesy Diamond Multimedia

 

The first component is the namesake for the package:  The Diamond PVR600.  The PVR600 is a USB 2.0 TV tuner with three inputs.  The unit itself is very small, measuring only 4.5”x3”x1”, so it can be tucked away behind the computer or set behind the TV.  The front has composite video/audio, s-video, and a power button.  Why is there a power button?  No idea.  The back sports the USB, power, and coaxial cable connections.  There is no power adapter, only a power to USB cable.  That’s right.  On your PC, you will be using two precious USB ports.  This has an advantage for notebook users, since the dual USB connections make the unit more portable than a large power brick.  Whether the unit could have been powered over a single USB connection is something only the Diamond engineers will understand, especially since most users will just plug them into the same hub that shares the same power limitation.

 

Image Courtesy Diamond Multimedia

 

The image quality from the PVR600 was decent, but doesn’t win any awards.  The image clarity is good, but pixilated.  Some anti-aliasing or just a slight blurring overlay or filter would have helped a lot.  The colors are a little too bright, and even with the Beyond TV brightness/contrast/color controls, we never got a picture rivaling a regular cable box to TV setup.  It should be noted, and with no real surprise, that the PVR600 does not support HD inputs or output, most likely due to bandwidth limitations.  We installed this on a PC with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 to test compatibility issues.  We had only one problem with the ATI, Snapstream, or Diamond software or drivers.  We had to uninstall the ATI Remote Wonder software and drivers to install the Firefly software.  Otherwise, we had no problems with the ATI or Snapstream TV viewing applications.  The picture quality on the ATI card was clearly superior, but of course the ATI solution is entirely different in many respects and not a fair comparison.

Beyond TV and Beyond Media

 

Next on the docket is the Snapstream software package, consisting of the Beyond TV and Beyond Media applications.  Beyond TV, the TV tuner front end, is very easy to install.  The setup process has a straightforward interface that allows you to test your choices and set up your Snapstream.net account.  This allows you to set your location and which service you want the programming for (cable, satellite, etc.).  Unfortunately, you have to pay for this service after 60 days with the included version of Beyond TV.  Your choices are $4.99/month, $29.99/year, or a one-time fee of $69.99.  We were not impressed by this, especially since you are paying for listings that are available publicly for free.  This does add the ability to add remotely scheduled recording, but this is still a phantom $70 added to the cost of the product.  The box advertises the features you will end up paying more for, and they hide the cost by using the "Subscriber Edition" of Beyond TV.  There is no mention whatsoever of what the Subscriber Edition includes on the Snapstream site, and you have to read user forum posts to gain any information.  Without the subscription, you can only watch what one forum poster called “dumb TV”