AutumnWave OnAir HDTV-GT Tuner Reviewed

By Filip Brajovic | February 6th, 2008 - 3,086 Views

Can’t live without your TV when on the go? Well, portable USB TV-tuners are nothing new, and have been making sure you don’t miss the latest episode of your favorite show while outside the stronghold of your living room. But if you’re such a diehard that regular quality TV will make you squint and blink at your screen, Viper Lair has reviewed a neat USB HDTV solution to keep HD with you on the go (via Missing Remote).

Since there’s people out there for which HDTV is part of daily life the same way eating and sleeping are, Viper Lair decided to delve into AutumnWave’s On Air USB HDTV-GT. The compact OnAir, which we previously covered, keeps in touch with quality demands and future broadcasting requirements by supporting both analog and digital signal; in 2009 analog TV broadcasts are supposed to be phased out in the US and replaced with strictly digital TV broadcasts. Apart from that, analog quality is typically sub-par compared to digital anyway. While not all TV is broadcast digitally just yet, an increase can be expected in the number of channels supporting digital format as the ‘09 deadline looms.

Apart from receiving over the air broadcasts, the On Air comes with composite and S-video inputs for connecting other forms of A/V input such as camcorders, VCR’s, etc. However, Viper Lair’s review found that if you can get a good fix on some digital HD signal, chances are your picture quality is going to be better than most things that you could plug into the unit. The reviewer noted that this is due to over the air HD broadcasts not being compressed, which cable and satellite broadcasts are, therefore picture quality turned out better than that of subscription services. While it may be pretty, when Viper Lair tested it on a few laptops, they found uncompressed HD is a bit of a resource hog, taking up more hard drive space to record (about 9 gigs for one hour) and taking a decent amount of CPU power to decode.

Nevertheless, Viper Lair took a liking toward the device, noting its sharp aesthetics and portability coupled with good performance. For the TV lover on the go or just someone after a good over the air HD tuner, the OnAir is a great solution.