Review of Vbox Cat's Eye eDTA-164

Also known as the Vbox 164e and DTA 164e.

PROS
  • Dual hybrid (analog & digital) tuners
  • Vista and Media Center compliant drivers.
  • PCI-e card
  • FM tuner
  • Low profile

CONS

  • No QAM support
  • No vendor (Vbox) application software
  • No remote or antenna included in package
  • Runs hotter than most tuner cards

COST
  • Around $200


COMMENTS: Full review of the DTA-164e




Minimum System Requirements
  • IntelŪ PentiumŪ IV, AMD Athlon. or compatible processor, operating at 2.8 GHz (3.0 GHz for smooth analog reception)
  • 512 MB RAM
  • PCI Express (x1) expansion slot, free and enabled
  • Audio card, compliant with Microsoft DirectX 9.0C
  • Graphics card, 128 MB (256 MB for smooth analog reception)
  • CD-ROM drive
  • Windows XP SP2 / MCE 2005 w/Rollup 2 / Vista operating system
  • Microsoft DirectX 9.0C or higher
  • Multimedia application such as Microsoft Media Center 2005, BeyondTV or SageTV.


Additional Requirements
  • External antennas (installed and enabled), supporting over-the-air local digital ATSC (HDTV) signals or analog cable
  • Free space on hard disk, as per the instructions of the multimedia application
  • MPEG encoding (for analog broadcasts) and decoding software.
  • Live Internet connection for use by the multimedia applications.

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