Compro VideoMate Cinema: Cheap TV for your PC

---

Manufacturer: Compro
Price: Around $250
Requirements: A Pentium 4 3.0C
Web Site: WWW.COMPROUSA.COM

---

WANNA WATCH TV on your PC without the irritatinng flicker of 50 Hz interlaced TV screen? Then digitally record that TV content or whatever you've captured, created or copied on your own VCR or video camera? Play PC computer games on your TV (not recommended with all that flicker) or play console games on your PC monitor (more sensible but, then, may as well stick with PC games?) — and run all that from a single universal remote control?

Well, all this, plus reasonable 3-D game performance, is supposed to be yours if you take a few bucks and buy the Compro Videomate Cinema card set.

The set, based on a choice of Nvidia GeForce MX / Ti / FX based models (GeForce FX 5600 128 MB, Ti 4200 128 MB, Ti 4200 64 MB) and has extras beyond the graphics. For instance, Compro Picture Purifying Technology, supposed to minimise noise and ghosting common in TV signals - it did work well on cable TV signal, but even that couldn't handle all the noise from a free-to-air antenna signal in a low-rise Singapore building surrounded by 15 to 25-storey towers.

The box comes with Nvidia's transparent alien-green external A/V tuner box, placed outside to avoid possible electronic interferences, and controlled by IR remote control. The box has S-Video, composite and cable-ready TV tuner input, as well as equivalent outputs.

There's a load of software with the box. First, Cyberlink PowerDirector SE software set built-in, for video editing and compositing. Then, ComproPVR TV and Digital Vide Recorder for watching, recording, and timeshifting live TV program on your PC. It has multi-channel preview mode supports channel surfing and tuning, as well as analog-to-digital video conversion (VHS to MPEG-2, for instance). With a good cable TV connection, the picture I obtained was high-quality, and still frames were easy to snap. Last was ComproDVD player, the usual accessory these days.

Compro sent over a mid-range version (Ti4200 with 128 MB RAM) inclusive of the green box, cables and software. I installed in in a PC that most probably would the a suitable configuration for it - a 2.8 GHz Pentium4 with 512 MB DDR333 RAM on an i845PE mainboard, 60 GB HD, running WinXP Pro SP1 and Detonator 43.45 drivers.

In 3DMark03 Pro, original version (no patches), the thing ranked at 1663 3DMarks in the default 1024x768 mode, and 1205 3DMarks in 1280x1024 SXGA mode with sound tests and CPU tests disabled. There was little point in running more benchmarks - this is a standard entry-level Ti4200 card, and benchmarks on its Quake, Doom, UT, etc performance were already done zillion times on the Web.

As expected, when connecting to a TV set as display device, the picture quality was way better, plus less flicker, it S-Video input on the TV was used instead of PAL antenna input. Overall, this is not a performer, but a cheap, interesting multifunction 3D-cum video device. So, if you want a budget TV cum entry-level 3-D in your PC, this could be a suitable choice. µ

Pictures

The Compro in place

The very weird alien-green thingie