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We've heard about this one before, but never really got around to requesting for a review unit. Luckily for us, forumer karhoe took the liberty of doing our job for us in our first User Review of 2009.
That's right folks, if YOU have a review that you think is worthy of front page glory, send it over to wernshen [at] lowyat [dot] net. If we like your review, you may well see it here on the front page. But that's not all. If your review makes it up to the front page like this one, you'll be eligible to receive RM100 from us!
The full review continues after the jump.
Text & Images by karhoe
Introduction
Today I will be reviewing the Compro VideoMate V200 TV Box . I actually received this sample from the local distributor, Ares Technology Sdn Bhd
a couple of weeks ago but as I was busy with my exams, I didn't have the
time to review it until yesterday.
With a TV Box, you can use your computer monitor (LCD/CRT/Projector) to
watch TV, I know that there are hardly any nice shows on free to air TV
by Media Prima and RTM (RTM1, RTM2, TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9) but apart from that,
Compro V200 also has a composite video input (RCA + S-video) so you can connect
your VCD/DVD/Astro or even your gaming consoles such as PS2 and Xbox.
On the Compro website, it is stated that you can use it
to connect to PS3 and Xbox 360 but I believe no one would want to do
that as you would definitely want to utilize the HDMI/Component output
on the consoles (if you have a HDTV) which is not supported by this TV
Box. Unfortunately only the higher end TV Box model supports component
video input (V600) and even that only supports up to 480i.
It would be useful for those students
living in hostels, as most of them would probably be having their own
desktop, they could use this TV box to play gaming consoles and watch
some local TV channels instead of having to buy their own TV just for
the purpose of playing with the consoles.
Package Contents
So let's open up the box to see the package contents.
Shown on the picture above are the package contents. From clockwise -
1) Compro V200,
2) 3.5mm audio male to male cable
3) Analog cable to be connected from computer VGA port to the TV Box
4) Compro pen - free gift
5) 30 buttons IR remote control
6) 2 x AAA battery
7) Rubberized stand for vertical placement
8) Product manual
9) Universal AC-DC adapter (100V - 240V, Output 5V, 1.5A)
Next, we will be looking into the specifications.
Specifications
These are the specifications of V200 taken from Compro website
- Standalone analog TV/FM tuner box with remote control
- Support PAL/SECAM or NTSC TV systems (Video-in supports universal systems, but TV Tuner is not)
- Built-in Philips 9-bit video/audio decoder
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Supports resolution:
| 4:3 |
640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1400 x 1050, 1600 x 1200 |
5:4
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1280 x 1024 |
| 16:9 |
1280 x 720 |
| 16:10 |
1440 x 900, 1680 x 1050 |
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- TV Box dimensions: 160 x 112.5 x 26 mm
- 30-key IR remote control (Color: Black)
- Power: 5V DC, 1.5A
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The connectors on the back panel.
The connectors on the front panel (S-video, RCA) and the buttons on the top of the TV Box (Ch-, Ch+, Vol-, Vol+, Menu, Source)
The V200 does not have FM function, only the V200F has the FM function.
Review Set Up
To be able to test all the functions of the TV Box, I have borrowed a 15 inch LCD and used my very own 19 inch LCD.
I have tested the TV Box in 3 set ups to test the different functions of the TV Box.
Setup 1 - Antenna connected to TV Box
Here I borrowed an old 15 inch LCD TFT
from my friend to test the TV Box TV function. Setting it up for basic
TV function was straight forward and very simple. I got everything set
up in less than 5 minutes. Just connect the VGA cable from the TV box
to the monitor, the antenna to the box, and lastly the power adapter.
First, I set the correct resolution to
be output from the TV Box to the monitor wihich is 1024 x 768 , 60Hz
(15inch native resolution) Then, I played around with the remote
control and tried to tune into the local free to air channels, even
that was easy to be done.
All I had to do is to get into the OSD (On screen display) menu and
select auto scan and wait as the TV box scans the entire frequency for
available channels.
After the TV Box scans all the channels, they would be automatically saved into preset channels. You can rearrange (channel swap) them, using the OSD menu, and even rename the channels.
As you can see from the picture above, I have rearranged the channels and even rename them. Renaming the channels was difficult
as I had to use the up and down button to navigate from A-Z instead of
being able to use the 9 number buttons like how it's done on a
cellphone.
Compro V200 features a pause function
where you can pause the Live TV by a push of the Exit button on the
remote control. This feature is very useful especially if you need to
write down a telephone number shown on the screen.
The manual states that the unit will become hot
after being used for a long period which is quite true enough. Hence it
would be advisable to use the vertical stand.
Just like a normal TV, it has a sleep function which automatically switches off the TV Box after 30/60/90 mins of idling.
Setup 2- Mini HiFi set connected to TV Box
Next I tested it with my mini HiFi set in my room to test the RCA input quality.
The quality was acceptable to me since the source is a VCD, probably the Compro claimed "Enhanced 3D motion adaptive de-interlacing, progressive scan, and noise reduction for better video quality" feature has made the image looks slightly better.
The on screen display makes the monitor looks very similar to an actual TV.
Volume control from 1-50. Be aware though that the internal speaker quality is very bad,
any volume level beyond 25 would be almost impossible to hear as there
would be too much distortion. Shall you decide to get this TV box, I
would strong recommend you to use the line out port on the TV box and
attach it to any available speakers. After all, this shouldn't really
be a problem if you are connecting it to your PC monitor, since there
would definitely be a speaker there. Hence connect the PC line out
cable to the TV box line in, and from the TV box line out to the
speaker.
Setup 3 - TV Box connected to Astro and computer
In this setup, I will be testing the Astro quality as well as the PIP (Picture in Picture) function that allows simultaneous viewing of the PC and the TV/RCA input.
First of all, let me show you the
Picture in picture feature, with a push of the PIP button on the
remote, a square shows up in the top left box of the screen with either
the TV or RCA input source, so it's a convenient function to do your
work while watching the news, it is unfortunate though that the PIP could not be moved as I would prefer it to be on the right lower corner.
There are 3 PIP modes, each showing a different sizes of the 'picture'. Even in the PIP mode, you can toggle between the sources (AV, RCA, S-video)
On the remote, there is also a PIP audio function
which allows you to toggle between the sound from either one of the
'picture'. (Provided the line in and line out on the TV Box are
utilized) This is yet another useful feature. The PIP audio mode only
works in PIP mode.
There is a problem though, when using PIP mode, the smaller 'picture' seems a little shaky on the edges. Besides, when setting the output resolution of the TV box to my 19" LCD to 1280 x 1024, I seem to get a weird border
on the top and bottom eventhough the native resolution is chosen. It's
not an issue though as there is no difference in quality between both
the resolution as the input itself is way lower than 1024 x 768.
Yet another great feature of the V200 is the Channel Surf feature.
With this feature, it splits the screen
into 9 sections showing a preview of each channel, and when you come
across the desired channel, just hit the channel surf button again.
Next we will look into the OSD (On screen display) menu.
OSD (On screen display menu)
The OSD is accessible with the push of
the OK button on the remote control or the OSD button on the TV box.
The OSD has 5 tabs which allows you to tweak various functions of the
TV box as shown below.
The first tab contains the following
options - Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Hue - basic
image settings as well as an OptiColor Mode.
The OptiColor mode has few preset image settings to suit different
viewing experience such as TV, Cinema or Game mode. A custom mode is
available as well where all the custom image settings is saved into
this mode.
The second tab contains some useful features such as channel rename (to rename a channel), Fine tune
(-/+ the frequency of the detected tv signals until you get the
sharpest image), Channel swap to reposition the channel numbers.
The feature that I would like to highlight in the third tab is the OptiRatio and Position Finetune.
With OptiRatio, you get to ensure the video original aspect ratio as
preserved. It also features a SmartZoom mode which is meant to zoom
16:9 movie broadcasted in 4:3 format with a letter box when viewing in
a 16:9 screen. Without this option, you would have black borders all
around the video. Position finetune allows you to ensure the image fits
the screen perfectly, this combined with LCD auto adjust feature would
ensure the image are positioned correctly.
The fourth tab and fifth tab shows straight forward options that should be available in any TV box.
Conclusion
Overall, the device is superb, good
enough for people who needs a TV or needs to hook up their gaming
consoles to their computer monitor. There are some flaws in the device
such as the quality of the speakers but these are negligible since
almost everyone who got this would probably hook it to their speakers.
The device is very simple and easy to be used. I did not even flip open
the manual.
There are not details on the
availability and pricing of this product yet but I believe it would
provide value for money to those who decide to buy it.
Also the fact that it is powered by 5V
DC with 1.5A means that it could be possible in the future to power it
by dual USB after some modification to the device (USB provides 5V, 1A
of power)
I have tested it, and I give it a rating of 8/10
Lastly, Compro VideoMate products come with a 3 years* warranty which shows that Compro are confident with their product quality.
*Only for Malaysian market, please contact your local distributor for information about warranty in your country
Comments
Comment on this article
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But no worries, just to let you know that ntv7 is showing shows like Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Samantha Who?, Brothers and Sisters, Cashmere Mafia, Big Shots, She's Got The Look, etc etc for the first time in Malaysia. 8TV on the other hand are showing Gossip Girl, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, etc for the first time in Malaysia. 
