Page 8 - Conlusion

Conclusion
It's time to wrap up this article, what i kept secret is that the product is at a suggested retail price of 75 USD. That means it's even cheaper in re- and e-tail. Compro's VideMate Cinema TV Gold+ is setting a new level of TV cards here. For not a lot of money you'll be able to buy one of the finest TV cards that I have seen, and I've seen many. Compro is not yet way 'up there' though. You know, everything you read when you visit Guru3D.com is based on no-nonsense writers. We say it like it is, that's who we are and what we represent. I've had this product for about two/three months before I was even able to finish up this review. Next to time-constraints I've had a huge amount of issues with this card when I had just installed it. Things from system hangs towards mono recording instead of stereo etc etc But by upholding close dialog with the technical staff of Compro we where able to rule out several important bugs. I've been working close with Compro to actually make them aware of some issues. They are good listeners though, and despite that I did feel like I was a beta-tester at one point but they did fixed and eliminate each and everyone of that bug by the time I finished up this review.

So at present time I'm looking at a very mature product, would I have finished this review six weeks ago I would have likely crushed this product as it was not ready for retail. Compro has an excellent technical staff and addressed the issues quickly and swiftly, so all is good now Floyd ;)

It's possible though that the software might have a bug when you buy, so one must be sure that support is good. To check their support objectively I asked a friend of mine to email Compro and ask them a question about the product. Within 24 hours he received a valid logical answer back. That's really good support and I hope that Compro can maintain that level of costumer support in the future.

So let's sum it up, in it's current state the VideoMate TV Gold+ is a joy to own. With the current drivers it's 100% functional and stable. There are some points that I'd like to mention though:

• Full MP3 support for radio recording is a must yet is not supported, the current software version locks at 96kbit I think, which is just way too low. Your best alternative is WMF.
• Secondly Compro must find a better way to navigate and sort through TV channels. It's not a huge issue but basically fast selection of a TV channel is not an option in the software as it is right now.
• Last but not least, Compro needs to focus on encoding with the help of codecs other then Windows Media Player 9. I'd like to see DivX and XViD support in there. If you buy this product and really need such compression then your only solution is to seek other software. When you do then please seek 'ShowShifter'. Last tiny something, I would have preferred a RF remote control instead of a infrared one. Yet this would make the product definitely more expensive.

The good thing about the Compro's VideMate Cinema TV Gold+ is that it's image quality is comparable to Pinnacle's PCTV, and that my fellow guru's is really good. And hey in all honesty, it's way sharper then ATI's AIW series. The software is easy to use and setup. No problems there, and as it is right now perfectly stable. The power-up function is just brilliant if you are away and need to have your PC act as video recorder. It works perfectly. If you build your own media box things will go into a new dimension even more as this is the perfect product for such a machine.

We are giving the Compro's VideMate Cinema TV Gold+ an editor's choice, but barely ... If Compro can address the suggestions that I just made in their future software builds then this could be the perfect product, that's right .. perfect.

Until that time, you'll have very good product instead, a product that can match the competition easily and brings you a lot of value for your money, you won't regret it.

Product: VideMate TV Gold+Manufacturer: Compro
Website: comprousa.com
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price: 75 USD

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