Gadmei TV Box TV2810E Review

Rating	Where to buy
	Amazon.com *Same or similar item

Gadmei TV Box TV2810E is an affordable TV tuner that lets you watch TV on your widescreen computer LCD monitor. It sports a full-function remote control and allows you to switch between computer and TV output with a push of a button. It features PIP function, which allows you to watch TV while working on your computer.

What is in the box?

Gadmei TV Box comes in a nice box that highlights and illustrates different features of the TV Box. It contains Gadmei TV2810E TV Tuner, RM008-V remote control, a 2-pin AC adapter, a VGA cable, Stereo audio cable, and a user manual.

Design

TV2810E comes in black color. It feels good in the hand but it doesn’t look that gorgeous. You would probably want to hide it from plain view. Anyway, the rear panel of the TV Box has the following ports: VGA Out, VGA In, PC audio, audio out, DC 5V, and Antenna In. The side panel contains MMI extend to AV input and multi-media as DVD/PS2/XBOX. The speakers and five buttons: Menu, Volume up/down, and Channel +/- are located on the top of the TV Box.

Overall, the design is compact and it looks good too. It will reduce clutter on your desk, as most of the ports are located on the rear panel.

Features

Gadmei TV Box TV2810E sports progressive scanning TV chip (DPTV), which has an initial refresh rate of 50Hz, but it can increase to 60Hz as needed. It supports reception systems such as PAL (SECAM), and NTSC.

The TV Tuner features true HD output resolution (1920 X 1080p or 1920 X 1200). So, it can effectively turn your LCD monitor into an HDTV given that your computer monitor supports HD resolution. It supports three different aspect ratio 4:3/16:9/16:10 enabling you to view TV programs in their original aspect ratio.

TV2810E features unique Pan Scan image stretch mode to display TV programs in their original aspect ratio while watching on a widescreen LCD monitor. It also features Image denoise technology for crisp and noiseless picture output. The TV Box comes with some optional features such as FM and NICAM, but you will hardly ever use them.

Setup and Performance

Setting up Gadmei TV Box TV2810E with your computer is child’s play. It is a PnP device, which means you will not need any software to use it. We used TV2810E TV Tuner with the Asus VH222H monitor and it seamlessly turned the 21.5-inch monitor into an HDTV. The picture was bright, clear and noiseless. Gadmie’s built-in stereo speakers are loud but you will probably want to use an external speaker. We used F&D F6000 5:1 speaker system, because, F6000 lets you switch between computer audio and TV or PSP/Xbox/DVD with a simple push of a button. The sound output was more than impressive.

The PIP (picture in picture) function worked nicely. This feature can be great on occasions when you are waiting for some special programs and rather than just waiting and watching ads, you want to do some browsing. Of course, you will need a bigger screen to use this function with comfort.

TV2810E does not have recording option, however, it lets you capture single frame while watching TV.

Pros	Cons
Affordable HD TV Box that supports widescreen monitors. Supports switching between three aspect ratios 4:3/16:9/16:10. Full function remote.	You cannot record TV shows with it. The look is not that appealing.

Conclusion

There isn’t much to complain about the affordable Gadmei TV Box TV2810E. It is well built, nicely designed, and compact. Of course, it is not that gorgeous to place on your desk. Its video and audio output quality are impressive. Gadmei TV2810E TV Tuner will cost you about $25 to $30 depending on your location. We highly recommend Gadmei TV2810E as an affordable but reliable external TV Tuner.

Specifications

* Power input: DC 5V_700mA

* RF input: 48-862MHz

* AV input: 1Vp-p/75 Ohm (PAL/NTSC/SECAM)

* Resolution: 800*600@60/75Hz, 1024*768@60/75Hz 1280*1024@60Hz, 1440*900@60Hz & 1920*1200 is optional

* Output frequency: Horizontal frequency: 37KHz-64KHz

Vertical frequency: 60Hz-75Hz (refresh rate)

* TV system: PAL-B/G, NTSC-M + PAL-M/N, PAL + SECAM-D/K、B/G.