NVIDIA DualTV Tuner launched

NVIDIA today introduced the NVIDIA DualTV tuner, the first TV tuner for PCs to offer two TV tuners on a single card with comprehensive personal video recording functionality, unique MediaSqueeze disk space saving technology, and support for the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) operating system.

The NVIDIA DualTV tuner is available immediately for $169 USD.

With its unique two-tuner technology, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner transforms an MCE-equipped PC into a bona fide home entertainment system. With a touch of a mouse button, users can schedule recordings of their favorite TV shows and watch them when they want, record two TV shows simultaneously, or watch one channel while recording another, as well as watch pause, and rewind live or recorded TV shows.

With the emergence of portable media players and ubiquitous broadband availability, NVIDIA DualTV users can watch their programs from almost anywhere—in the home, on the go, or over the Internet. Programs recorded with the NVIDIA DualTV tuner can be transferred to personal media players and portable game players that play back video, and many other portable media players. Live or recorded shows can be streamed throughout the home to game consoles or Media Center Extenders; and with Orb Networks software (www.orb.com), NVIDIA DualTV tuner users can watch live or recorded TV shows from anywhere in the world over the Internet for personal use.

The NVIDIA DualTV tuner offers a unique MediaSqueeze technology that allows users to store more of their favorite TV programs on their hard disk, DVD, or portable media player. Users can record live TV shows at a lower bit-rate than normal or "transrate" previously-recorded TV programs into a lower bit-rate to preserve disk space, without significant loss in picture quality. In internal testing using a Tektronix PQA300 MPEG image quality measurement system, NVIDIA found its picture quality rating at medium bit-rates scored consistently better than competitive products recorded at a higher bit-rate.1

NVIDIA has applied its renowned PureVideo technology to the DualTV tuner enabling the highest possible picture quality on a PC to date. In addition to PureVideo, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner features:

3D comb filter—to create high-quality color separations and enhance image detail.

3D noise reduction hardware—to clean up the signal, thus removing artifacts.

In-line TV amplifier—to boost weak signals.

Multi-stream hardware encoder—to record crystal clear TV shows with low CPU utilization.

In addition to these picture-quality enhancing features, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner carries the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) certification, signifying that it meets ISF standards for home theater-quality television tuning and recording. Since 1994, ISF has provided comprehensive testing and certification of performance quality, and a publicly recognized logo program for high-end consumer electronics products that consumers identify with superior quality.