This is a great device to use for watching TV on the PC screen while using the computer and to grab snapshots of frames from the TV or from a video camera. The latter was my reason for buying it. I didn't want to install a video capture card, with the hassle of opening up the PC, installing the card and configuring it. I just want to capture snap shots from my video camera tapes. Requirements are Windows 98, Pentium 166mhz minimum, USB port, sound card and CD-ROM, cost about $100.

I had some trouble installing the software and a DLL seemed to be missing. A call to Hauppauge support got a quick response and after downloading an update patch, the installation proceeded normally. The application includes both WinTV32 and WinTV2000, and they are very similar, with the WinTV2000 screen having more buttons and graphics.

WinTV is an external device with a 125 channel cable-ready TV tuner. ATV antenna or cable TV can be connected to the tuner to enable watching TV on the PC screen. Sixteen channels can be previewed at one time. The USB connection allows easy plug-in use, connect video/audio cables from the camcorder or VCR to the device, start the application and a small size screen with several control buttons appears. Use the Play button on the camera or VCR and the video is shown on the WinTV screen. It can be enlarged but the clarity suffers.

Stills can be snapped and printed in TIFF, JPEG, BMP and GIF formats, and it is quite a challenge to click on the capture button at the exactly the right time to 'snap' the frame that you want. It really isn't too much of a problem because the frames are stored in a strip on the edge of the screen and can be deleted and new 'snaps' made until you are satisfied. Video clips can be recorded and saved, and titles and soundtracks can be added. I haven't tried this feature yet, but the CD contains the program to capture video in AVI file format. The files can be edited by many of the popular video editing programs. Video conferencing can be held with the use of WinTV and Microsoft NetMeeting or CU-SeeMe and a video camera or camcorder. Video clips can be created and added to web sites.