The Kworld USB 2.0 Combo TV Box is a PVR device. The Kworld website promotes this device as providing a way to display television on you computer monitor. This device is also able to save the tv programs as either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, which would allow the device to be used like a TIVO and record and save TV programming for later viewing.
Features
- USB 2.0 compatible Encoder box
- Watch TV on PC
- Video Inputs supported are TV, Composite and S-video
- Video input format :4:2:2 YUV CCIR-656
- High-quality real-time encoding (I-,B-,and P-frames)
- Export your final works to Elementary,Program,Transport,MPEG-1,DVD and VCD
- MPEG-1/2 capture of up to 8 Mbit/sec
- Audio capture of up to 384 kbit/sec
- Full TV frequency range for CATV/VHF/UHF
- Resizable TV-in-window – up to full screen
- Enable On Screen Display Function
- Built-in Video (Composite, S-Video) and Audio (Stereo) input connectors
- Provide user-friendly OSD (on screen display) to control functions
- Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/Color/Sharpness Adjustment
- Built-in microprocessor
- Full function remote controller
- Stereo input and Stereo/MTS/Nicam output
- Supports YCbCr Video input
Ease of use
Hooking up this machine is very easy. All the outputs are clearly labeled and easily accessible in the back and in the front. I really appreciated the fact that the Video (Composite, S-Video) and Audio (Stereo) input are on the front of the machine. This made it so I didn’t have to reach behind to hook up my camera or VCR. There is a coaxial input on the back, so you can just attach the cable and leave it. A USB cable is included and the connector is in the back.
kworld_back_big.jpg
Once the machine is hooked up, it is time to install the software. During the install you can choose PAL or NTSC format, and it also installs a demo version of some PVR software. During the install it would frequently ask if I wanted to overwrite a newer version of a driver that was already on my machine and replace it with the one from the disk. I like to keep the newer versions so I would always say no. Big mistake, after the install the software would load up and I would get a usb connection error. I spent about an hour trying to figure this out and nothing worked until I reinstalled the software and used the older drivers that came on the install disk. I should mention that doing this broke all my other usb devices and I had to reinstall their drivers to fix it. But reinstalling those drivers would break this device, so for now I left all my other usb devices broken so I could perform these tests.
The first thing I tested was the ability to watch tv on my computer. I stretched my cable to the back of the machine, turned it on, and started the software. The first thing I noticed was that the video was extremely choppy. I went to reference the user manual and found that the 10 pages they provided just didn’t contain any diagnostic instructions. I couldn’t find anything on the website either. Eventually, after exausting all my other options I went out and bought a USB 2.0 card and installed it in my computer and plugged it into that. There was a definite improvement in the video quality and I could actually watch something.
resources_big.jpg
Recording TV was another issue. Turing on the record function nearly killed my machine. I should mention that I am running an AMD 1700+ with 256MB of RAM and 100GB western digital hard drive and a Radeon 9800 PRO with 128MB RAM. My processor usage went to nearly maximum and the ram usage didn’t seem to increase at all. I quickly exited out of all my other programs and that helped to keep the machine away from 100% usage. The picture was nothing to shake a stick at, I wasn’t expecting it to be crystal clear, but it seemed a lot more grainy than my tv was.
Another feature I wanted to test was the pausing live tv function. It only took the click of a mouse button to turn it on and everything seemed to be going well. There wasn’t any increase in cpu usage or memory, but when I tried to turn it off and watch the video I had paused, my cpu again went through the roof and froze up the program. I tried it again several more times but was unable to get it to work correctly, I assume that trying to play video and record video was too much for my computer to handle.
Unfortunately, recording from other devices like a VCR, had the same results as the cable tv; high CPU usage and grainy picture. Kworld could definitely improve the performance of this device by putting the MPEG encoding in the machine, instead of making the computer handle it all. The software was really not very good either. Some of the features were disabled because it was a demo version and there wasn’t any documentation on how to upgrade. After digging through filenames and doing some internet searches, I finally found the company that made the software. Honestech makes the software and their website even had a trial version of their latest PVR software. I quickly downloaded it hoping there would be some improvement. Well, I couldn’t find any improvement because the software wouldn’t work. I would click to start it and an icon would appear, then disappear. I tried all sorts of different options, but nothing else ever happened.
Design
The design of this machine is good. It is very thin and stands tall, making it great for putting next to your monitor or tucked away behind your speakers. It has easy to push buttons and it looks good. The remote is really plain and has buttons on it that don’t apply to this device, such as the FM tuner controls. The user manual is pitiful, I know some of you think that a 10 page manual is adequate, but for this device it needs 5 pages just for trouble shooting.
kworld_remote_big.jpg
If you are looking for an easy to use, hassle free TIVO like device for your computer then I recommend you not purchase this. If you want something that will hog your system resources and give you a big headache every time you turn it on, then this is the machine for you.
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I would said it’s correct. I had the same problems with this box.
Some points you dind’t mentioned were:
1. There’s a high pitch sound, very annoying, on some channels.
2. The video capture driver appears – disappears like magic; so third party software sometimes “sees” the box, others no.
3. The pass through mode doesn’t works (vga output of computer to box and monitor pluged to box); do not know if the issue has to do with the resolution and/or refresh frequency.
And as you stated: better stay away from it if you don’t want to solve problems.
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totally agree with the review. I did not have any problem watching TV directly using my monitor (without turning on the PC). The picture was smooth but color was somewhat washed out. The on screen color adjustment was limited.
When I tried to watch TV using the software, my PC would often lock up. Recording is out of question, 10sec is the maximum I got out of this box, then I have to cold boot.
It is cheaply made and has a lot bugs.
I tried to look up Kworld’s website, http://www.kworld.com.tw, can’t even find this model. Does anyone know where to find the product info on Kworld’s website?
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The review is very accurate. Has anyone gotten this device to work? I have it working to the point where it can record video but I have an out of sync problem with the audio. I turned all background programs off (windows xp pro) and even tried 800X600 16m colors rather then my usual 1024X768 32m colors – it made no difference – the video records but a few minutes into the recording a “blip” or “lock up” happens and then the video and audio go out of sync. The recording does continue but what good is that if the video and audio are out of sync? Any suggestions? Anything else I could turn off? One thing I found was with a VIA chip set use the windows USB 2 drivers rather then the VIA drivers – this solved my USB read error problem with out using the honetech software out of date drivers. Any suggestions regarding the out of sync problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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here is the url to this device on the kworld website.
http://www.kworld.com.tw/produ.....%20box.htm
As far as the out of sync problems with audio and video, everytime I tried to contact Kworld’s tech support I would never get a response so I don’t have any knowledge to pass along.
Thanks to all for posting comments to this review.
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Hi guys,
I’m glad I’ve found this group of others trying to get this thing to work. I think the idea behind this box was good (to have something which can be a stand-alone tuner, and also a USB-based PC capture/tuner).
In standalone mode, it works pretty decently. I just wish the “Sleep” feature would work for Svideo and Composite, as well as just the coax input. If any of you don’t find the picture clear enough, try adjusting levels to these: Brightness-47, Contrast-37, Color-40, Hue-25, Sharpness-0. Also, it’s annoying that they didn’t include the FM tuner circuitry; it would have been nice if they had gone the extra mile.
However, the *beep* software (Honestech PVR software) is horrible, so it makes the PC mode practically useless. I also have the same problem as another poster — the audio lags behind the video about 1 or 2 seconds. This makes me feel as if I am on an acid trip and watching some badly-dubbed old 70′s kung fu movies all the time.
Luckily, I was able to use Intervideo WinDVR 3 with this (sort of — only the composite input will work; I can’t get it to switch to any of the other three modes).
So I think it is the lack of properly installed WDM drivers that will keep 3rd party apps from working correctly. Until we can find the WDM drivers, we’ll be stuck with the crappy Honestech software. Fyi, the actual model number of this Kworld USB 2.0 Combobox is KW-TVUSB7011R, and the chipset being used is the VX-7011. Read the following webpage if you want to check out the chipset:
http://www.vxis.com/English/PandT/vx7011.htm
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Hello!
I have one of this tv tuners too and I can make it work with another application than that supplied with it. If anyone knows a way to make it work with other applications please reply.
Thanks,
Adi
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Could anyone send me or give me an address for drivers for Kworld USB 2.0 Combo TV Box (KW-TVUSB7011R) ;;
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I made the trouble of calling Taiwan and utilizing my Taiwanese; the drivers are at the very bottom of their site:
http://www.kworld.com.tw/en/004.htm (Please scroll to the very bottom where it says ‘USB2.0_ComboTVBOX’)
For the lazy, here is the direct link ftp://ftp.kworld.com.tw/Kworld.....bo_2.2.zip (Its 171.05MB and the link is SLOW! I recommend that you use FireFox or a download accelerator like LeechGet to download.)
Whoever completes the file, please upload it somewhere or tell me where I could get it (my contact info is at http://www.shrimpcrackers.com) so I could upload it to a much faster server for your convenience. Keep in mind that http://www.Kworld.com.tw (select the drop down from the upper left corner and choose ‘Global’) is being maintained, while http://www.kworldcomputer.com is no longer being updated. This forum is the last link to all the thousands of USB 2.0 ComboT V BOX owners out there to find drivers. Please make sure this thread or post is maintained or kept alive.
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please send me KWorld-tvusb7011r usb 2.0 combo tv-box software
Thank You
stefan
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Sorry, I got rid of my box a long time ago and I no longer have the software.
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Hello everybody…
I face tha same problems as you. No solution found till now.
I’d like to make 2 questions.
1. I cannot run TV PVR from a non-administrator account. I get message “application not istalled” or something similar.
Is there a way to run tv program from common accounts?
2. (maybe silly question but i didn’t find the ansewer). I have some channels on random generated program number . eg. at 32 , at 24 e.t.c . How can i set my favorite program to listen for example on channel number 1?
I hope tha my english is not so terrible…
Thanks.
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I feel very sorry that I disregarded your cons… I just bought this tuner and I can’t wait to sell it !
Here are my complains :
1. It has to work withou problems on an LCD, right ? Well I have it connected to an Asus MM17T 17″ LCD monitor and I can watch channels but the monitor gives me “out of range” message that gives me the idea that the TV Box output resolution is way lower (640/480???) than the LCD (native resolution 1280/1024). I was able to see the PC with 800/600, but 1280/960 gives me the same message. So, I guess the fault lies in the middle…
2.The same problem as atsaloux found : how can I associate a channel/frequency with a number of the remote control ? That’s because the auto search is useless without it. And here in Europe EPG is not working. Even so, it should have a manual procedure as normal TVs.
It seems that the auto search it’s not common for both direct connection and USB connection, or am I wrong ?
3.The auto search is storing a lot of channnels that are really just a noise…
4. The recording is not even an option if you don’t have a strong processor and a video card. My desktop has 866MHz Pentium3,512 MB RAM and 16M Nvidia RivaTNT2 video card, an USB2.0 PCI card (more that minimum requiremnt) and I can’t even see smoothly TV , it stops or desyncs with audio. Connected to my laptop (Intel P4 2400MHz, 512 MB RAM, 16MB video taken from RAM, and only USB 1.1) and still the reception is far from being close to a TV.
I also upgraded the drivers without any improvements…
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If yours kworld are still in warranty time, you can contact support@kworldcomputer.com for a replacement.
or go to http://www.kworldcomputer.com/FAQ.htm .
I sent a complaint and they asked me to send back the product. They answered my inquiry promptly and said the replacement is on its way to me…
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can anybody give me the drivers for this tv box
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