VideoMate Software, Firing Up...

Having gone through all the different aspects of the VideoMate TV Gold Plus II card from Compro, it is the right time to plug it into our system. Installing the Compro card was pretty painless. However, this time it paid to read the manual first. The VideoMate TV tuner card has a very nifty little feature that you might miss, if you didn't read the manual although being clearly mentioned on the box. The card can wake the computer up from shutdown or from sleep mode, record a show and then turn the computer back off. For this feature to work though, you need to plug in the 2-pin power cord that is connected to the on/off button to the VideoMate TV card, instead of to the motherboard. Then you route another cable from the card to the motherboard. You can ignore all this, but then you lose the functionality. A very easy process and quite a great feature for those having a multimedia center computer box.

Compro Technology ComproDTV 3.0.4.8

The main program that you will use to watch TV or to actual record something is ComproDTV. This program has just recently replaced ComproPVR and ComproDVD, and does now both in one single program. You can easily get the free upgrade from the Compro website under their downloads section. In fact just recently Compro released a newer version and we took the liberty to use this latest version. The ComproDTV software simulates the functions you would find on a video or DVD recorder. The control panel as such resembles the controls available on these devices. Please note that not all options are available at all times, and may be grayed out or not accessible depending on the hardware setup and the TV services available.

The main panel is plain and simple with no special buttons available. These basic buttons do control though a majority of the frequent functions you will use, like channel changing, recording options, recording function, sound level adapting and mute option. So a simple and small though extensive control panel that you will use most of the time. Of course there is more to it than that, which means that some of the functions are hidden with the default view. One of these options that can be expanded by the small arrow on the right is the numeric pad which allows you to select the channel via the numbers as well as going back to the previous channel. This is just as you would find on the remote control but accessible via the software as such.

In fact all and even more functions available via the remote control can just be controlled via an easy way using the control panel and the mouse and clicking your way around. A full expanded view of the ComproDTV program, showing all options that can be customized and changed. The top view controls the source of the signal which in our case is the cable television, but this can be switched to composite or S-Video. So different sources can be selected. On top you can also select the audio output from mono to stereo, and the TV resolution. On the lower part you have quite a lot of other functions to customize the view, for the channel selecting and scanning, snapshot taking, timeshift function and recording.

You can search for channels both on cable and on antenna, and it will go through them all and automatically insert them into the list. After that you can customize this list to your own preferences. The most impressive feature with ComproDTV is the scheduler. While it is pretty standard when you set up the schedule, the real kicker is the feature that lets you start up the computer, make a recording, and then have the computer shut down. As already mentioned, ComproDTV lets you do timeshifting. That is the feature that lets you pause in a program while doing something else and then continue to look from the point you paused. Depending on the quality of the recorded segment you can get anything from 30 minutes up to several hours of timeshifting.

Compro Technology ComproFM 2.1.5.0

The other program coming with the VideoMate TV card focuses on the FM tuner. The ComproFM program will let you listen to the radio station of your choice or record something. The program is again quite simple and small, with all the functions immediately available. Once again we used the latest version available which you can freely download from the Compro website on their downloads section. The program works exactly the same as ComproDTV but with the FM radio signals. The ComproFM software simulates the functions you would find on a radio or audio recorder. The control panel as such resembles the controls available on these devices.

The main panel is plain and simple with all buttons available. These buttons do control the majority of the frequent functions you will use, like channel changing, recording options, recording function, sound level adapting and mute option. So a simple and small though extensive control panel that you will use most of the time. You can auto search for radio stations, after which you can customize these and update the reported stations to your own preference. It allows quite a lot of flexibility of adjusting the channels and fine tuning these if required. The constant development has made this program become quite powerful though keeping it easy to use and having a rather simple interface.

There is only one expand available which is for the channel selection via the numeric pad, which also has an up and down button. With this new version the recording options gotten improved which allows now recording in MP3 and WMA at various bit rates. Next to that it also offers a scheduler such as with ComproDTV. This wasn't available in the previous version of the software but Compro did listen very well to all the comments given by others and took these in consideration during their development. To that extend they made this program with basic functions and some shortcomings to become better taking into account all the different feedback received. And only for that we applaud to Compro for their constant work to improve their products and programs.