Windows Phone Thoughts: I Want my PPC TV: CompactFlash TV Tuner

Let's Tune it In
The Eops TV Tuner is an easy piece of hardware to get going. Just load the driver (less than 700K) and voila! There's no application to start up. All you need to do is plug the card into a CF slot and the software automatically launches.


Figure 1: The software starts up automatically when the Eops CF card is inserted.

All you then need to do is tap one of the channel tuner buttons (the ones that look like a "<" or ">") to find a station. While writing this review Eops updated the driver software so that you can now bookmark stations so that you no longer needs to rescan the entire spectrum whenever you plug the card in.

Using the Card
There's not much to using this card. In my experience this seems to be easier to get going than its desktop PC counterparts. The user interface is quite spartan with only a handful of buttons. You can toggle between different video inputs and full-screen landscape mode.


Figure 2: Go Ricki! Full screen mode takes advantage of the entire Pocket PC screen.

There's also a Quality toggle that can improve the picture quality. However, I found that this degraded performance leading to slower screen refreshes.

Range and Reception
Given that the Eops is designed to be a portable TV solution for Pocket PC users you'd expect that it would have reasonable reception. Sadly, that was not my experience. I used the Eops in a couple of different suburbs in Melbourne and could not get any picture when using it indoors. Outdoors the story was better, but the tiny, in-built antenna is just too small. Fully extended it is only a few inches long.

Ins and Outs
The Eops TV Tuner doesn't just let you watch television. You can easily connect your VCR or DVD player using the supplied cables.


Figure 3: Connecting other AV devices and an external aerial is easy.

The RF connector makes it easy to link to an external antenna using the supplied 3.5 mm to Coaxial adapter. However, why you'd want to do that is a little beyond me as it seriously undermines the device's portability.



Figures 4 and 5: Given the plethora of connecting cables there's almost no AV device that Eops TV Tunber can't accomodate.

In order to listen to the audio for your TV show, you'll need to connect a set of headphones directly to the Eops. With its own earphone socket and
volume control, complete with mute, this is a simple affair. I found that the sound quality was "good enough". The Eops ships with a set of headphones but they're low quality. While I'm no great audiophile I went straight to my own headphones.


Figure 6: The Eops doesn't make use of your Pocket PC's inbuilt audio.

Power
The Eops looks to me that it could be a real power guzzler. The upside is that the Eops runs off its own steam. The main reason the Eops is so large and heavy is that it needs four AA batteries. This is the largest contributing factor to the size of the Eops.


Figure 7: A full tank lasts about 3 hours but battery life will depend on what batteries you choose.

Conclusions
The Eops CompactFlash TV Tuner promises a great deal but doesn't quite deliver. While the software is reasonable the hardware's poor range and reception prevent it from being a really great Pocket PC accessory.