KWORLD ATSC 340U Dongle ATSC TV USB Stick ATSC 340U USB 2.0 Interface

Pros: This thing works great! I have been able to get over 14 over the air digital channels including a couple HD channels! All these channels come in great without any jerky frames or sound. It is perfect as long as I am getting a signal with one or more bars on the signal strength indicator. I also tested it on my Comcast Basic Cable connection ( non-digital subscription ) and I was able to get 28 digital channels. Most of them are the local broadcast channels. However, there are a couple other non-over-the-air channels like the Weather channel that I get through the cable connection. There are about 6 of these 28 channels that are in HD. It also picked up 70 other cable channels that were locked. I assume this is some kind of encryption that Comcast has added to prevent me (us) from using their digital cable channels without having a digital cable subscription. So far using the included ArcSoft TotalMedia software works much better then Windows Media Center. Media Center would not

Cons: It would be nice if they included a steel base for the antenna and a USB extension cord to relocate the antenna farther from the computer. I strongly recommend using a USB extension cord, because the COAX cable will put a very heavy strain on the USB Digital tuner when connected directly to the USB port on your Laptop or PC.

Overall Review: All things considered. ( My room is in a basement and my house is on a hill with other hills around and lots of big trees etc. ) I was NOT able to get a good over the air signal at first. And I was not able to pick up half the channels that I now have. By chance I figured out that if you set the little magnetic antenna base onto something steel or iron (in my case a 2” x 3 “ steel soldering iron holder) I got perfect reception! It was amazing!

Pros: Cheap price, works well with Vista, works well with XP, 3rd party software smooths over the difficulties with bundled software, I was able to pick up channels even more clearly with my tuner than with my 4' antenna and ATSC converter.

Cons: The bundled software sucks and doesn't even pick up the device (i was about to send it back to newegg before I found GB-PVR on a freeware website and got it to work), a little heavy for the USB port so it gets disconnected frequently on my Ideapad Y510. Use GB-PVR or Windows Media Center instead. Just download the device driver from the Kworld website (just look on the box and you will find the address) then you configure the card and scan for channels).

Overall Review: I'll probably get a USB extender for this thing because of the frequent disconnection (although this isn't a problem with my desktop, just my Ideapad). Just use GB-PVR (you can find it for free on majorgeeks) or Windows Media Center (i can't vouch for the XP version of Media center but the Vista 32 bit version works fine). A hint for installing the driver easily in Vista 32 bit, connect the tuner then start up Windows Media Center, then put the included disc in and then it'll pick up the tuner. After that, just upgrade the driver to the K-world one and you are set. Expect blocky images and bad image quality when you are getting a bad signal, this is normal with ATSC (the new digital standard)

Pros: Low Cost, works well with my roof antenna with decent HDTV picture. It received 36 channels thru' my rooftop antenna.

Cons: Very basic software TotalMedia. The channels are not sorted in order and I have to manually sort them. The dongle will be disabled when I accidentally disconnected the antenna. I have to unplug and replug it to my desktop to recover.

Overall Review: First one DOA and I have to pay the shipping for a replacement.

Pros: Small USB form factor and price.

Cons: Very weak antenna. I think source of many of the bad reviews is this anntenna.

Overall Review: With same anntena, I was only able to get hand full of stations in 10 feet away from my window (and reception was not even that good), while I was able to get about 40 stations in very good quality when I put the anntena right on the window. If you are going to connect thsi item to your desktop, and thinking of using provided anntena, you are going to hate this product. I bought this item for my laptop to take it outside, so I am very happy with this product even with the bundled anntena.

Pros: No problems with driver and software install from CD which has the latest versions of both. Documentation is concise and accurate. Probably works well overall according to other reviews here. I was going to use this with my laptop in order to have an emergency TV as my current battery TV will be obsolete next year. However, that's not to be... (read Cons).

Cons: With a known good antenna, the tuner is unable to capture but ~7 of 65 DTV stations a from transmitter site 10 miles away on a 1600' peak, visible from my front yard. In contrast, my two Insignia DTV converters can capture 20+ stations using a paperclip as an antenna and ALL stations with passive "rabbit ears." Stations that do come in drop out after a few minutes as unit heats up. This device is useless as an OTA solution which was my reason to purchase.

Overall Review: After rebate this thing costs $15, but the total of almost $20 for both-ways shipping and a re-stocking fee if I return this for a refund makes me keep it. Eventually there will be an outside antenna here and maybe my OTA results will improve. The online RMA form here says this 340U is out of warranty. What the heck is with that?

Pros: Works very well in XP and Vista, even 64 bit. Am able to expand the screen to fill my 1080p 42" LCD (That's my monitor, sick, eh?)with no picture quality loss.Included software even picks up my All-in-wonder 9600 tuner and integrates it into the application. Gets 5 eggs on the pro side here for value and usability. Works with Beyond TV and might work with the ATIMMC if they would just enable support. The included antenna worked surprisingly well picking up OTA digital, and that's in Waikiki surrounded by a lot of tall hotels near ground level. Dirt cheap minus the rebate. Will try to update as I work with it a little more. Works well on the laptop with the intel onboard video, just a little washed out, but that's the intel graphics.

Cons: The Arcsoft Total media software leaves a little to be desired. It's little slow and if you push it too hard can cause crashes. Can't seem to delete channels that are locked with Time warner cable. Favorites don't save well. Those 2 things make it hard to get to the channels that are unlocked. Can't crop the edges of a stream to make full use of my screen. Should have at least a little dongle so it doesn't stress out the USB ports on the laptop. Only 3 eggs here because of the software ,mainly, for an average of 4.

Overall Review: Kworld might also consider adding a USB filter into their driver set. Encoded upmix sometimes has audio artifacts. Not sure why.

Pros: I've had such bad luck with PC tv tuners. The only ones I've ever liked were ATI All In Wonders, but they're not made anymore. So I saw this one. It was so inexpensive, $50 marked down to $35 with a $20 rebate. For $15 how could I not try? Even though this product has pretty bad reviews, I got this thing from Newegg in 3 days and plugged it in and loaded the LATEST driver from the KWorld Web Site. I installed the Arcsoft software from the enclosed CD. Amazingly, this device fired right up. Even with the dinky little antenna supplied I got 9 Digital channels in the Hartford, Ct area. 3 of these channels are in Spanish but I also got NBC and CBS HiDef (no ABC). The picture quality is great! I don't lose my channels scanned when I unplug the device. Also, as a bonus, this software also picked up a "dead" ATI 550 Theatre card in my system and made that work as well. So, I have the cable tv plugged into the ATI card and the antenna into the Kworld device and they work well together

Cons: The Kworld USB device will not decode my Comcast cable TV, either from the output of the cable box or the straight coax cable in. It sees 222 stations but 217 of them are locked. The 5 channels I get from that cable feed are not HiDef but they must be digital or this ATSC tuner wouldn't see them. I disconnected from the cable in and am using the supplied antenna.

Overall Review: Some reviewers have said that these devices will be dead when the Feb 2009 changeover to digital TV occurs. I disagree. I think it will continue to work and even pick up more channels. At the very least, I don't think I will lose these original 9 digital channels. The Burn to Disk feature does work. I have burned both DVD Video as well as Video CD. They are transcoded (converted) to regular NTSC. This takes some time to do. Both look very good but the VideoCD format is displayed in a square format which squeezes the picture. This does not happen with DVD Video which looks great sampled down from HiDef. Also, when I do a frame grab of the original video it is captured at full 1080i (1920 x 1080) and screen grabs look amazing! Those scan lines at the top of the video do not show when these mpgs are burned to Video DVD and played on a regular TV (because of overscan). Letterman is a new experience in HD. Sports is also a knockout. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Pros: Antenna in the burbs works well

Cons: qam show 99% of channels locked on comcast cable feed. I don't care how cool it looks, these usb tuner companies need to put a short cable on the end, so no matter what laptop you plug it into there's a little ease on the tension in the usb port...

Overall Review: Hopefully they'll get it right by FEB 2009....