NVIDIA today introduced the NVIDIA DualTV tuner for PCs. The device offers two TV tuners on a single card and features a new disk space saving technology.

With its two-tuner technology, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner transforms an MCE-equipped PC into a home entertainment system. With a touch of a mouse button, users can schedule recordings of their favorite TV shows and watch them when they want, record two TV shows simultaneously, or watch one channel while recording another, as well as watch pause, and rewind live or recorded TV shows.

Programs recorded with the NVIDIA DualTV tuner can be transferred to personal media players and portable game players that play back video, and many other portable media players. Live or recorded shows can be streamed throughout the home to game consoles or Media Center Extenders; and with Orb Networks software (www.orb.com), NVIDIA DualTV tuner users can watch live or recorded TV shows from anywhere in the world over the Internet for personal use.

The NVIDIA DualTV tuner also offers the MediaSqueeze technology that allows users to store more of their favorite TV programs on their hard disk, DVD, or portable media player. Users can record live TV shows at a lower bit-rate than normal or "transrate" previously-recorded TV programs into a lower bit-rate to preserve disk space, without significant loss in picture quality. According to internal testing using a Tektronix PQA300 MPEG image quality measurement system, NVIDIA found its picture quality rating at medium bit-rates scored consistently better than competitive products recorded at a higher bit-rate.

NVIDIA has also applied its PureVideo technology to the DualTV tuner to enable high picture quality on PCs. In addition to PureVideo, the NVIDIA DualTV tuner features a 3D comb filter?to create quality color separations, a 3D noise reduction hardware?to clean up the signal, as well as an in-line TV amplifier?to boost weak signals.

The device also carries the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) certification for home theater-quality television tuning and recording.

The NVIDIA DualTV tuner is available immediately for $169 USD. from the NVIDIA Store Web site at store.nvidia.com.