Total Media 3
Software created by : ARCSOFT, INC.
www.arcsoft.com
$79.99 U.S. Dollars
Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP, Pentium IV, 1.2 Ghz or equivalent,
150 MB free hard drive space for program installation,
256 MB RAM (512 MB DDR RAM recommended),
16-bit color display at 800x600 (32 MB video memory with DirectX 3D support recommended), DirectX 9 or above

A few months ago, I purchased a ADS Mini USB TV card for my laptop so I could watch and record TV to my computers hard drive. It came with a program called TOTAL MEDIA, this program now has a new version. TV - After scanning the channels, I was able to record from TV to my computer's hard drive, you can record in different video quality, the higher the quality, the more hard drive space it takes. For an example, I taped 30 minutes of video at 720 by 480 lines , the file became 720 meg. It also comes with a Electronic Program Guide (EPG) which includes the listings of the tv shows on your computer, the company that put out only does it for the U.S. I put in a Port Huron zip Code and it worked. You can also schedule recordings if you are away, but you have to leave your computer on for this to work. DVD - It can play a normal DVDand a VCD, it also lets you capture a screen shot of what is playing.

PICTURE - This part has a few features, such as red eye removal and cropping. The cropping allows you to copy your image into pre set sizes or you can choose your own crop, you can also print multiple pictures on a page too.

MUSIC - Plays music from your computer. Also if you put in a music CD, it goes to get the information about the contents from CDDB.COM. You can rip music from your CD into mp3 or wma files.

RADIO - I do not have a radio card so I could not try this feature, but it should work to listen to your radio on

VIDEO - Using the ADS TV card and my IREZ USB cable, recording video from a VCR or video camera worked well except you had to record everything in one shot, you could not pause recording, fast forward and record again. I selected a few video clips to put on a DVD, 56 minutes worth equaled 3.14 gb. On a DVD disk. After creating a menu, it took over 90 minutes to produce, it also prints out a DVD jacket with your thumbnails on it. It also adds the cover in a folder called Arcsoft, so the DVD would not play in my stand alone player, but would play the menu on my computer player. It should not do it.

TO GO - You can download your videos to different portable video devices such as the Ipod video and many others. Again, I could not try this but it should work. This program does a lot of stuff, but in future versions I would like to see you able to download a week of tv listings to your computer instead of always be connected to the Internet to get the listings. The listings should work in Canada too.

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