Review: Review - Mini TV - Vista Gadget
A free mini television set via a Vista Sidebar Gadget. Can it be any good? Don Bradbury investigates.
| Product | Mini TV - Vista Gadget |
|---|---|
| Company | Ron Rodermond and Robin de Groot |
| Web | |
| Price | Free |
| We like | Quick and easy setup; choice of stations; configuration options |
| We don't like | Low res image at full screen |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements | Windows Vista |
The Windows Vista Gadgets Sidebar can bring useful additional functionality to an OS that's already stuffed with goodies. Some of the gadgets offer rather trivial functionality, while many do a good job. But a select few offer genuinely useful, powerful functions.
The Mini TV we are looking at here we have found to be quite outstanding in it's range of functions as well as adaptability - for a Sidebar Gadget - not to mention the obvious advantage of bringing dozens of world TV stations and live webcams to your desktop. Just don't expect high resolution images full screen; this is, after all, a tiny television applet, intended primarily for part-screen viewing. The picture can be expanded to full screen, and it's here when it's shortcomings in terms of resolution show through. It's still viewable though.
The gadget itself is to be found among the web offerings for additional gadgets, showing an old style television test pattern to identify itself. To get to this, right click on the Sidebar, choose 'Add Gadgets', and look for the web offerings. At just 45K, the file downloads quickly, installs without hassle, and works well after you've sussed how the configuration options work. The two Dutch authors might tighten up a little in that department, but you soon figure out the main functions. Even the meaning of some prompts in Dutch are pretty obvious.
The available stations list is extensive and world-wide, so much so that routinely negotiating the list to locate your favourites is rather slow. So the first thing you will probably do is get the ones you want to prioritise to the top of the listing. While you can click on the gadget's spanner tool and go into the 'Internal Stations' option and scroll any station to the top, that's too slow because, as far as we could discover, you can't drag and drop stations directly to the top of the listing. So we think the best way to do this is to select and then rename your first station, adding an 'A' to the front of the station name perhaps, thus forcing it to the front of the alphabetical listing, clicking on the 'naam aapassen' key to complete the rename, then repeat this for other favourite stations, and then, and only then, use the 'ABC' option to put the list into alphabetical order, whereupon all your renamed stations are listed ahead of the rest.
There's no need to rename the stations back to their original names, they work as they are. Minor adjustments of position in the listing can finally be made by using the 'Up' or 'Down' buttons if required, leaving your favourite of favourites at the top.
In the station rename option you'll also see listed the station URL. You might want to copy that for pasting elsewhere. It's especially useful for adding stations that are not included in the listing (see below).
There are other stations out there that you can select and add to the already extensive listing provided. Altogether, this is a very comprehensive little gadget. It may not give you high definition full screen pictures, it may be a little awkward to use (though it can do a lot), you'll also find remnants of its Dutch authorship on display, but all-told it's workable, watchable, customisable, discrete on the Sidebar, and free. This has to be one of the better Vista Gadgets. You can't ask for much more than that.
As with other gadgets, you can detach it from the Sidebar, perhaps to get a somewhat bigger display while not taking over the entire screen. And if you right click on the gadget itself, you can summon an extensive list of options for customisation, one of which is to automatically drop frames to give better synchronisation of sound and vision, otherwise you may notice some loss of lip-synch occasionally.
In conclusion
Stick this Vista Sidebar gadget on your laptop, perhaps, select your chosen TV stations for viewing via your wired, wireless, or PowerLine network, and thank Santa for a free TV set in the spare room, courtesy of Vista, that's not only far more universal in its stations range than your main TV set, satisfying every conceivable taste, but watchable, too. The world webcams may be considered a tad naff; there's just not enough resolution to show that level of detail at any degree of magnification.
