It's a veritable box of tricks, this latest product to roll off the Trust production line. The Combi TV-PC Pop View has a core function of simply allowing you to watch full-screen television pictures on your PC's monitor. It's a full, stand-alone TV tuner with its own power source and set of connections, and you get a remote control thrown in, too. However, the product doesn't just operate independently of your PC; it can work with it, too, with some thoughtful options built in.

But then you're saddled with the Trust manual. Initial appearances would have you believe that it's quite a bulky tome, until you realize that it doubles as a phrase book for several other European states. The bits in English aren't wonderfully organised and are printed too small, and it makes setting up the quite straightforward product a little trickier than it needs to be.

Still, to get things up and running is ultimately quite easy, once you've figured out what's what. The main box - which despite its swish design actually feels quite hollow and cheap - needs a power lead inserted into it, as well as the cable that usually runs from your PC to your monitor.

Stick the PC end into the relevant port on the box, then run a pre-supplied cable from the box to your PC's monitor connector. That's the tricky bit over with. You can then hook up a TV antenna (although to Trust's credit, there's also support for S-video and composite connections, as well as input from video sources) and audio cables to get things moving.

Enter stage left the remote control, which is pleasant, chunky and reaffirming, in a low-cost kind of way. Assuming everything is hooked up correctly, you no longer even need your PC switched on to watch a bit of telly. You simply follow the easy on-screen display to get your channels tuned, after which you can watch Countdown to your heart's content on your PC monitor.

Should you wish to have your PC on, then there are a couple of further options. You can either flick between your PC and the television using the remote, or you can have the television appear as a small overlay on your screen, meaning you can effectively view a bit of both. The good news here is that the Combi TV-Pop View uses no system resources in its work, which is arguably its key selling point over a lower cost TV card. Plus it needs no software installation either, which accounts for the fact that the box is CD-free.

However, the downsides need to be taken into account. At the time of writing, this will set you back just over £75, which for starters can get you a stand-alone portable television (admittedly not at the resolution this offers), or at least a good TV card which could also offer digital recording and video capture. And don't forget that other products on the market, although more expensive, can get you access to the various free-to-air channels, such as BBC 3 for instance.

There's little argument that the product does what it sets out to do, and the casual buyer who likes the idea of it is unlikely to feel short-changed. But, depending on your circumstances, you could do better for the money and, at the very least, it's worth being aware of the other options available.

Verdict
If your PC is low-spec, or you fancy watching TV without having a noisy PC switched on, then there's merit in offering Trust some cash here. But if you've got the processing power, then this probably isn't your best choice; there are more cost-effective ways to watch a bit of telly or video on your monitor.

Company: Trust

Contact: 0845 609 0036

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