Creative 3D Blaster Personal Cinema

Watch and pause live telly, capture VCR or analogue camcorder footage, and play the latest 3D games - this card does it all.

Price: £199.99

Manufacturer: Creative

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Verdict

The lack of FireWire is disappointing, but the Personal Cinema system is an impressive all-in-one entertainment system that can handle the latest 3D games as well as providing state-of-the-art digital video features such as time-shifting.

Cliff Joseph, What PC? 20 Mar 2002

Having pretty much tied up the games market, nVidia is now setting its sights on the video market as well. Its new Personal Cinema system adds a variety of digital video features to its GeForce graphics cards and goes head to head with ATI's popular All-In-Wonder cards.

Creative is the first company to release a product that includes Personal Cinema, and has opted to base the system on a GeForce2 MX-400. This is about 20 per cent faster than a standard GeForce2 MX card, so it will provide very respectable performance for 3D games and other graphics applications.

The card has a standard VGA interface for connecting to a PC monitor, butalongside this is a second interface that allows you to connect the Personal Cinema module.

Video-editing options

This little translucent green box sits on your desk and provides a number of video input and output options. There are input and output connectors for both composite and S-Video, so you can capture video from a VCR or analogue camcorder and store it on your PC's hard disk.

Creative Labs also includes a copy of the VideoWave SE editing program. This is pretty basic, but it's easy to use if you're just getting started with video editing.

Having edited your video clips you can either play them back directly from your hard disk or use the video output port to re-record back onto tape.

Tuning in

The Personal Cinema module also has a built-in TV tuner. You can use this to watch TV on your PC's screen, of course, but you can also use the tuner in conjunction with the module's video-capture capabilities and turn your PC into a personal video recorder (PVR).

The difference between a DVR and a conventional analogue VCR is that you can use a PVR to perform 'time-shifting'. Time-shifting allows you to pause any programme - perhaps while you stop to make a cup of tea - and then carry on viewing from the point where you hit the brakes. The Personal Cinema module will continue to record the rest of the show and then play it back with a short delay so that you don't miss anything.

You could buy a standalone PVR, such as the new Sky+ box from Sky, but they're more expensive than the Personal Cinema package, plus you have to pay a monthly fee on top if you want to use features such as time-shifting.

Video nasties

The Personal Cinema is very good value for money, then, especially as it gives you a pretty good 3D graphics card and video-editing features in addition to its time-shifting ability. However, there's still some room for improvement.

Many people now have digital camcorders that use FireWire to connect to a PC. The Personal Cinema module doesn't have a FireWire interface, so it won't be any use if you own a digital camcorder.

Creative's manuals and documentation are also very poor. The instructions on how to install the graphics card and Personal Cinema module are adequate, but there's no printed information on how to use the various pieces of bundled software.

It's the software that controls features such as video-capture and time-shifting, so beginners may well find themselves completely baffled when they try to figure out how to use these features. The individual programs do have their own online Help files, but these are no substitute for proper printed manuals.

Write and wrong

The 3D Blaster Personal Cinema is undoubtedly a powerful and versatile piece of hardware, and it's pitched at a good price too. However, Creative Labs really needs to write a better manual if it wants to cater properly to the ordinary home user.

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