Terratec T5 review

Terratec’s T5 tuner combines two DVB-T tuners into a single USB stick. Like the similar WinTV-Nova-TD, these can be used separately to watch and record programs simultaneously or combined to improve reception. The T5 comes with a full-sized remote control and two antennas with magnetic and sucker cup bases.

This tuner will work with Windows Media Center, which we’d strongly recommend. However, Media Center has no support for diversity tuning, so you may have to use the built-in software. Terratec’s Home Cinema application is easy to use, but the text-based EPG only gives either now-and-next information or a long list of what’s on every channel at certain times. You can schedule recordings from here, and it handles both tuners capably, but there’s no series link. It’s acceptable for occasional use, but we can’t see anyone wanting to use it instead of Media Center.

Our main problem with the T5 is its price, which is too high even given the poor exchange rate with the euro. With more and more users having access to Media Center, the playing field for TV tuner manufacturers has levelled considerably, and the T5 is simply too expensive to recommend over Hauppauge’s Nova-TD.