Back in February I had the opportunity to take a look at the OnAir GT USB HDTV Tuner from AutumnWave. The portable OnAir GT, their flagship product, allows you to watch both Analog and HDTV on your computer anywhere there is a signal (over-the-air or direct cable connection). While the OnAir GT did well in our testing (enough to earn our Seal of Approval), there were a few drawbacks that I found.

The first was a lack of hardware MPEG2 encoder chip, which meant that the Timeshift function (pause live TV - much like Tivo) only worked with digital signals. Since I currently only have access to analog signals at my apartment, this meant I couldn't use the Timeshift function. Another issue I had with the OnAir GT was the included antenna. I felt it was a necessary addition to the package, but it wasn't large enough to pull in a very strong signal during my tests.

I spoke with AutumnWave about these issues and they suggested I check out one of their other products, the OnAir Creator. The Creator is nearly identical in function to the GT, except that it includes a hardware encoder chip. Also, this unit isn't marketed specifically as "portable", so an antenna is not included.


The OnAir Creator arrived in the colorful retail package that you see above. The front of the box shows the OnAir Creator and details a few icon-sized features (USB, PVR, MPEG, etc.). Around back, we find a full list of product specifications, included package contents list and a minimum system requirements list. I have borrowed these lists from AutumnWave's website and reproduced them below.