We’ve received the first press release about a product sporting (boom, boom) World Cup logos and branding, ahead of the FIFA World Cup due to take place this Summer in South Africa. The company in question is AVerMdia, who has announced a range of USB TV and video capture devices with a footy theme. To paraphrase the press release, ‘Yo dawg, we heard you liked watching football, so we put football on your TV tuner, so you can look at football while you watch football.’

Okay, that’s nothing like what the press release says. In fact, there isn’t really a press release at all, just a price list of the three USB TV tuners and some images. The A835 Aver TV HD Pro (left) is a conventional-looking digital (DVB-T) USB TV tuner stick. It comes with a remote control, can decode and play H.264 or MPEG-2 HD video and is set to cost a reasonable £34.99.

The A830D Aver TV Volar Video Capture USB Stick is set to cost £59.99, but has support for AV inputs, so it can take a signal from a camcorder or MP4 player. AVerMedia is also keen to point out that this stick consumes less than 0.3A, which it claims is ‘Low Power Consumption’. This is odd, as power is measured in Watts (among other metrics) and amperage is only a component of that. USB provides 5V, so the A830D consumes up to 1.5W, which is an insignificant amount of power consumption for a modern PC or laptop.


Finally, the H830 Aver TV Hybrid Volar HD USB Stick costs £64.99, as it’s a hybrid tuner, allowing you to receive analogue or digital TV signals. It also supports AV inputs and consumes up to 1.5W.

However, the real question we’re all asking is who exactly that is on the boxes? We all know that with every World Cup there’s an unexpected hero – does the guy in white look a bit like Owen Hargreaves? Does AVerMedia know something that Fergie doesn’t? Oh, and what do you think of the tuners? Thoughts in the forum please!