A typical TV tuner card for a PC gives you four terrestrial channels, or five if you're in a five area. This is analogue TV, which has done well for us over the last 50 years, but is rapidly being outclassed by digital TV. AVerMedia's funkily-named DVB-T 771 is a full implementation of digital TV, as epitomised by the Freeview service, on a PCI card.

The card slips into place without a problem and, unusually you install the software only after the hardware has been recognised by Windows. The card works with Windows 98 and XP, though oddly not with Windows Me. The TV application consists of the TV playback screen itself, a control panel which tacks onto the bottom of the screen and a channel list which tacks onto the side of the control panel.

As well as the five regular terrestrial channels, you get digital favourites like BBC 3, BBC 4, CBBC, ITV 2, ABC 1 (US drama, soaps and comedy), BBC News 24 and Sky News. There are several lifestyle channels and a good few shopping channels, too. Depending on your tastes, you'll probably find between six and ten extra channels you'll dip into regularly.

You don't just get TV, of course, but a list of 25 digital radio channels includes everything from BBC Radios 1 to 7 to various music stations, like Q, Kerrang! and Jazz FM.

The software copes with changes in picture aspect ratio automatically, switching to widescreen 16:7 for any programmes broadcast that way. It also names all channels automatically, so you don't have to go through identifying each one and giving it a name.

Picture quality will vary depending on the signal strength in your area. We had no problems - the picture was well-defined and showed none of the 'break-up' artefacts sometimes seen with digital TV. You still need a standard TV aerial to run into the back of the card, of course, as the signal travels to you through the airwaves, rather than from a satellite.

The card includes PVR facilities, recording TV or radio straight to your hard drive, and this is easily controlled from your PC keyboard or from the serviceable remote controller supplied with the card.

Disappointments include the lack of Teletext support, which AVerMedia rather lamely claims on its Web site is due to 'differences between the UK and the rest of Europe' - differences that other suppliers have found their ways around. Also, you can't currently record what you hear to MP3, though that's promised for a later release of the software.

With Freeserve set-top boxes costing £50 or so, this £75 PC card is good value as an alternative. It works well, with a minimum of installation fuss, and has useful extras, such as the built-in PVR software. It's ideal if you work from home on your PC and want music, news or sport while you work. Second TV anyone?