USB TV tuners.

[stevo1210]

I was planning to get one of these USB TV tuners for my Toshiba Tecra M2 laptop... seeing as I have alot of free time on my hands at uni... but I have one question.
Seeing as I'm on the move with this laptop... can these tuners work when I'm driving? (keeps the kiddies entertained).
Because I've heard you have to be stationary to receive DVB-T signals? or is this false?

Thanks.

[seanc]

Re: USB TV tuners.

Wouldn't want to be using a laptop while driving, hard drive damage.

[stevo1210]

Re: USB TV tuners.

I'm planning to get a 64GB SD card, and make it SSD... seeing as it only has a 40GB drive right now.

[washu]

Re: USB TV tuners.

Why are you going with an SD card? That's not going to give reasonable performance unless it is mated with an expensive controller, and 64 GB SD cards are insanely expensive already.

You can get PATA SSDs. They are crappy compared to a good SATA SSD, but would blow your SD card out of the water and they are cheaper.

Or go with a CF card in a CF->PATA adapter. Still would be cheaper and probably faster than a SD card used in this way.

[toastygoodness]

Re: USB TV tuners.

they will with OTA, but not DVB-T. DVB-T doesn't work well when your antenna's moving.

also, for the adapter itself, go hauppauge. best stuff.

[stj]

Re: USB TV tuners.

dvb-t does work mobile, but you need the right antenna.

[stevo1210]

Re: USB TV tuners.

i was planning for an el cheapo china made usb tuner going for $10 on ebay?

[ratdude747]

Re: USB TV tuners.

i was planning for an el cheapo china made usb tuner going for $10 on ebay?

and have a crap-ass resolution of 640x480. they SUCK! they are not worth the PCB they are made on. they are the L&C of tv tuners. only not fixable via modding.

buy hauppauge. be done. be happy.

I have a hauppauge win-tv GO analog PCI card (which i modded)- no problems other than me tripping on the ir cord and destroying the sensor- my bad.

They know quality.

China-noname knows shitty.

Blob on screen or clear image. you pick.

On a side note;

do the hauppauge replacement remotes have the IR cords as well? i heard they did, as i would like having remote capabilities again.

[mockingbird]

Re: USB TV tuners.

You should never use a USB tuner. I've never seen a USB tuner that passed both odd and even fields. Whether USB 2.0 even has the bandwidth for this is a matter for debate.

I've seen Expresscard tuners (Beware there are many out there that are expresscard but are really USB inside), and recently I think I saw a BT 8xx PCMCIA at my shop. But that's the best you can get, the BT8xx is old but still a heck of a lot better than any USB tuner.

[stj]

Re: USB TV tuners.

@ratdude, mockingbird.
he is talking about digital tuners,
they just pass the digital stream across the usb.
they have no effect on resolution or framerate.

they only thing that differs is the quality of the tuner - in other words, how good the antenna needs to be,
the quality of the antenna socket,
and if you dont use window$ obviously you want to choose a chipset you have drivers for.

[stevo1210]

Re: USB TV tuners.

Kids won't be able to tell the difference between blurry and clear so that doesn't matter. I just need them to stop whining at me on road trips.

[mockingbird]

Re: USB TV tuners.

@ratdude, mockingbird.
he is talking about digital tuners,
they just pass the digital stream across the usb.
they have no effect on resolution or framerate

This is irelevant. Each frame is composed of both odd and even fields. A TV signal is interlaced and several methods have been used to deinterlace the image on-the-fly. The easiest way to do it is to use BOB which is simply to just remove one of the fields. The problem is that you get a blurry picture.

A better way is to use adaptive deinterlacing with a program like DScaler, but every USB tv input chipset I have tested uses BOB deinterlacing mandatorily primarily because they were either too lazy to implement something better or they couldn't. The only other time I saw this done on a non-USB chip was the early Rage Theater chips, but I think ATI fixed this with the 200 series. (Of course, don't quote me on any of this).

[Krankshaft]

Re: USB TV tuners.

ALL TV tuners including Hauppage have sketchy drivers IMO plenty of bugs and glitches to navigate and I've fought getting them to work but eventually won.

I bought a Hauppage PCI earlier this year for my PC it gave me less setup problems than my previous ATI HDTV Wonder but not by much.

Also I've never had much luck with the included viewing software hopefully your experience will be different. I purchased BeyondTV a DVR software for 100 bucks it works perfectly unlike the included crap (you get what you pay for) and I get a digital channel guide so I can automatically record.

But as far as who I'd say to stay away from keep clear of ATI their hardware and software is crap. Also stay away from any no name brand e-bay sellers their crap from China will have 0 driver support look for a Hauppage.

[washu]

Re: USB TV tuners.

This is irelevant. Each frame is composed of both odd and even fields.

You're not getting it. It's an DVB-T tuner, not PAL. The old analog rules of frame interlacing do not apply. All it does is pass a raw MPEG2 stream. It doesn't care about if the video is interlaced or not. In fact the cheap cards don't have the power to decode the MPEG2 so they have no choice but to pass it unmodified. The max bitrate is 32 mbit/sec. As crappy as it is, USB2 has more than enough bandwidth to carry it.

[paul_h]

Re: USB TV tuners.

I've heard good things about asus u3100 USB tuner for about au$60. Still going to need some sort of antenna that works pointing all sorts of directions.

[370forlife]

Re: USB TV tuners.

But as far as who I'd say to stay away from keep clear of ATI their hardware and software is crap. Also stay away from any no name brand e-bay sellers their crap from China will have 0 driver support look for a Hauppage.

Ugh, ATI tv tuners suck. I've had a lot of problems with grainy pictures with mine, and if you loose the driver CD, well they can't be bothered to put it on their site! No, no, you have to buy a new CD from them for $14.95.

[mockingbird]

Re: USB TV tuners.

You're not getting it. It's an DVB-T tuner, not PAL. The old analog rules of frame interlacing do not apply. All it does is pass a raw MPEG2 stream. It doesn't care about if the video is interlaced or not. In fact the cheap cards don't have the power to decode the MPEG2 so they have no choice but to pass it unmodified. The max bitrate is 32 mbit/sec. As crappy as it is, USB2 has more than enough bandwidth to carry it.

I stand corrected.

[stj]

Re: USB TV tuners.

I've heard good things about asus u3100 USB tuner for about au$60. Still going to need some sort of antenna that works pointing all sorts of directions.

that's the challenge.

i put dvb-t in a car 5 years ago,
i spent months trying different antenna designs.
i was the first btw, it really was an eye-opener at the traffic lights etc.
i used a nokia home receiver in the back with a 200w invertor and i put the IR sensor on a length of shielded cable to poke it through the rear shelf.

[stevo1210]

Re: USB TV tuners.

So would those eBay DVB-T antennas that stick onto the windscreen be okay for the job?

[stevo1210]

Re: USB TV tuners.

I have a hauppauge win-tv GO analog PCI card (which i modded)- no problems other than me tripping on the ir cord and destroying the sensor- my bad.

LOL. Dude, do you break nearly everything you use?