Tv Tuner, Looking for advice.

stewiegriffin08

Hi,
I'm Looking for advice on a Tv Tuner for my laptop, Its a Vaio FZ-11L, I am going to buy a usb tuner, seeing as my laptop does not have one...I think.
Anyway I was looking at HDTV V-Gear MobiDTV Digital TV/Radio USB Stick... so it said on the ebay title.... It has lots of free stations ... bbc 1 2 3 4, itv, abc1... etc... Agood few and plays them in HD,Which my laptop is capable of... I want to know if anyone has any recommendations on this item or if they can advice me on another item... I also want to know how tv tuners work... eg, the setup... And can I get the stations in my area?? There is a list of tv stations avliable... Please advise me on any setup, combo i could have.... Is there anyway i can get hd stations such as discovery channel... or all of the sky stations for free... can i get the coverage of the stations in Louth, .... Thanks!

Tom Dunne

I know I am going to regret this, but here goes.

There are two types of TV tuners - analogue and digital. Analogue will pick up what your rabbits ears will pick up, i.e. RTE1/2, TV3 and TG4. I have one and the reception is so bad, it is unwatchable. These devices can also take input from Sky/Chorus/NTL to display the likes of Discovery. You cannot get the likes of these channels for free, you need a subscription.

The other type, and the type I suspect you are referring to, are digital TV tuners. Apart from a trial that is going on at the moment, there is no digital terrestrial service in Ireland, the best these devices will get you is the four terrestrial channels (RTE1/2, TV3 and TG4), if you live within range of the test signal.

Ghost Train

What he said ^

I'd be wary of the hdtv tag, probaby just scales the standard definition to the screen resolution of a widscreen laptop

read the digital tv forums http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=56, to see what usb sticks people are using, where they're located and the results, a few freeview usb sticks seem to not work in ireland with the trial channels as far as i remember

stewiegriffin08

Aw, Bit dissappointed about the digital...looked like there was a good few free stations... Aout the analogue, I have chours... can I run a cable from the roof, into my analogue tv tuner thing.... Will the remote work... or will i have to be watching what channel its on on the box downstairs.... Is there a way I could get all them stations with a satiliete on the roof, In aldi they were selling something similar, you got 200 stations for free... Can I rig up some sort of aerial or dish to get the most or to be ready when digital is avliable, Thanks for the help by the way!

Ghost Train

dont know much about corus. if you get a analog tv card/tuner with some sort of av input you should be able to hook it up to a digital cable or satillite tuner, but its messy and you can only watch the channel the tuner is tuned to

with something like aldi/lidl sat system you'll get a good few free channels, list, but not the irish channels

Tom Dunne

stewiegriffin08 wrote:

Aw, Bit dissappointed about the digital...looked like there was a good few free stations... Aout the analogue, I have chours... can I run a cable from the roof, into my analogue tv tuner thing.... Will the remote work... or will i have to be watching what channel its on on the box downstairs....

Think of your tuner card as a tv - can you plug the Chorus cable directly into your tv? No, you need the Chorus box. So it is Ariel->Chorus box->TV (or TV Tuner).

stewiegriffin08 wrote:

Is there a way I could get all them stations with a satiliete on the roof, In aldi they were selling something similar, you got 200 stations for free... Can I rig up some sort of aerial or dish to get the most or to be ready when digital is avliable,

Same deal: Satellite Dish->decoder box->TV/TV Tuner card.

However, some tuner cards are DVB-S, which means they act as the decoder box, so it would be Satellite->DVB-S card.

stewiegriffin08

eolhc wrote:

you can only watch the channel the tuner is tuned to

with something like aldi/lidl sat system you'll get a good few free channels, list, but not the irish channels

Thats A nice list there...Good stations... Thats bad about the chours set up.... so I cant get a box that plugs into my laptop that has a aerial... or a different aldi type box.... in my room, and then into tuner, then could i watch any stations....

eg. Aerial ---> Aldi box--->tv tuner---> laptop... But could i not just plug the aldi box straight into my laptop???

stewiegriffin08

I think i shall forget about chours, get a aldi/lidl box, set up aerial, box all in my room, as i would for a tv, but just get it working on my laptop... can the laptop just act as a tv screen... do i really need a tv tuner thing... i have a habbit of repeating myself....ignore it.. Thanks for help btw

Ghost Train

unless the laptop(graphics card) has av inputs, which few do, you'll need to get some sort of tuner or av input device.

you could use one on these to make it a bit more direct, dont know if theyre any good though
http://cgi.ebay.ie/DVB-USB-2-0-Digital-Satellite-TV-Tuner-Receiver-Silver_W0QQitemZ200150556891QQihZ010QQcategoryZ3761QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
then you'd have: sat dish->usb sat tuner->laptop

RoyalMarine

if you went sat dish > sky box > laptop

is there anyway to replace the sky + recording box with a pc/laptop? where you could record programs straight to the harddrive?

Tom Dunne

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

is there anyway to replace the sky + recording box with a pc/laptop? where you could record programs straight to the harddrive?

Oh, there is. I have a similar setup using GBPVR. Full details on the HTPC forum.

Shanannigan

you want to make sure though, that the digital receiver you get for your laptop, if you do get it, decodes mpeg4 format... the uk broadcasts (or used to? not sure if they've changed) digital in mpeg2 and so if you get a receiver from the uk, it may only be an mpeg2 decoder and so you won't be ready when the digital starts to come in in ireland.

Alanstrainor

This thread is nearly 2 years old, chances are the OP has already bought a tuner, and if not they're definitely not going to be searching for this ancient thread! Closed.