What do I need to get a demo setup?

FrankGrimes

I'm looking to setup a demo of watching live TV through a PC setup to show a bunch of my colleagues in work that are interested and it sounds like digital terrestial satellite is the best bet (not even sure if that's the right name).

I'm a complete novice on the digital TV side of things so have had a look around this forum and though there's a lot of info to take in, am I right in thinking that if I get an antennae and run coax cable from it to a DVB-T USB drive on a laptop I can then watch live TV (if only for the RTE channels) on the laptop via something like Media Center software? Or do I need a set-top box to do some decoding? This thread seems to list a range of boxes but I want to make sure I need one first.

I'm only a couple of miles from Three Rock and could have close to a direct line of sight to it if I place the antennae on a windowsill. The FAQ Thread on antennaes seems to suggest that this antennae might be appropriate given the signal should be strong in this location. Does that sound like the right one to go for?

Is it just normal coax cable to be run from the antennae to the DVB-T tuner card on the laptop?

I don't need it to be a perfect setup, just need to demo at least one channel with reasonable reception and I'm willing to fork out a couple of hundred euro if needed as the hardware will probably get more use if it works out (maybe in my gaff if I'm lucky ). Thanks for any pointers.

fat-tony

It's Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) - no satellite involved;)

If you have Windows Media Center(sic) on a Windows 7 setup, then you would be able to get a demo system running for very little money by purchasing a USB DVB-T stick. These usually come with a little magnetic whip aerial which you can place on a windowsill or whatever if you are close to a transmitter.

See this thread for some info http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055757405

I have no experience of that particular device so I'm not endorsing it - ok
Most of these cheapy devices have a standard interface (BDA driver) and if you have WMC, then it will pick it up ok and you will have the relevant MPEG4 decoder (codec) for Irish DTT built into WMC for Win 7, though you might have to use the supplied software drivers if you want to use the remote. Either way it's a cheap and cheerful way to start. Once you get hooked you may want to buy a dedicated set top box for watching on a TV, if that suits you better, but the USB stick allows you to amaze your friends by showing live TV on your laptop:)

Lots of folk used these USB sticks for the earlier DTT trials, but the codec only needed to support MPEG2 so the supplied software was perfectly adequate. I had one several years ago - think it cost about €20 and was perfectly fine for reception from Three Rock in an office block in Cabinteely (sth Dublin) with the little stick antenna.

The USB sticks are not so easy to connect to a normal TV coax cable as they are very small, but you can get adaptors. I use a desktop PC with a PCI card for DTT and satellite reception but it has standard connector sockets for satellite or terrestrial aerial cable.

When I read your post I thought it mentioned Windows 7 (which has an MPEG4 codec built-in). If you are using XP you may need to download a suitable codec like libavc which will handle MPEG4 (H.264) decoding.