USB DVB-T tuner stick for Saorview

livEwirE

Can anyone recommend a particular USB DVB-T tuner stick that will pick up Saorview, something like this? Do they really work?

John mac

I have a couple of theseWork fine on the pc. The aerial may be a bit dodgy but I have a strong signal so the aerial is stuck onto the side of a radiator. Getting full strength signal.

they do not do digital text . but for watching and recording tv they are great. (Think i got mine for €15 delivered)

Gerry Wicklow

John mac wrote: »

...
they do not do digital text ....

Digital MHEG5 text is decoded by the software not the stick itself. Something like Windows Media Center shows it.

scout353

Only thing to be careful of is that it is HD as you will not be able to receive RTE 2 - ensure it is DVB - T HD!

I had that issue and could only receive audio from RTE 2 !

John mac

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Digital MHEG5 text is decoded by the software not the stick itself. Something like Windows Media Center shows it.

oops forgot that.. its in the review.

watty

Windows 7 Media Centre OR DVBviewer with MHEG5 plug in will do Digital text. I have seen both working with the Mobi Dual DTT stick.

The stick doesn't do the Irish HD, it's software. The UK "Freeview HD" isn't "DVB-T" so it needs a "DVB-T2" stick (Hardware). But that isn't to do with HD content.

Saorview, SD or HD is "DVB-T"

Freeview is SD only and "DVB-T"

"Freeview HD" system at the minute is HD only, and after 2012 will have SD too, but uses "DVB-T2"

Irish SD and HD both use "MPEG4" (software or codec)
UK DVB-T is MPEG2 and SD only (Freeview)
UK DVB_T2 is MPEG4 and HD now, but later SD too (Freeview HD).

You are allowed to be confused. It's much worse than Analogue Era PAL, SECAM and NTSC. Don't buy anything intended for Domestic markets outside Europe. There are four other digital Terrestrial systems, all incompatible with each other and DVB-T or DVB-T2.

DVB-T2 receivers will pickup DVB-T, but not vice-versa.
Systems that can do HD and MPEG4 can do SD on MPEG4 or MPEG2.

There were some set-boxes and TVs for a PayTV service that could do MPEG4 and not HD, nothing to do with DVB-T. There is no such receiver as "DVB-T HD" as MPEG4 or HD are separate functions to the DVB-T tuner.

Setbox (or a DVB-T stick without the correct SW) that is only MPEG2 will only get the radio, no TV.

livEwirE

How would the device mentioned by John mac above compare to something like this, which would be better?

Gerry Wicklow

The dual tuner allows you to watch one channel while recording another

livEwirE

Makes sense Gerry thanks.

NewHillel

livEwirE wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a particular USB DVB-T tuner stick that will pick up Saorview, something like this? Do they really work?

I bought one, just for pig iron. Works fine on Media Centre on a Windows 7 Laptop. It gets the EPG over the Internet and gets all Saorview stations, in every room in the house, on the telescopic aerial. For the money, worth a punt.

(At least I assume it's getting the EPG over the Internet! The day I played with it, for a short while, it wasn't getting any EPG data for RTE2.)

Gerry Wicklow

NewHillel wrote: »

I bought one, just for pig iron. Works fine on Media Centre on a Windows 7 Laptop. It gets the EPG over the Internet and gets all Saorview stations, in every room in the house, on the telescopic aerial. For the money, worth a punt.

(At least I assume it's getting the EPG over the Internet! The day I played with it, for a short while, it wasn't getting any EPG data for RTE2.)

Win7 Media center gets a 14day EPG from the net. Sometimes it takes a while to download fully and compile, which results in gaps. It's usually ok after the initial few minutes.

watty

Win7 Media center [sic] can use Internet data or Transmitted EPG, there is an option setting.

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

The dual tuner allows you to watch one channel while recording another

I think more accurately it allows you to watch or record channels on two different transmitter frequencies (mux)

It is possible to watch and/or record all the channels on one mux simultaneously with the correct software setup (edit->) using a single tuner.

NewHillel

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Win7 Media center gets a 14day EPG from the net. Sometimes it takes a while to download fully and compile, which results in gaps. It's usually ok after the initial few minutes.

Yeah, thats what I thought. I built a HTPC using Media Centre on Vista, but it was a right pain in the ar$e setting it all up. W7 appears to be far better and I just might have another go. (I have all the hardware, for DVB-T and DVB-S2, but couldn't be bothered spending hours with drivers, registry hacks etc. )

livEwirE

Cheers all, picked up one of these and it does the job at receiving Saorview

Irish Steve

haven't followed all the links, Maplin had some recently on offer for (I think) 29.95, and they are dual channel HDMI, and are OK for RTE2 HDMI as well as Text view. The small aerial that is with it doesn't work here in Ashbourne, but with the roof aerial connected, the picture quality is fine,

Steve

Johnboy1951

Mods should this not be in Terrestrial?

eddiem10

http://www.buyincoins.com/details/digital-tv-hdtv-dvb-t-usb-stick-dongle-tuner-recorder-receiver-product-70.html

Less then €6 delivered! Cant go wrong.

maggienx

eddiem10 wrote: »

http://www.buyincoins.com/details/digital-tv-hdtv-dvb-t-usb-stick-dongle-tuner-recorder-receiver-product-70.html

Less then €6 delivered! Cant go wrong.

Looks good. Do you have one of these? Does it have the right connector for an external aerial? Presumably it works with saorview.... I ask this because it is not too clear to me from the description. Then again, I'm not a techie

Any help appreciated.

Johnboy1951

maggienx wrote: »

Looks good. Do you have one of these? Does it have the right connector for an external aerial? Presumably it works with saorview.... I ask this because it is not too clear to me from the description. Then again, I'm not a techie

Any help appreciated.

From the pics it doesn't ...... but there are adapter cables available I believe .... my unit (different make) came with one.

Still at that price ......

NewHillel

maggienx wrote: »

Looks good. Do you have one of these? Does it have the right connector for an external aerial? Presumably it works with saorview.... I ask this because it is not too clear to me from the description. Then again, I'm not a techie

Any help appreciated.

It needs an adapter for an external aerial.

watty

The Mobi Dual Stick has a regular socket.

maggienx

watty wrote: »

The Mobi Dual Stick has a regular socket.

Thanks to everyone for all the useful information.

Watty .... Or anyone who has actually bought this Mobi dual Stick thingy..

Where did you actually buy it? I have searched the likes of eBay, amazon and a few others besides, but don't seem to be able to find it:(

Thanks

watty

Lots of people on the Terrestrial forum have bought it.

I don't see the Dual tuner version right now

Single tuner & Regular aerial socket
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MobiDTV-Pro-USB-Digital-TV-Receiver-Digital-Terrestrial-TV-your-PC-Laptop-/200679639946

A DTT tuner with adaptor for UK/Irish Aerial plugs
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Digital-DVB-T-HDTV-TV-Tuner-Recorder-Receiver-Laptop-PC-XP-Vista-Win7-U27-/120783620233


Avoid "mini" models.

Another with regular socket http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Black-DVB-T-digital-Radio-SDTV-HDTV-PC-Win7-XP-P215-/260816852577

Dual tuner
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/TerraTec-DVB-T-Stick-T-Stick-Dual-RC-mit-2-Tunern-PIP-/220901114006

I dunno where all the dual tuners have gone.

Maybe killed off by cheap setboxes and very cheap single tuner sticks?

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/TerraTec-DVB-T-Stick-T-Stick-Dual-RC-mit-2-Tunern-PIP-/220901114006

BionicRasher

if I get one of these and plug it in to PC and use Windows Media Centre as the front end can I use my media remote control to select the channels (also have an Xbox extender so I presume if this works on PC it will work on the extender)

after looking through all the posts and links I am still no clearer on any particular one that people can recommend (Dual tuner please)

Also looking for recommended DVB-S usb dual tuners (if they exist) to pick up FTA Sat feeds

Really looking to get these this weekend and have it set up for Christmas

watty

No, forget USB for satellite. use PCI or PCI-e. Any USB solutions for satellite are bulky and need a separate PSU. Satellite has a powered LNB.

Win7 Media Center [sic] works, but Vista & XP Media Centre are rubbish really for Digital. WMC needs the MS MC remote.

DVBViewer with MHEG5 plug in option is possibly better than Media Center. DVBviewer can use many remotes and you can add WinLIRC and get DVBviewer to use that.

BionicRasher

watty wrote: »

No, forget USB for satellite. use PCI or PCI-e. Any USB solutions for satellite are bulky and need a separate PSU. Satellite has a powered LNB.

Win7 Media Center [sic] works, but Vista & XP Media Centre are rubbish really for Digital. WMC needs the MS MC remote.

DVBViewer with MHEG5 plug in option is possibly better than Media Center. DVBviewer can use many remotes and you can add WinLIRC and get DVBviewer to use that.

Thanks Watty
From this I take it that a WMC remote should work to change my channels on PC and Xbox - am I correct? I already have a WMC Remote and Windows 7 and it works very well for everything at the moment

As I have an Asus EeeBox EB1501 which has no expansion slots that I am aware of I think I may need to go down the USB road for satellite feeds - any recommendations?

watty

Yes. Get a real PC for satellite. USB is too little choice and too expensive and awkward for Satellite.

Also the EeeBox EB1501 is likely too underpowered for some of the SW codecs.

BionicRasher

watty wrote: »

Yes. Get a real PC for satellite. USB is too little choice and too expensive and awkward for Satellite.

Also the EeeBox EB1501 is likely too underpowered for some of the SW codecs.

How do you mean a 'real PC' - is the Eeebox not capable of getting Sat feeds?
the Eeebox is currently able to run anything I throw at it
Plays MKV file on 42 inch TV at the same time wife can watch a movie streaming to the Xbox and kids can watch a recorded TV show on the Wii via Orb application?
I wouldn't really call that underpowered as it has 2Gb RAM (I plan to add 2 more) and a dual core 1.8Ghz processor

how about this?
http://webshop.pctvsystems.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=87&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1
or this
http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/qbox3.html

watty

RAM is irrelevant as is File playback.

BionicRasher

watty wrote: »

RAM is irrelevant as is File playback.

I am just stating that the PC has the grunt to run things and looks like it should be ok for these as minimum specs are listed below

For DVB-S:
1GHz CPU or above
256MB RAM or above
Graphic Card with at least 16MB RAM
For DVB-S2 HDTV:
Dualcore CPU
1GB RAM or Above
Graphic Card with at least 16MB RAM

Looking for recommendations of anyone that has a USB DVB-T or USB DVB-S stick that works with WMC and with the Windows remote control

Rojam

I have a PCTV "Sports" USB stick - works a treat with WMC. However, I don't have remote control. It also streams the TV signal from the PC in which it is installed to my iPad ("DistanTV").
Bought for €20.99 at a Saturn superstore (in DE), bargain.
Also available on Amazon.de

Solair

It's actually going to become less of a mess as years go on in Europe and systems become more established.

All of Europe's broadcasters use DVB-T systems. They all launched services at different times, and adopted whatever was 'state of the art' at the time they launched.

Generation 1:
DVB-T & MPEG2 e.g. Freeview SD in the UK

Generation 2:
DVB-T and MPEG4 e.g. Saorview SD/HD in Ireland.

Generation 3:
DVB-T2 and MPEG4 e.g. Freeview HD

Each generation of box/TV is backwards compatible with previous iterations of the standard.

So, as Freeview HD becomes more established in the UK, the vast majority of devices sold in the UK market will end up being compatible with Saorview. The problem at the moment is that there is still a lot of first generation Freeview SD gear around that is incapable of decoding MPEG4 streams and can't see Saorview.

So, really it's not as horrendous a mess as the various flavours of PAL and SECAM with umpteen different frequency ranges in use.

Ireland also is a member of the NORDIG (Nordic countries + Ireland) tv group and devices here comply with those standards. They'll include DVB-T2 in those fairly soon too, even if Saorview never uses it.

So, basically as MPEG4 systems become the norm, more and more equipment will be able to view Saorview.

The only other issue you have is the multiple standards for interactive services. This means that equipment from some countries may be totally unable to decode Saorview's next generation teletext facilities.

MHEG-5, is used by the UK, Ireland, NZ, Australia & Hong Kong, but not any of our EU neighbours.
HbbTV seems to be emerging as the new open standard.
MHP and a few others are in use too.

There are even totally proprietary systems.

So it's likely that interactivity will remain a bit of a major problem for pan-EU compatibility.

Obviously, you can only 100% guarantee reception from Saorview approved devices and televisions, but a lot of devices will be capable of tuning in to at the very least television services even if they miss out on some of the fancier features.

watty

MHP is fairly dead
HbbTV is really for OTT (Over the top), i.e. streaming content on Internet. Arguably it's sort of doomed by "Smart TVs" (ones with Internet). It can be added to MHEG5

CI is being replaced by CI+ (The spec for socket to take a CAM). CI+ has MHEG5 as mandatory part. ALL Tvs over a certain size in EU must have CI or CI+

MHEG5, MHP and HbbTV are not part of a "tuner" only DVB-T, DVB-T2, ATSC, ISDB (Japanese and Brazil versions) and DTMB are the Terrestrial Digital Tuner specs.

So it's WORSE than analogue Era, worldwide, but Europe, Russia, Africa and Australia / NZ, Hong Kong are all DVB-T or DVB-T2
map here http://www.saortv.info/

So not all USB Terrestrial Tuner sticks work. But MPEG2, MPEG4, HbbTV, MHP, AAC, HE-AAC, MHEG5 are not part of the USB Tuner stick. On TVs and Setboxes you might be able to add MHEG5, Hbbtv (if there is ethernet) or MHP in theory with a firmware update if the maker added the feature and there is enough RAM and Flash. But adding MPEG4 or HE-AAC will never be possible to TVs or Setboxes without them as the video/audio Codecs are done in a DSP Chip (hardware) unlike a USB DTT stick.

Similarly you can't change the type of tuner (DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-C, DVB-C2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, ATSC, ISDB (Japanese and Brazil versions) and DTMB) on a USB stick, TV or Setbox by Firmware as it's dedicated Analogue HW and Digital DSP Chip HW (Hardware).

Solair

DVB-T is by far the most widely adopted system though.

As long as you're not buying stuff aimed at the European market, you should be OK once you ensure the tuner's capable of tuning to DVB-T or DVB-T2.

Main thing is to avoid accidentally buying ATSC equipment intended for the US and Canada.
You can pretty much ignore the Chinese standard as it's main purpose seems to be to avoid accidental reception of "dangerous" foreign broadcasts. Much like the reason that odd version of SECAM were preferred in the former Eastern Bloc.

From Wikipedia:



The analogue era was pretty confusing too, and the hardware being used i.e. old analogue tuners, often were 100% hardwired to only accept one specific system. It was only when later digital tuners came along that multi-standard TVs became common in the PAL/SECAM world anyway

You'd :
PAL B/G/D/K/I all 625/50Hz but with different audio subcarrier setups!
PAL M 525/60Hz (Brazil)
PAL N/L - 625/50Hz but different setup for subcarriers for both vision and audio

and the PALPlus extension which allowed full widescreen.

SECAM L, B/G, D/K, H & M
Similar mess to PAL with different channel plans, subcarriers etc.

Stereo was applied either as FM stereo (A2 stereo / Zweikanalton)
Or NICAM digital stereo.

NTSC came in M,N and J standards which were all different.