DVB-T TV Cards

itsomana

Hi,

Does anyone know if a DVB-T digital TV card will work in Ireland and pick-up free to air channels? I have been given one which is a PCMCIA card, however when I scan for channels am picking up radio channel. When I change to mode to DTV nothing appears in my list.

I am not sure is this because the stations have now gone digital or because of the aerial I am using which that is plugged into the card is under two feet high and something you would see on a car to pick up radio stations.

I assume also this would not pickup satellite channels?

Thanks in advance and apologies if this question is stupid but the documentation for the card is of no help.

Al.

fat-tony

If you are picking up radio channels from a DVB multiplex (should be identified with a channel name - Pulse, 2xm, Chiil/Junior - stuff that's not on normal FM), then the TV channels should be receivable with a DVB-T tuner. What may be an issue is the software on your PC/laptop that came with the card. You need to have MPEG-4 decoding in order to receive the TV video signals from Saorview. Quite often these cards come with only MPEG-2 decoding which is not suitable for Saorview. Another issue you may have is that even with MPEG-4 decoding, your PC will need sufficient CPU or video card performance to handle the HD video of RTE1 and RTE2.
DVB-T cards will not handle satellite receiving, which is DVB-S or DVB-S2 and would also require a dish and LNB.

itsomana

Thanks Fat-tony. I will try and download a MPEG-4 codec this evening and see what happens. I had a feeling I would not be able to get Satellite TV but just wanted to be sure.

fat-tony

What is the make/model of the card and what software are you using to operate the tuner? The reason I ask is that DVB-T tuner dongles which work on USB are readily available and are cheap - €20 - ish (or less if you go down the import from China route).

watty

You need an application too that knows to use the Codec. Not just any old MPEG4 codec either.

itsomana

I have a PCMCIA Lifeview card which is a number of years old. I was looking at the USB TV cards on Amazon last night and will probably order one of these as they are very cheap. I have a feeling the software that comes with my card does not have all the up-to-date codec's

fat-tony

That card seems to be quite old, so it probably came with MPEG-2 capable software only. It's possible that Windows Media Centre would operate the card and would have the require MPEG-4 decoders on board (if you are using Windows 7 or 8).
In order to have satisfactory reception of RTE1 or RTE2 in HD you need to be running a modern PC or laptop, preferably with hardware decoding on board and you may need a better antenna (aerial) than that supplied with the card unless you are in a high signal strength area.
You still haven't said which specific radio channels you are receiving (and you should have an EPG (programme guide)).

STB

I think the H264 codec only came by default with Windows 7 onwards.

VLC has its own h264 codec built in so no dependencies. You can append shortcut to VLC like dvb-t://frequency=***000000.

Open VLC.

File > Open Capture Device

Set Capture Mode to "DVB DirectShow".
Set Device Selection to DVB-T
Enter in the Frequency of the channel you want to tune into (tell us where you are and we will tell you the value to enter)
Set bandwidth to 8MHz

Click Play.

Once tuned in (seems to go to radio 1 by default) go to Playback > Program to select your channel.

You can create a desktop shortcut to automatically tune in, by appending this to the VLC shortcut. You will see your frequency at the bottom of the VLC window.
Code:

- dvb-t://frequency=***000000

You will have to tell me where you are in order to fill in the *** its the frequency of your local Multiplex.