Freecom DVB-T USB Stick

[rdbilly]

update on USB stick.
i am on the third one now, the other two seem to have fried!
Got them both replaced no problem.Stripped all ariel connections and reconnected them making sure the copper core and the outer copper layer of the co-axiel were not touching.I think this might have caused them to fry in the first place and caused the signal drop outs.Had it running with no drop outs for several days now and it records on the button.The new drivers seem to work much better than the old ones,making the system run more stable.I have a signal booster and get 34 TV channels and about 22 radio channels although it reads a low signal -64 t0 -80db and signal quality 16 to 23 depending on what channel you are on.

[CamTarn]

Just got one of these through the post from eBuyer. The usual impenetrable plastic pack, containing the USB stick itself, a tiny remote (battery included), a USB extension cable, an aerial, a sucker base for the aerial, and a coax-to-mini-coax adaptor (already fixed to the end of the aerial lead).

Reception's not great with the included antenna, but then I didn't really expect that - it's quite hard to get a good signal in our house, even with a boosted antenna. Sitting by the back window facing out over the city towards the transmitter worked, however, and for other situations you can use the converter to plug standard coaxial from a bigger aerial into the mini-coax input on the stick.

The software isn't that great, but it's not too bad. Drivers installed perfectly for me, contrary to my expectations - I'm not used to buying cheap hardware and getting working software with it! The player software looks like a cheap clone of WinDVD, but it's fairly functional.

The channel scanner popped up the first time I launched, and once I'd figured out that I needed to sit by the window to get a signal, it picked up all the channels first time (albeit very slowly.) The EPG is pretty horrible looking and not integrated into the program at all (the description above about VB and ten-year-old is fairly accurate) - but it works. CPU usage is near enough 100% on my laptop though (CeleronM 1.2 in low power mode) and if I load the CPU any, decoding sometimes stalls for a bit.

The remote is not that useful, really. The IR sensor is a miniscule hole on the top of the stick, so you have to be above it for it to work, and the response time to key presses is very slow (if it catches them at all). Still, it's a nice touch.

One other thing I liked was that there was an LED on the stick which lit orange for no signal, flashing green for acquiring signal or low signal, and steady green for locked on and decoding.

Dangerous_Dom: the aerial is a combination sucker/magnetic, at least on mine. There's a screw mount on the bottom where you can either screw in the sucker, or unscrew it to use the mag base. On close inspection, it actually looks remarkably like a standard camera tripod mount screw, heh.

All in all, for £38 I'm quite pleased with this little gadget. The last time I had a TV card was an old budget analogue PCI one, which left a sour taste in my mouth - I don't think I've ever actually properly used it. With this thing, however, I don't need to worry about snowy pictures, finding free PCI slots, or running aerial cable to my room - I can just wander about with my laptop and watch TV.

[davidstone28]

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=70686

[twiggyuk]

Hi all

Been using the Freecom DVB-T stick fine since november 05 on my Windows XP 32bit laptop system... but have been waiting optimistically for an x64 driver to come along since that time.

Through googling and forum watching a number of people are frustrated a little like myself as to the slow response and release of 64 bit drivers for Windows x64.

I get the impression that x64 is rather like Windows Millenium... that is a stop gap... (in this case for windows Vista 64) manufacturers seem very slow to provide driver support.

Overall - Software is basic but works well with a good ariel/reception area. Found recording was jerky (software encoded not hardware driven) even though I have a Rock Ti Xtreme laptop (3.6 p4 with 3GB memory...) all codecs and drivers up to date - would not recommend for recordings - tried with 2 other pcs with similar results.

At the time of purchase this was a unique product for the money at £35 - £40 - now there are a raft of usb tv sticks from MSI, Hauppage, etc.. some offering Windows MCE compatibility out of the box - I would plump for these over this particular product.

[Mama Sumae]

big piece of rubbish, why should u want a small usb portable tv receiver if u need a ROOF TOP ANTENNA!!!! the antenna provided is just garbage and well i didnt manage to keep it standing strait for a second. the software feels like it was made for win95. But u if still wanna buy it just check if u are in a good signal area.

well i just have to say that pcworld is coming to collect it for return

[Scott]

Thought id treat myself to one of these for my laptop. Going to be using it on the road a fair bit soon, so got a 3g Data card for internet anywhere, and then got this for £30.

Hotels that i can afford never seen to have decent TV, so providing i can get a decent signal i'll be happy

[rdbilly]

Freecom now have the drivers for MCE on their site.Seems to work a lot better than the tempory fix ones.Still sometimes get signal dropouts but it picks it back up again this time.Had a problem while recording when the signal dropped out once and didnt resume but this has only happened once.EPG does'nt always show all the programmes so I am experimenting with different transmitters.On the whole most of the problems seem to have been ironed out.