Hauppauge adds extensive Vista support & diversity USB stick

[Bob Crabtree]

Hauppauge is finally making available under its own brand the twin-tuner digital terrestrial TV USB stick that we saw at September's IFA show in Berlin and which is already on sale for Macs as the £100 Elgato EyeTV Diversity and for Windows as the £90 Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Diversity Stick.

Significantly, on this, the launch day of consumer versions of Windows Vista, the keenly priced (SRP £79.99 inc VAT) WinTV Nova-TD is said to be compatible with the new operating system.

New Vista drivers are also reckoned to add compatibility to over a dozen of the company's TV tuner products, plus a bunch of PVRs.

More.

[cubiq]

Any news on the group test of diversity USB TV tuners that the news mentions?

[Bob Crabtree]

Any news on the group test of diversity USB TV tuners that the news mentions?

Big problem we've had is that in the area where we'd intended to test (our NE London offices), we are getting zero reception with any of the products we received when using the pairs of aerials that come with each.

:-(

Reception is fine using a large main aerial (that's in the loft of the building) but we get absolutely nothing with the supplied aerials.

This is largely to do with geography and the fact that our lab is north facing and the signal is coming from Crystal Palace in SW London and having to pass through the entire depth of the building - which has VERY solid walls.


So we're doing a bit of a rethink!

What I reckon we'll probably do is a straight test of each using the main aerial and then take them out on the road in a car.

I don't currently have any timescale on this, cos other products have sort of come in for review and displaced the TV tuners.

[cubiq]

Thanks for the quick update.

There seems to be a number of tuners that I suspect all share the same underlying chip for the diversity reception:

Hauppauge WinTVNova-TD
Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Diversity Stick
Terratec Cinergy DT USB XS Diversity
and for the Mac Elgato Eyetv Diversity Dual Tuner DVB-T

That been the case it probably comes down to the one that has the best drivers - any opinions on that from past products from the above manufactures?

I specifically want one that works well in windows media centre and offers dual tuner functionality - I will be using a rooftop aerial so will also need to split that for the two inputs. Which tuners provided the necessary cabling to do this? The diversity functionality is secondary but maybe useful when travelling.

I also hear that the Hauppauge remote works in media centre and would like that confirmed.

Thanks again.

[Tropi]

I would be extremely interested to see a thorough comparative review of twin tuner USB sticks.

I archive a lot of TV using a Sony domestic HDD/DVD recorder for Analogue and a Humax 9200T for digital transmissions. In all cases, I transfer to PC, using a RW DVD with the Sony, or a notoriously unreliable and incredibly slow USB link with the Humax. Then I edit and transcode to avi for compactness. Final results are excellent, but the time taken in transferring to a PC is horrendous.

The answer seems to be to record straight to a laptop or other PC. USB is ideal for laptops and also available to pop into any other machine, as needed.

I have absolutely NO interest in watching TV on a laptop, but simply and exclusively to record in highest possible quality, as good as my present Sony and Humax.

And here we hit the huge problem; how to select a twin USB tuner that will definitely provide that recorded quality. I don't mind spending up to £100 IF it does the job. But I can find no one to advise me which, if any, of the current options would fill the need satisfactorily and, at £60-£100, I really can't afford to take any chances with this purchase.

HELP!

Afterthought: Although I definitely want USB connection, it doesn't actually have to be a 'stick', in fact a box on a wire with hardware encoding would be even more preferable, even at slightly higher cost.

[directhex]

"hardware encoding" doesn't exist for digital - the signal is already mpeg2 when it arrives

[Tropi]

Good point!

But I believe some of them have the capability to transcode to *.avi and that could be useful . . .

[directhex]

you can't transcode to .avi. .avi is just a container

you can remux to .avi, or transcode to a different codec (losing image quality in the process)

either way, that won't be done in hardware

[Tropi]

I'll be first to admit my lack of knowledge of some of the terminology etc, but I really do need to find reliable information on the quality of recorded material using a USB twin tuner.

Box shifters are useless for info, but I wonder can anyone recommend a supplier who has genuine knowledge of these products, or other source of reliable information?

[directhex]

digital quality doesn't vary between tuners - they're all ~3Mb/s DVDish resolution MPEG2 in. analog varies quite a bit - but why would you want it in this day & age?

[Whiternoise]

This is largely to do with geography and the fact that our lab is north facing and the signal is coming from Crystal Palace in SW London and having to pass through the entire depth of the building - which has VERY solid walls.

Try on the roof?