TechMata: TV Tuner

Showing posts with label TV Tuner. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

PCI or USB TV Tuner? Which one should you buy?

Monday, February 9, 2009

Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD Problem: Remote Control

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Having problems with your Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner's remote control?

Until now I have experienced problems with my Remote Control. The problem is that the Remote Control will not function when I press any buttons. Volume, Mute, Channel, Record, Stop - every button will not work. Luckily its just a minor problem with a simple workaround or fix.

Workaround or Fix

This particular problem occurs after launching Terratec Home Cinema program. If your remote control is not working, all you have to do is perform these simple steps.

1. In your TaskBar, just right click Terratec Remote Control Editor and click Exit.

2. Launch Terratec Remote Control Editor again and your Remote Control should now work.

I always do these steps whenever my Remote Control is not functioning and the problem will be fixed.

Other Posts:

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD - Sample JPEG Image Capture

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This is a sample JPEG Image Capture video using Terratec's Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner.
Info
File Sizes: 90 - 100 KB
Width: 1024
Height: 576
Horizontal Resolution: 96 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 96 dpi
Format: JPEG

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is AVI) with Terratec inergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is MPEG) with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.

Please feel free to comment ^_^

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD - Sample Recorded MPEG Video

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This is a sample recorded video using Terratec's Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner.

Info
Duration: 65 seconds
Original File Size: 45,992 KB
Raw Format: MPEG

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is AVI) with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.

If you want a sample JPEG Image Capture with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this

Please feel free to comment ^_^

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

TV Tuner cards - DVB-C, DVB-S or DVB-T?

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Last December 2008, I bought a TV Tuner card for my desktop PC. All I know about a TV Tuner card is that it is a device which you connect in your computer, to watch TV on your computer. A TV Tuner card can be in a form of USB or a PCI Card.

Without any thorough knowledge about TV Tuner cards, I decided to buy a TV Tuner card based on reviews and comments from the people purchasing the product. In my opinion, a PCI TV Tuner is better than a USB TV Tuner. PCI TV Tuner cards are plugged into PCI slots, have enough power and therefore process data much faster. USB TV Tuners on the other hand are plugged into USB hubs, get power from the USB port, process data on the same USB port and therefore process data slower than PCI TV Tuner cards. Again, this is my theory, my opinion. I am not an expert. I could be wrong. ^_^

So I searched for TV Tuner cards and noticed that the brand Hauppauge is the most popular. I browsed Hauppauge's website for products and the label "Hybrid" caught my eye. A Hybrid TV Tuner means that it is capable of detecting or scanning Digital and Analog Signals. I searched for reviews and comments on Hauppauge's WintTV HVR 1100 "Hybrid" TV Tuner card and most of them are good.

I bought the card and was very excited on playing and experimenting with it. I plugged it in an extra PCI slot of my PC and installed its driver and software. I ran the TV software and then a problem came. It can detect 10 analog channels but it can't detect digital channels! Supposed to be it should have scanned and detected 60+ digital channels like my CRT TV.

I have spent days searching for possible fixes and solutions but still it can't detect digital channels. I scanned its specs and noticed the label "DVB-T". I have also noticed "DVB-C" and "DVB-S" on my searches. I looked at my TV box and found out that it is "DVB-C".
-_-

So therefore there really was no problem from the start. It was just my ignorance about DVB-C, DVB-S and DVB-T. The TV Transmition Type provided in my location is DVB-C not DVB-T. That was the reason why the card could not detect digital signals! I returned the product immediately and bought a Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner.

So know first your TV Transmition Type whether its DVB-C, DVB-S or DVB-T, before buying a TV Tuner card . Or you will end up with what I have experienced. Stupid me ^_^ Lesson learned ^_^

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Friday, January 9, 2009

Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD - Sample Recorded AVI Video

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This is a sample recorded video using Terratec's Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner.

Info
Duration: 26 seconds
Audio Format: PCM
Frame Rate: 25 frames/second
Resolution: 720x480
Raw Format: AVI

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is MPEG) with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.

If you want a sample JPEG Image Capture with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this

What do you think? Comments are very welcome ^_^

Other Posts:

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

My Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD Review

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I have just recently purchased a USB TV Tuner from Terratec this month and it cost 99 Euros. The Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD and here are its specs:

Features
- DVB-T (DTT, Freeview), DVB-C and analogue TV and radio receiver
- Remote control and antenna included
- Breakout cable video input/audio input
- Video Codecs: MPEG 2, MPEG 4 / H.264 for HD
- Audio Codecs: AC3 Dolby Digital, MPEG Audio
- Digital video recorder
- EPG, Teletext and TimeShifting
- Picture in Picture within a transponder
- Browser TV
- USB 2.0 compatible
- Power supply via USB

General
- Plug’n’Play
- Voltage: 5V DC (USB bus powered)
- Current: 480mA
- Housing colour: white/grey
- Dimensions: 80 x 30 x 15 mm (wide x height x deep)
- Weight: 30 gramm

Infrared remote control
- 48 buttons
- Weight: 82 gramm (incl. batteries)
- 2xAAA batteries

System requirements
- 2.0 GHz Intel or AMD CPU
- 1024 MB RAM
- Windows XP SP2 / Vista
- 1 available USB 2.0 interface
- 300 MB free hard drive space for software installation
- Direct-X-compatible audio hardware
- Direct-X-compatible video card with video overlay function
- CD/DVD drive for driver/software installation
- CD/DVD drive for creating CDs/DVDs

System recommendation for HDTV reception
- Dual Core Intel or AMD CPU for HDTV decoding
- 1024 MB RAM (Win XP) 2048 MB RAM (Win Vista)
- Graphics card with hardware acceleration for HDTV
- Terrestrial digital TV reception (DVB-T, Freeview, TNT) with HD resolution

Software
- TerraTec Home Cinema
- MAGIX Movies on CD & DVD TV Edition
- Codec set for HDTV

This is my first time using a TV Tuner to both my Laptop and my Desktop so I can't really compare which brand is better or what is the best brand. So I will just compare the video quality of my 23 inch DELL LCD (with the Cinergy TV Tuner stick) and my old 32 inch GRUNDIG CRT TV.

The video quality of my GRUNDIG CRT TV is better than my DELL LCD. I am not surprised about this because in my opinion, LCDs can't beat the CRTs in terms of Video Quality as of now. If I say my GRUNDIG's video quality is 10 out of 10, I say that my DELL LCD (with the Cinergy TV Tuner stick)'s video quality is 8 out of 10. I think this is not bad for an LCD Monitor using only a USB TV Tuner.

The channel scanning only took 5 to 10 minutes and it detected all 60+ channels that my GRUNDIG shows. I also have no problems with my Remote Control. Every button works as I have expected. Pressing the power button would turn on or off the TV Tuner Software. Pressing the record button will record the show. I could also change channels while I am recording a specific channel (I love this feature ^_^).

I think that with a PCI TV Tuner Card the video quality would be better than a USB. But unfortunately I didn't find a PCI TV Tuner Card that is capable of DVB-C and DVB-T that I like. (BTW, the connection type in my place is DVB-C but I have heard from the news that Germany plans to implement DVB-T in All of Germany, so I decided to buy a Hybrid TV Tuner) I chose this product not because I have no choice but because it is just a USB Stick so I could use it with my laptop and my desktop (unlike PCI cards where you have to open your pc case) anytime I want. It is portable and handy.

The only 1 problem (which I solved immediately) was when I first installed the device. The remote control is working, the software is running fine, it scanned and detected both TV and FM channels. But after 5 minutes of viewing a channel (any channel) , the software will start to freeze and hang and then display a "NO SIGNAL" message. I searched Terratec's site for solutions and immediately noticed that they have an updated driver available. The driver version in the Installation CD is 5.8.0430.0. The updated driver version is 5.8.630.0. I installed the latest driver and it worked! So if you have encountered this problem please do not decide immediately to return the product as the solution is very simple. Just update the driver.

Overall I was very satisfied with Terratec's Cinergy HTC USB XS HD TV Tuner. I have not encountered any other problems so far (except for the problem above) and I am still playing and experimenting with its features and possibilities.

Which TV Tuner did or have you purchased? Is the Video Quality good? Have you encountered major problems with the product? Was it fixed? Please share your ideas or experiences. ^_^

[Update January 15, 2009]

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is AVI) with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.

[Update January 29, 2009]

If you want a sample recorded video (raw format is MPEG) with Terratec Cinergy HTC USB XS HD, please watch this.