DVB-T Digital Terrestrial TV USB Dongle. Why does it need magic to get it working?
Digital TV is great. My main top-box picks up all channels with just a bit of wire hanging out the back for an antenna.
And for about AU$50 you can get a USB DVB-T dongle with a tiny antenna and card sized remote control.
The trouble is they don't work.
A bit of research shows people complaining that they; "won't pick up strong signals", "works on XP (just) doesn't work on vista", "just doesn't work", "crappy antenna", "crappy antenna connector", "Scans for channels but doesn't see any", "pick up channels in Germany but not locally (GB)" etc.
Tried two here. No luck with the more expensive one. And in that case I downloaded drivers from the OEM site suited to my XPx64 system. The cheaper one with the dodgy mx antenna connector didn't work until I started searching after finding a hint about a linux system using a realtek driver solution.
Realtek talk about the system but don't provide a driver. Somehow magically, after re-installing several times using different drivers I was looking at the list of available devices in DVB Viewer Pro V4 (which is the best around) and there was the dongle labelled "Realtek 2831U_BDA Filter". Scanning for channels showed some signal strength and it picked up nine channels immediately.
Signal strength is now the biggest problem. Where I am in line of sight about 3km from the tower I get signals that are too strong and signals that are too weak. If the signal is too strong the device isn't happy, same for too weak. In DVD Viewer Pro around about 95% to 80% signal works OK. The device seems relatively happy with a under-roof unamplified antenna. But next will be research in an AGC UHF system to get all channels at the same level.
And for about AU$50 you can get a USB DVB-T dongle with a tiny antenna and card sized remote control.
The trouble is they don't work.
A bit of research shows people complaining that they; "won't pick up strong signals", "works on XP (just) doesn't work on vista", "just doesn't work", "crappy antenna", "crappy antenna connector", "Scans for channels but doesn't see any", "pick up channels in Germany but not locally (GB)" etc.
Tried two here. No luck with the more expensive one. And in that case I downloaded drivers from the OEM site suited to my XPx64 system. The cheaper one with the dodgy mx antenna connector didn't work until I started searching after finding a hint about a linux system using a realtek driver solution.
Realtek talk about the system but don't provide a driver. Somehow magically, after re-installing several times using different drivers I was looking at the list of available devices in DVB Viewer Pro V4 (which is the best around) and there was the dongle labelled "Realtek 2831U_BDA Filter". Scanning for channels showed some signal strength and it picked up nine channels immediately.
Signal strength is now the biggest problem. Where I am in line of sight about 3km from the tower I get signals that are too strong and signals that are too weak. If the signal is too strong the device isn't happy, same for too weak. In DVD Viewer Pro around about 95% to 80% signal works OK. The device seems relatively happy with a under-roof unamplified antenna. But next will be research in an AGC UHF system to get all channels at the same level.
Since last time I've bought two (2) dvb-t cards. They don't work as good as the dongle.
I noticed that the metal-body DVB-T dongle ran fairly hot. So I got four (4) stick on heatsinks designed for processors and stuck them on. They stopped the heat build-up and the device now works very good. It does look like a porcupine though!
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Good post, but have you thought about Digital TV like this before?
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