Recommendations for USB Digital TV Tuner for laptop

Aug 31, 2008
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Hi
I want to buy a USB digital TV tuner to use with our laptop when we are away in the 'van. I'll be linking it to the 'van's Status 530 aerial so I'll need one with a socket for the co-axial aerial lead.
Can anyone recommend one with good reception?
Thanks.
Tim
 

Reg

Jan 12, 2008
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I wouldn't even bother with Freeview in a caravan.

!. You need an excellant signal and these are normally in towns and cities that have switched off the analogue signal and are transmitting a full strength digital signal. Bear in mind that most camps sites are out of town anyway.
2. The status 530 will barely receive a decent analogue signal and I guess you would have to be very, very close to the transmitter to get an adaquate digital signal. (I can hear the chorus waiting to say how good their Status is... don't listen they are rubbish and I don't know why they fit them.)
3. My limited experience with a USB Freeview stick with a Hi-Gain aerial on the roof and a signal booster, it was vastly inferior compared with a cheap freeview box. The picture keeps on locking and pixillating.

My conclusion is forget it and get a satellite system. They are pretty cheap and once you have mastered the setting up the reception is vastly superior.
 
Aug 31, 2008
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Thanks for that contribution Reg
I do have a Freesat satellite system but when going somewhere in the UK with a good digital signal I usually take my digibox from home to save on the weight and setting up of the satellite system. As we, also, take the laptop too I thought I could save on a lot of weight by just using the Laptop with a USB tuner.
I must beg to differ on the effectiveness of the Status 530 as I've found it to be generally very good for reception and a vast improvement on the status omnidirectional flying saucer/mushroom on previous 'vans.
Folks on other 'van forums have recommended the Kworld 499 from Maplins for £19.99 ( with £10 off special offer at present) or the one from Aldi, similar price, so I'm thinking about getting one of those.
Best wishes
Tim
 

JP1

Aug 11, 2010
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Don't forget that if you have a laptop in the van and the site has Wi-Fi, you can watch BBC and Channel TV programmes online with iPlayer and 4OD — though you'll obviously need to pay for Wi-Fi access (don't even think about using 3G for this...).
Zattoo also offers a variety of free-to-air TV channels for internet streaming too, though you'll need to sign up for a free account and use its free application for watching.
 
Oct 30, 2009
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hi tim.
my answer to your question mate is don't bother there a waste of time and money I tried 2 different ones both were useless there are 2 main problems 1. is signel strength it needs to be higer that 60% to fire the dongle for video streaming most places you are lucky to get 45% and that is with a high gain porcupine ariel, a status 530 no chance and you can't use the booster as this distorts the signel and the pitcure freezes.
2nd is the ammout of systems resorces use by the dongle on the laptop unlss it is a min quad core with 3or 4 gbs of ram the video stream wil be lumpy or freeze,

the best option for viewing tv on the laptop is to use internet tv there are plenty of them around catch up tv is the one I use through a dongle or the wifi at home it has all the tv channels on it inc some non free view ones .
coinsidentaly at the moment I am watching the man-u match on ITV in a window while typing this so if the spelling is awful you now why.
colin
 
Jul 11, 2006
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Right, lets get the emotion out of this thread and just talk objective detail.

I suspect there is confusion between the Status 530 and the 315. The latter is the 'flying saucer' and, agreed, is pretty useless unless the Tx is line of sight. They both work with digital and analogue however. The 530 is a yagi aerial (as used on most domestic installations) inside a plastic case. It needs to be pointed the right way and (most importantly) with the right polarity - horizontal or upright. The aerial will not work wihout the box as the amp is in the box, not in the aerial.

Note that it looks as though caravan manufacturers use chippies or storemen to wire them up. I would recommend to anyone that they take all (non-moulded) TV plugs off and remove the outlet socket and check for correct assembly and to make sure there are no hairs of the braid shorting out the connection. I would also recommend anyone with the means to replace any traditional cable used with something like PF100 which has a foil in the braid. Freeview is very sensitive to interference and will pixelate with the slightest click inside the 'van so the best screening is worth the effort.

Freeview is only transmitted from main station transmitters and some major relays prior to DSO, so unless one of these sites or a post DSO site is being used Freeview will not be available. Most main stations use channels for Freeview that are in the same channel group as the analogue channels but there are exceptions. Chesterfield for instance is group A (chans 21-34) for analogue but group B (37-53) for Freeview. It will however revert to group A channels for Freeview at DSO2 next August. Freeview requires only 10% of the signal that analogue needs, and (like satellite) it is the signal quality that matters, not the strength. A box will usually work with 20% signal and 90% quality but will not work with 90% signal and 20% quality. A signal that would show as having a ghost - probably a ghost so fine that it is barely if at all noticable on analogue - will destroy digital.

Agreed most but by no means all transmitters will have increased power post DSO. Some will not have the power increase until after the adjacent area has been switched.

I would recommend anyone to use a Freeview box rather than a USB stick. Some of the more expensive sticks are actually quite good, but (surprisingly) the PC will not be able to display the picture quality that a TV can.

It depends on your viewing habits, but if you do watch TV regularly when on hols a satellite solution is often much the better option. Provided you have a clear view of the sky roughly SSE you will get a picture pretty well anywhere. I would not use a 'Sky' dish as they are designed to 'only just' work. Get a 60cm conventional dish with some sort of tripod - I use one designed for work lights, or take an alloy tube about 4ft and put it in the jockey mount (or fit a second mount.) The dish does NOT need to be up in the air - it will work quite happily at ground level albeit you will loose signal if someone walks less than about 2m in front of it. Also by all means use a 'Sky' box but not a Sky+ or HD+ as they contain hard disc drives which are not designed to be bounced all over the country. If you are going to France, satellite kit over there is significantly cheaper than over here. There is no point in getting HD as you won't see the benefits with a screen less than about 32". (Oh, your caravan is that big is it?) A Freesat box (less than £40 in Argos) gives the benefit that you can make it show the local programmes in the area of the UK where you are if you wish; a Sky box will only get your home area (with a card) or BBC London without. [There is something slightly arcane about sitting in the 'van somewhere is darkest France watching PaulTheWeatherman on Look North from Leeds!]

Forget the emotion, look at www.satcure.co.uk or talk to someone who knows what they are doing, then get a satellite system (and not one of those out of a plastic case from Aldi/Lidl/Maplin.)
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I've tried the Maplin Kworld USB device. It's ok at home where we get an extremely strong digital signal, but virtually useless elsewhere I've tried it in UK. The software which came with it was for Windows XP and Vista whereas my laptop is on W7. I've tried downloading other drivers but without much success.
 
Mar 2, 2010
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Quote "Forget the emotion, look at www.satcure.co.uk or talk to someone who knows what they are doing, then get a satellite system (and not one of those out of a plastic case from Aldi/Lidl/Maplin.)"

Some very good advice apart from some of the quoted bit.I have had a Lidl case set and it has been brilliant for the money and convenience,getting good picure and radio as far south as La Rochelle.Havent been furthur south with van so dont know limitations,cost £49 completre iirc.
 
Oct 30, 2009
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Woody said:
Right, lets get the emotion out of this thread and just talk objective detail.
yes lets do that woody but first read the OP carefully first.
while the detail you describe is undoubtable correct he asked about using a USB dongle on a lap top with the ariel that is on the van to save weight as he takes the laptop with him anyway and wants to watch TV on it simple. no dishes, no sky boxes, ariels on poles, tv sets, or didggy boxes, just a laptop and something that is on the van allready there is no confusion here that I can see or emotion either
as far as I can see both ray s and myself have tried to use these while in the van and found them more than .trouble free. in fact pretty useless in most areas, the solution I have found is as I posted above was to use internet TV we all have computers at home and these sites can be tried and tested beforehand. all you need is a mobile dongle and a home page JOB DONE.
 
Feb 3, 2009
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Hi Tim,
I have used my Laptop for TV (both digital and anologue) over the last 3 years with no problems both in the UK and in France. The caravan ariel has supplied the 'dongle' with the necessary signals to give excellent pictures. Plus you can also record from the dongle on to your hard drive for viewing at a later date using the supplied software.

I use a Freecom DVB-T + Analog USB stick (purchased from Dabcom in 2007 for circa £35.00) or check out www.frreecom.com for a list of suppliers, and the relevant USB stick details.
I'm using a Toshiba A100 laptop on a Vista OS, so I cannot be sure if the dongle works on the new Windows 7.

The only real problems I had initially on set up was that I had to download the drivers for the dongle from the Toshiba web site, due to the Vista OS not having them. After the download, everything was OK.

One final point, it is important that your laptop processor is 2 Ghtz or above, otherwise the picture will sometimes freeze on the digital signal.

If you require any more details I am more than willing to help.
 
Jun 18, 2008
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I have an Hauppauge Win TV USB receiver. Earlier this year the analogue receiver on the caravan TV packed up (digital stilll works), so knowing not everywhere has digital yet I got this on e-bay for five quid as back up. It gives both analogue and digital reception, sometimes better than than the TV. I plug the caravan directional aerial into it, or have on occasion plugged the site booster system in. It works equally well on the Continent, where we found it useful to record some programmes to replay later to hopefully improve our French (Thomas Le Petit Train is about our level!). Given a reasonable signal, picture quality on the laptop is very good.
 

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