Best USB DVB-T

blammo

Hi All,

Was wondering if someone could recommend a good USB DVB-T dual tuner?

What should I be looking to have to spend for a decent one?

cheers

GeoffX

I have two of them: a Twinhan and a K-World. The only problem I had when migrating to Windows 7 64 bit was the lack of a driver for the Twinhan. The K-World uses the same chipset as the Twinhan, so I got one - a 399U I believe - from Maplin for £30 last year. They were on sale recently for £20.

Despite being similar hardware - I've forced the Twinhan to use the K-World's driver - the Twinhan seems to produce a slightly stronger signal.

Software is more of an issue than hardware. I'd strongly recommend DVBViewer, which for €15 is a bit of a bargain. It's stable, not something I can say about some of its competition, and being able to simultaneously record any number of channels from two of the six multiplexes with a single USB device is very useful.

jayme1

I use one of these Dazzle TV stick 71E, (wish I bought 2 for dual recording as the picture quality is excelent)

I bought it a few years ago from currys for £15, when I installed it I extracted the drivers from the supplied software and only installed it with the drivers when I fist plugged it in.

as for software if you have windows 7 or vista and it has Windows media center then that is all you need, I would not bother buying any extra software when media center can do it all already.

GeoffX

Can Media Centre simultaneously record multiple channels on the same multiplex? Not the last time I looked. And the U.I. is slow and clumsy compared to DVBViewer. If you're specifically looking to build a home media centre for a TV then OK, but for day-to-day viewing and recording on a PC it is, at least for me, hopeless.

Hammyman

Hauppauge WinTV Nova-TD.

jayme1

GeoffX wrote: »

Can Media Centre simultaneously record multiple channels on the same multiplex? Not the last time I looked.

ah I think I understand,

so right now with one DVB-T tuner with Media Center I can only watch one channel and also record/pause and rewind that same channel at any one time,
but if I had 2 (or 3) DVB-T tuners set up in media center I could record one (or two different) channels all at the same time as recording and watching/pausing and rewinding any other one channel. (ie you can record the same amount of channels as you have TV tuners and also watch one of those channels)
and so on until I reach the 4 same type tuner limit

but if I bought DVBViewer I could watch one channel and record another at the same time with only one DVB-T tuner providing both channels were on the same multiplex?

blammo

Eventually went for this from Amazon: ClimaxDigital DTV395 USB 2.0 DUAL DVB-T based on the strength of reviews. Will hopefully get it by the weekend to try it out with the Asus 1501p I've just bought as an HTPC.