USB TV Tuner Best USB TV Tuner info and prices on the web.

Elgato Systems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Macintosh family of personal computers, including EyeTV software. Founded in 1992 by Markus Fest, also known as the creator of the Toast CD-burning software for Macintosh, Elgato is a privately held company based in Germany with US offices in San Francisco, California.// Products Hardware EyeTV Models, Past To Present 1st EyeTV (aka EyeTV USB)Elgato's first EyeTV product was unveiled on September 29th at the 2002 Macworld Expo in New York. Made of white plastic and roughly paperback-book in size, the $199 device was USB 1.1-based and had an analog NTSC TV tuner. While it could only record in the lesser-quality MPEG-1 format, the EyeTV was the first Macintosh-based TV tuner to offer the highly-coveted TiVo-like ability to 'pause and replay' live TV. It was also the first Mac-based TV tuner to partner with TitanTV, a free online TV-programming guide, to permit the scheduled recording of upcoming TV shows. The EyeTV's (same-named) software was easy to use and configure, letting users choose different recording settings, and different viewable-TV window sizes, including full screen. And because virtually any recent (G3 or better) Mac could process the MPEG-1 format without difficulty, even the EyeTV's lesser-quality capabilities worked in its favor. Now discontinued. EyeTV 300For free-to-air digital satellite television, or DVB-S, in the European/UK market, released in November 2003. Transmits data to the computer via a FireWire 400 port. Now discontinued. EyeTV 400Released in November 2003, EyeTV 400 enabled European and UK Mac users to watch and record unencrypted Digital Terrestrial Television, or DVB-T on a Mac. Transmits data to the computer via a FireWire 400 port. Now discontinued. EyeTV 200 - FireWire D.V.R.Elgato's second-generation EyeTV product. Unveiled January 6, 2004 at the Macworld Expo, San Francisco. Whereas the original EyeTV used a 12Mbit/s USB 1.1-connection and was thus limited to MPEG-1 only, the EyeTV 200 featured the much higher bandwidth of 400Mbit/s FireWire, and could easily support recording to DVD-quality MPEG-2. In addition, the EyeTV 200 possessed much-expanded D.V.R. (digital video recording) capabilities, aka PVR. The EyeTV 200 also featured a new, trade-size silver housing with a red IR lens on the front for the included remote. Among its many accolades, on December 13th, 2004, the EyeTV 200 won Macworld's Editors' Choice Award for Hardware of the Year. Now discontinued. EyeTV 500 - HDTV P.V.R.Unveiled June 29th, 2004 at the Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. The EyeTV 500 was identical to the EyeTV 200 in most respects, but featured ATSC HDTV capability instead of the 200's standard-definition NTSC. While the EyeTV 500 could display an HDTV signal on a G4-based Mac, a G5 or better was required for hi-def recording and advanced DVR/PVR functionality. Now discontinued. EyeTV 310Released in June 2004, the EyeTV 310 replaced the EyeTV 300. It enables European and UK customers to receive unencrypted Digital Satellite Television, or DVB-S, on a Mac, and includes a Common Interface (CI) for PayTV. Transmits data to the computer via a FireWire 400 port. Now discontinued, (but as of mid-September 2009, the EyeTV 310 was still available from Elgato's Online Store, via various 'backdoor/residual' URL's on the company's website.)EyeTV models 300 and 310 sold before the end of 2007 were built to receive DVB-S signals ONLY and cannot receive/decode more recently introduced DVB-S2 signals.However, a relatively unknown fact, (and somewhat unannounced by Elgato), concerning later production Eye TV 310 receivers was that EyeTV 310 units sold via Elgato's online store from the beginning of 2008 were capable of receiving both DVB-S and DVB-S2 signals. As for EyeTV 310 units sold from the beginning of 2008 by retailers, it was immediately discovered that it was impossible to determine if any of these units could additionally receive DVB-S2 signals just by physically inspecting any such device.To determine if an Eye TV 310 receiver is capable of receiving DVB-S2 signals, the unit must be connected to a Mac and interrogated via Mac OS X's System Profiler Application. (The System Profiler Application can be found in Applications->Utilities). If the unit is recognized as “EyeTV 310” within the Hardware > FireWire section, then it can only receive DVB-S signals. If the unit is recognized as “EyeTV 320”, it is capable of additionally receiving DVB-S2 signals as well as DVB-S signals.Note: Generally, DVB-S2 signals are broadcast from most satellite providers in the MPEG-4 (H.264) format. Elgato's 'EyeTV' PVR Software v3.0.3 or higher is required to support and display this video format. EyeTV 410Released in September 2004 at Apple Expo Paris, EyeTV 410 replaced the EyeTV 400. It is a DVB-T receiver for the European and UK market, and includes a Common Interface (CI) slot for Pay TV. EyeTV 410 has won a number of awards, including MacUser UK's 2005 Best Video Device, MacWorld UK's Reader's Choice award in both 2005 and 2006. Transmits data to the computer via a FireWire 400 port. EyeTV 610In November 2004 Elgato released EyeTV 610, the world's first digital TV recorder for digital cable television, DVB-C) and PayTV on the Mac, for the European/UK market. The product was apparently discontinued in November 2007; however, there are apparently limited supplies still available. EyeTV SatElgato introduced the new EyeTV Sat Receiver on June 29, 2009. Immediately available for purchase from Elgato's online store, this latest receiver from Elgato replaced the EyeTV 310 in an all-new all-plastic form factor which was smaller, lighter and cheaper than the 310. Functionally identical to the EyeTV 310 in concept, the EyeTV Sat differs only by delivering all DVB-S and DVB-S2 video streams directly to the Mac via USB 2.0 - instead of Firewire400. For switchers, it also offers a complete Windows solution in the form of TerraTec Home Cinema software. As per the EyeTV 310, the EyeTV Sat has a built-in CI slot to enable Pay TV programming with an appropriate subscription module and comes with Elgato's bundled EyeTV 3.0 PVR Software and IR Remote. EyeTV WonderA joint venture between Elgato and ATI Technologies, using a USB 2.0-based ATI external analog tuner plus Elgato's EyeTV software. Released in January 2005, now discontinued. EyeTV EZA joint venture between Elgato and TerraTec, using a USB 2.0-based TerraTec external analog tuner plus Elgato's EyeTV software. Released in September 2005, now discontinued. EyeTV 250A smaller-sized, analog TV tuner with hardware encoding to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. Can also be used to digitize VHS videocassettes or connect video game consoles (i.e. Nintendo's GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, etc.) Released in April 2006 for US $199. It is being distributed in Japan under the Roxio brand instead. Sonic Solutions, the company that owns the Roxio brand, has exclusive distribution rights in Japan by an agreement with Elgato Systems. Transmits data to the computer via a USB 2.0 port. EyeTV 250 PlusSimilar in form and function to the EyeTV 250, the EyeTV 250 Plus receives both digital and analogue TV (rather than just analogue), released in summer 2007, for $199/€199/£139. EyeTV for DTTOriginally released in 2005 in a small TV-box format, EyeTV for DTT switched to a USB stick format in July 2006. For the reception of free-to-view DVB-T (or in the UK, Freeview). Winner of the MacUser 2006 Reader's Choice award for Best Video device. EyeTV for DTT DeluxeOriginally released in 2008, EyeTV for DTT Deluxe is a minuscule USB TV tuner stick for the reception of free-to-view DVB-T (or in the UK, Freeview). The initial version was silver and only 57 mm in length (the size of a large USB plug, e.g. as found on some WACOM tablets) and 9 mm deep. The stick is full-featured, including not only an infrared receiver for the included remote control, but also coming with numerous plug adapters, a telescope antenna and a larger one.In October 2009 a new, black revision was released of a mere 35 mm length (as small as a USB plug), but retaining the previous version's functionality. EyeTV HybridThis is a 2-in-1 device with ATSC HDTV capability, plus NTSC standard-definition analog. Also available in DVB-T/PAL for the international market. Software encoder - uses the Mac's processor to encode the signal. Several versions have been produced over the years in this series, the newer versions can also decode/receive digital cable TV (clear QAM/DVB-C) and FM radio. Transmits data to the computer via a USB 2.0 port. EyeTV DiversityReleased in October 2006 at MacExpo London, EyeTV Diversity, designed and manufactured by Hauppauge (WinTV-Nova-TD) is the world's first application of Antenna Diversity technology in a TV tuner for the Mac. In Diversity mode, the device can receive DVB-T signals deep indoors and at speeds of up to 160 km/h. In Dual

An ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner, allows reception of ATSC digital television (DTV) signals broadcast over-the-air by TV stations in North America, and South Korea. Such tuners may be integrated into the television, VCR, digital video recorder, and set-top box which provides audio/video output-connectors of various types.// Technical overviewThe terms "tuner" and "receiver" are used loosely, and it is perhaps more appropriately called an ATSC receiver, with the tuner being part of the receiver (see Metonymy). The receiver generates the audio and video (AV) signals needed for television, and performs the following tasks: demodulation, error correction, MPEG transport stream demultiplexing, decompression, AV synchronization, and media reformatting to match what is optimal input for one's TV. Examples of media reformatting include: interlace to progressive scan or vice versa, picture resolutions, aspect ratio conversions (16:9 to or from 4:3), frame rate conversion, even scaling. Zooming is an example of resolution change. It is commonly used to convert a low-resolution picture to a high-resolution display. This lets the user eliminate letterboxing or pillarboxing by stretching or cropping the picture. Some ATSC receivers, mostly those in HDTV sets, will stretch automatically, either by detecting black bars, or reading the Active Format Descriptor. How an ATSC tuner worksAn ATSC tuner works by generating audio and video signals that are picked up from over-the-air TV broadcasts. ATSC tuners provide the following functions: selective tuning, demodulation, transport stream demultiplexing, decompression, error correction, analog-to-digital conversion, AV synchronization and media reformatting to fit the specific type of TV screen optimally. United States government mandatesThe FCC has issued the following mandates for devices entering the US:By July 1, 2005 all televisions with screen sizes over 36 inches (91 cm) must include a built-in ATSC DTV tunerBy March 1, 2006 all televisions with screen sizes over 25 inches (64 cm) must include a built-in ATSC DTV tunerBy March 1, 2007 all televisions regardless of screen size, and all interface devices which include a tuner (VCR, DVD player/recorder, DVR) must include a built-in ATSC DTV tuner.It should be noted that devices manufactured before these dates can still be sold without a built-in ATSC DTV tuner; the lack of digital tuners legally must be disclosed to consumers and most name-brand retailers have incurred onerous FCC penalties for non-compliance with these requirements..The current regulations are specified in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Analog TV broadcast switch-offIn early 2006 the US Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 became law, which calls for full power over-the-air television stations to cease their analog broadcasts by February 17, 2009 (this cut-off date had been moved several times previously). On February 11, 2009 the mandatory DTV broadcast date was moved again to June 12, although stations were allowed to switch earlier. The delay enabled distribution of more coupons for purchase of converter boxes.Following that date, TVs and other equipment with legacy NTSC tuners would be unable to receive over-the-air broadcasts, unless the broadcast is from a repeater or low-power transmitter. (See LPTV Answers) Canada has a similar analogue TV termination date set to 2011.It was feared that the US switch-off would cause millions of non-cable- and non-satellite-connected TV sets to "go dark". Viewers who did not upgrade, either to a television with a digital tuner or a set-top box, ended up losing their only source of television, unless they only rely upon the aforementioned non-full-power broadcasters. A Congressional bill has authorized subsidizing converter boxes in a way that allowed viewers to receive the new digital broadcasts on their old TVs. The actual transition proceeded smoothly with about 235,000 people requesting coupons after the June 12 2009 transition date.Two $40 coupons were made available per US address nominally from January 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009; each coupon could be used toward the purchase of one approved coupon-eligible converter box. The coupons expired 90 days after initial mailing and were not renewable. All households were eligible to receive coupons from the initial $990 million allocated, after which an additional $510 million in coupons was to be available to households that rely exclusively on over-the-air television reception. On January 4, 2009 the coupon program reached its $1.34 billion ceiling and any further consumer requests were placed on a waiting list. Canadian government mandatesIn Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has set August 31, 2011 as the date that over-the-air analog TV transmission service will cease in most parts of the country except in parts of the far North. As of the end of 2008, there are currently 22 Canadian DTV transmitters on-air and all existing digital transitional television licences explicitly proscribe, as a condition of license, the broadcast of more than fourteen hours a week of programming not already on the analogue service. Unlike in the United States, there is no plan to subsidise ATSC converter purchases and no requirement that newly-imported receivers decode the digital signal. Canadian retailers are also not required to disclose the inability of new equipment to receive DTV. The Canadian market therefore has been flooded with obsolete new NTSC equipment which lawfully cannot be exported to the US. A limited number of ATSC receivers are in Canadian retail stores as high-definition television receivers. ATSC converter boxes were first carried nationally in October 2008, with chains such as Best Buy and Home Hardware offering limited selection at higher prices than in the US with no government subsidies. ATSC tuners may also be present in a minority of DVD recorders, HDTV FTA receivers and personal computer TV tuner cards. Outside Toronto it is much less likely to be true. Channel reception of United States ATSC into Canada is limited at best to the strongest signals and type of antenna used. Indoor passive and amplified antennas are more convenient and outdoor equivalents get better fringe reception without as much interference. Setup and operationMost ATSC tuners have relatively simple on-screen menus, and automatically bring the user to a setup screen when turned on for the first time. This allows the user to pick the time zone and daylight-saving time mode (as all stations transmit time in UTC), and bandscan for stations. The scan "listens" on every channel from 2 to 69, and pauses when it detects a digital carrier wave. If it is able to decode the station, it reads its PSIP data, and adds its virtual channels to the channel map. If no PSIP is transmitted, the physical channel number is used, and each transport stream is enumerated according to its TSID (converted from hexadecimal), or starting sequentially at .1, .2, .3, and so forth, depending on the tuner.Several TV stations are using or have used a temporary channel to send their DTV signals, and upon terminating analog, move their digital transmission either back to their old analog channel, or to a third channel (sometimes the former analog of another local station), chosen in the digital channel election in the U.S. This requires all viewers to re-scan or manually add the new channel and possibly delete the old one. Doing a full re-scan will usually cause other channels to be dropped if they cannot be received at the moment the scan passes their physical channel, so this is typically undesirable, although many ATSC tuners only have this option. Some have an "easy-add" feature which does not delete what is already mapped in memory. Some allow the user to enter the physical channel and an unmapped subchannel, causing the tuner to search the physical channel. Depending on the tuner, this may or may not automatically add the station and its digital subchannels to the map, and/or to the user's "favorites". This may also leave the old "dead" channel mapping in place, so that there is the new 8.1, dead 8.1, new 8.2, dead 8.2, etc. In most cases, TV stations will not have the actual frequency they are currently using on their website.If the auto scan does not pick up the signal and the tuner has manual frequency scan capability try to get the actual frequency from the station engineer. This may allow one to stay on one frequency (channel) versus "scanning" (moving too quickly through) and allow one to make antenna adjustments while observing only a problematic channel.Other errors which appear to be in the tuner are actually the result of incorrect data sent by one or more stations, often including missing electronic program guide data. Many ATSC tuners will remember EPG info for each station, but only for a few hours after viewing a channel on that station. Some will not remember at all (displaying only the required channel banner), while a very few others will store data for days (although this requires staying tuned to each station for more than a few seconds in order to receive the extended info). DirecTV receivers with ATSC tuners can d

Hauppauge Computer Works, or Hauppauge for short (pronounced /ˈhɔːpɒɡ/), is a United States manufacturer and marketer of electronic video hardware for personal computers. Although it is most widely known for its WinTV line of TV tuner cards for PCs, Hauppauge also produces personal video recorders, digital video editors, digital media players, hybrid video recorders and digital television products for both Windows and Mac. The company is named after the hamlet of Hauppauge, New York, in which it is based. It is sometimes misspelled as Happage, Happauge, or Hauppage.In addition to its headquarters in New York, Hauppauge also has sales and technical support offices in the UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Singapore and Spain.// Company historyHauppauge was co-founded by Kenneth Plotkin and Kenneth Aupperle, and became incorporated in 1992. MotherboardsDuring the late 1980s and early '90s Hauppauge produced motherboards for Intel 486 processors. A number of these motherboards were standard ISA built to fairly competitive pricepoints. Some, however, were workstation and server-oriented, including EISA support, optional cache memory modules, and support for the Weitek 4167 FPU.Hauppauge also sold a unique motherboard, the Hauppauge 4860. This was the only standard PC/AT motherboard ever made with both an Intel 80486 and an Intel i860 processor (optional). While boot required the 80486, the i860 could either run an independent lightweight operating system or serve as a more conventional coprocessor.Hauppauge no longer produces motherboards, focusing instead on the TV card market. Product lines Digital Terrestrial/SatelliteHauppauge digital terrestrial and satellite products capture DVB-T and DVB-S broadcasts respectively without the need to re-encode the streams. There are several benefits from this approach:the cost of the TV card can be lower because there is no need to supply an MPEG-2 encoderthe quality of captures can be higher because there is no need to re-encode streamsratio of file size to quality is higher due to the broadcasters' high-efficiency encodersUp until August 2004 all of Hauppauge's DVB products were badge-engineered TechnoTrend products. The first of the new Hauppauge-designed cards was the Nova-t PCI 90002 and the silent replacement of the TechnoTrend model caused confusion and anger among Hauppauge's customers who found that the new card didn't support TechnoTrend's proprietary interfaces. This rendered any existing 3rd party software unusable with the new cards. The new cards also came with a software packaged called WinTV2000 which lacked features that TechnoTrend's software had including 7-day EPG, Digital Teletext and LCN-based channel ordering. The new cards supported Microsoft's BDA standard but at the time this was at its infancy and very few 3rd party applications included support for it.By 2005 all of the TechnoTrend products had been removed from the Hauppauge lineup, with the exception of the DEC2000-t and DEC3000-s which haven't seen a replacement. Hybrid Video RecordersThe Hybrid Video Recorder (HVR) range capture a combination of different broadcast types. The majority of Hauppauge HVR models capture Analogue PAL and DVB-T but there have been some more recent models which capture Analogue NTSC and ATSC as well as a tri-mode card which supports Analogue PAL, DVB-S and DVB-T.HVR-9xx devices are bus-powered USB 2.0 sticks, not much larger than a USB flash drive. They have support for analogue and digital terrestrial TV. The HVR-9xx sticks are produced in Taiwan by Deltron, and are also sold for Apple computers by Elgato under the EyeTV brand.HVR-1xxx devices are PCI based products that receive analogue and digital terrestrial TV. They are similar to the HVR-9xx but have support for NICAM or dbx Stereo for analogue terrestrial on all models.HVR-3xxx and 4xxx devices are tri-mode and quad-mode devices respectively. Tri-mode means support for Analogue Terrestrial/Cable, Digital Terrestrial and DVB-S Digital Satellite. Quad-mode devices additionally support DVB-S2 HD digital satellite. The HVR-4000 marks a change in bundled applications in that instead of using Hauppauge's WinTV2000 package, it ships with Cyberlink PowerCinema. Personal Video RecordersThe Personal Video Recorder (PVR) range utilise an onboard MPEG/MPEG-2 encoder to compress the incoming analogue TV signals. The benefits of using a hardware encoder include lower CPU usage when encoding live TV.The first WinTV-PVR product was the WinTV PVR-PCI, launched in late 2000 and not receiving any driver updates since February 2002. It was joined by the WinTV PVR-USB, which has two variants. The first variant supported MPEG2 streams up to 6 Mbit/s and supported Half-D1 resolutions (320x480). This was replaced by an updated model supporting up to 12 Mbit/s streams and Full-D1 resolution (720x480).The first WinTV-PVR to gain popularity was the PVR-250. The original version of the PVR-250 was a variant of the Sag Harbor (PVR-350) which used the ivac15 chipset. Although the chipset was able to hardware decoding the video out components were not included on the card. In later versions of the PVR-250 the ivac15 was replaced with the ivac16 to reduce cost and to relieve heat issues. The PVR-250 and PVR-350 were joined by the USB 2.0 PVR-USB2 to complete their generation of devices.Their successors, the PVR-150 and PVR-500, were released alongside the PVR-250/350/USB2 and while popular with both OEMs and the general public, there have been numerous driver issues as well as video quality complaints. The PVR-500 was released as a Media Center card and wasn't supplied with Hauppauge's WinTV2000 software. It was effectively two PVR-150s on a single board, connected via a PCI-PCI bridge chip. The PVR-USB2 was silently replaced with the PVR-USB2+ which is identical both visually and terms of features, but uses a Conexant chipset rather than the Philips chipset in the old model.From its name and time of release, the PVR-160 appears to be newer than the PVR-150 but it is not. The PVR-160 is a repackaging of the WinTV Roslyn. The Roslyn is based on the Conexant Blackbird design and uses the CX2388x video decoder. This board was originally available only to OEMs and third-party software vendors such as Frey Technologies (SageTV) and Snapstream (BeyondTV). The board was sold under many names including the PVR-250BTV (Snapstream). This card is known to have color and brightness issues that can be corrected somewhat using registry hacks. Hauppauge received a large surplus amount of these cards from OEM and third party vendors. The cards were repackaged with an MCE remote and receiver and rebranded the PVR-160. The PVR-160 was often mistakenly referred to as the PVR-250MCE but is not related to the PVR-250. High-Definition Personal Video RecorderIn May of 2008, Hauppauge released the HD-PVR, a USB 2.0 device with an on-board H.264 hardware encoder for recording from high-definition sources through component inputs. It is the world's first USB device that can capture in high definition. The HD-PVR has proved to be a very popular device, and Hauppauge has been updating its drivers and software continually since its release. In addition to being able to capture from any component video source in 480p, 720p, or 1080i, the HD-PVR comes with an IR blaster that communicates with your cable or satellite set-top box for automated program recordings and channel-changing capabilities. WinTV AnalogueThe standard analogue range of products use software encoding for recording analogue TV. The more recent Hauppauge cards use SoftPVR, which allows MPEG and MPEG-2 encoding in software provided that a sufficiently fast CPU is installed in the system. MediaMVPThe MediaMVP is a thin client device that displays music, video and pictures (hence "MVP") on a television. It is based on an IBM PowerPC RISC processor specialised for multimedia decoding. The operating system is a form of Linux, and everything (including the menus) is served to the device via ethernet or, on newer devices, 802.11g wireless LAN from the server PC.Various open source software products can use the device as a frontend. An example is MVPMC , which allows the MediaMVP to be used as a frontend for MythTV or ReplayTV. Table of products WinTV2000 and related softwareHauppauge's principal software offering is a TV tuning and recording application called WinTV2000. It is also distributed with a non-skinned interface under the name WinTV32.WinTV2000/WinTV32 has other companion applications, including WinTV Scheduler, which performs timed recordings, and WinTV Radio, which receives FM Radio. A recent change of direction has seen the move towards a service-based software package. Card management and recordings is taken ca