New USB HDTV Tuner!

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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
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New HDTV antenna? Nah...just use your regular UHF. It'll be the same thing as an 'HDTV' antenna (same 6 MHz signal). I use a Yagi UHF and the reception is stunning. There will be no difference at all unless it contains an amplifier, which is also something that's been around since the dark ages that you can get separately practically anywhere. Just some money-saving tips.
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
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One thing I wish it works. Good reception on the Go from the included small antenna.. Imagine watching HDTV at Starbucks, at the waiting terminal of your favorite airpoirt (frankly, I doubt it)!
 
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shiznit

Senior member
Nov 16, 2004
424
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ive been looking for something like this, my antenna catches ~15 over the air hd channels. football on fox and cbs, lost and invasion on abc, pbs hd is nice.
 
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obeseotron

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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So when you grab OTA HD signals, because they are digital does that mean there is no noise/distortion on them. I used to have reception problems even living in manhattan 2 miles from the broadcast towers, but the digital signal should either come through or not right? maybe some occasional macroblocking, but basically be clear or nothing at all right?
 
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SynthDude2001

Lifer
Mar 19, 2003
18,289
2
71
Originally posted by: obeseotron
So when you grab OTA HD signals, because they are digital does that mean there is no noise/distortion on them. I used to have reception problems even living in manhattan 2 miles from the broadcast towers, but the digital signal should either come through or not right? maybe some occasional macroblocking, but basically be clear or nothing at all right?
Click to expand...

That's correct. In an area like that though (really close to the towers and probably surrounded by lots of buildings) you might possibly have problems with multipath distortion though (which is basically reflections of the signal coming in from different sides out of phase, or something to that effect). However newer tuners minimize this effect, as do directional antennas (I believe). If you experienced that issue, I believe you wouldn't get a picture at all if it's bad enough that the tuner can't tell which signal to lock on, so to speak.

But basically, yeah...as long as you can get the signal, you're good. Macroblocking shouldn't be a concern at all in your case since that's what usually happens with a weak signal (at least in my experience) - the only thing you might have problems with is multipath.

What kinds of problems, if any, do you get on OTA reception of analog channels right now? I believe multipath shows up as "ghosting" on analog signals.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
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DVB-T is actually made to draw positive effects from those reflection effects - the same effects that caused ghost shadows on analog aerial TV.
 
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RobsTV

Platinum Member
Feb 11, 2000
2,520
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Welcome to USB HDTV!
Have been using Sasem tuner for about a year.

http://www.tomshardware.com/firstlook/20041130/index.html

New drivers add ton's of features not included in above review.
Works great with digital OTA, analog OTA, digital cable (QAM), and analog cable.
Has dual inputs, so you can use both analog and digital at same time.
Full PVR (pause, RW, record live TV) for all digital and analog, HDTV and SDTV.
Has "Game mode" which allows game console to be connected to A/V inputs, disables tuner, and provides zero lag.
Plus much, much more.
Excellent product. (I've tested 5 different HDTV tuners, and this is by far the best, followed by AccessDTV PCI hardware card).

BTW, contrary to popular belief, many digital HDTV channels are in the VHF range.
Here in Tampa area, NBC and FOX are VHF, while the rest are UHF.
Check out your area here:
http://www.solidsignal.com/antennas/dmamarkets.asp

I've tested several special antenna for digital and HDTV, and none work as well as a traditional combo VHF/UHF antenna with channel master 7777 amp.
 
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shiznit

Senior member
Nov 16, 2004
424
13
81
obeseotron, its not quite like that. if you have a good enough signal, the picture will always be perfect, period. if you don't, then you you wont see $hit. but sometimes when you are in between the picture will come and go, and sometimes i see squares and other distortion. its not snow or static like in analog, but it does vary until you find a good spot for the antenna and then its money. it might be my crappy voom receiver/tuner and antenna, they never asked for them back after they went out of business.
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
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Pro: USB version, you can use in with almost any PC or laptop. It gets you mobility.
Con: has to be decided if it is stable and performs well.
Pro: PCI version, it could be cheaper... may perform batter.
Con: to be used only in PC.

 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
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71
Originally posted by: obeseotron
So when you grab OTA HD signals, because they are digital does that mean there is no noise/distortion on them. I used to have reception problems even living in manhattan 2 miles from the broadcast towers, but the digital signal should either come through or not right? maybe some occasional macroblocking, but basically be clear or nothing at all right?
Click to expand...

Some macroblocks of the MPEG-2 video come in and some don't. And then the tuner performs error-compensation on the ones that don't pass a checksum, and extrapolates them. However the error-fixing algorithm is far from anything remotely perfect so it almost always ends up blocky.
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
0
71
Originally posted by: RobsTV
BTW, contrary to popular belief, many digital HDTV channels are in the VHF range.
Here in Tampa area, NBC and FOX are VHF, while the rest are UHF.
Check out your area here:
http://www.solidsignal.com/antennas/dmamarkets.asp
Click to expand...

All of mine happen to lie in the UHF frequencies.

I've tested several special antenna for digital and HDTV, and none work as well as a traditional combo VHF/UHF antenna with channel master 7777 amp.
Click to expand...

Not a Yagi? :) For me, a Yagi with no amp receives a very good signal with no cut outs whatsoever. An amp may help in certain situations where the tuner isn't sensitive enough to the incoming RF I suppose, but it could also amplify stuff you don't want, including noise.
 
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RobsTV

Platinum Member
Feb 11, 2000
2,520
0
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Originally posted by: xtknight

Not a Yagi? :) For me, a Yagi with no amp receives a very good signal with no cut outs whatsoever. An amp may help in certain situations where the tuner isn't sensitive enough to the incoming RF I suppose, but it could also amplify stuff you don't want, including noise.
Click to expand...


Tried a huge custom Yagi, and it was good for "UHF" stations located in the Antenna farm, but terrible for the others (some no where near the farm). With 23 digital channels here (including subs), the standard Tampa Bay Special is best. Since I am about 40 miles from farm, amp is needed for best results.

True, many amps are junk, but the channel master 7777 is always rated at or near the top, and is less than $50 on ebay. Combined with a Tampa Bay Special (I'm sure other cities have their own version) excellent signal with no dropouts, from 23 digital channels, at a cost of less than $120.

The biggest piece of cheap junk (included with AccessDTV PCI card) tested was the Zenith Silver Sensor that many rave about. Useless this far out, as it picked up about 3 channels, even when mounted outside. It does fit into laptop bag, and I still use it when I am in cities very close to the antenna farm. Otherwise useless.

Other bad antenna's:
Radio Shack High-Definition Amplified Outdoor TV Antenna Model: 15-2185
Terk TV55 Indoor/Outdoor Amplified HDTV Antenna

Those bad antenna's are in comparison to plain jane combo antenna with no amp, that was installed on house 12+ years ago. While they worked somewhat, they were no better than old antenna. Testing done on 4 homes in the area. ( Since they didn't work well here, I tried to sell them to others, but didn't work there either). Channel master antenna with amp always did the trick. Actually in many cases, simply leaving old antenna up and installing 7777 amp was good enough to get great signal strength and quality.
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
0
0
How much does it cost for complete LD Ant with a Pream, rotor and its digital control, and the rest of the cables needed?

Thanks
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
0
0
Hi all,

Here is my frst impression.

I am trying to enjoy my sparkling brand new FusionHDTV5 USB Gold. I love the product and the small factor of the package.

After I installed the latest Fusion HDTV 3.2 Beta 2 (released on 11/29/05 and which I downloaded straight from their web site)and after the first channels scan, I was like WOW!.. Amazing picture quality from this small antenna and small box. However, the fun did not last too much as I just steped into the first critical bug. The video screen started to experience a hickup problems. Freezing for like a second. So, I started investigating the "right click" menu. I noticed that the "time-shift" is enabled. So, I cliked on this
"time-shift" to diseable it and BOOM the famous blue screen of death. Not good. To verify the bug, I restarted my laptop and clicking on the "time-shift" to diseable it andanother BOOM the famous blue screen of death again.

Also, I scheduled a recording and the was about to start, pop notificiation started to show up and few seconds later BOOM another BSOD!...

I emailed FUSION about those issue, let us see if there is support.

In short, amazing hardware package and fantastic application. However, the software is still not mature and work in progress at best.

My hope is that if those bugs are solved promptly, this a killer application for all.
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
0
0
Update:
Tech support replied in the less than 24 hrs! They offered a link to a newer beta software. However, they are blaming my laptop USB controller.
Fast response is really good thing.

Update 2:
Now, I can't uninstall that buggy software. The uninstaller will start a process called SetxD.tmp where x is a number. I see 2 processes of the same exact name and one keeps allocating 2MB of memory without stopping!!!. I am forced to terminate the process. I verified that this process is started by Setup.exe NOTE: this happend when I started the remove from the control panel.


Update 3: I was able to run the new installer, unistall all software, instal new driver and new software. I hope the new software is bit more stable.

Thanks
 
videopho

videopho

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2005
4,185
29
91
Originally posted by: Beiruty
Hi all,

Here is my frst impression.

I am trying to enjoy my sparkling brand new FusionHDTV5 USB Gold. I love the product and the small factor of the package.

After I installed the latest Fusion HDTV 3.2 Beta 2 (released on 11/29/05 and which I downloaded straight from their web site)and after the first channels scan, I was like WOW!.. Amazing picture quality from this small antenna and small box. However, the fun did not last too much as I just steped into the first critical bug. The video screen started to experience a hickup problems. Freezing for like a second. So, I started investigating the "right click" menu. I noticed that the "time-shift" is enabled. So, I cliked on this
"time-shift" to diseable it and BOOM the famous blue screen of death. Not good. To verify the bug, I restarted my laptop and clicking on the "time-shift" to diseable it andanother BOOM the famous blue screen of death again.

Also, I scheduled a recording and the was about to start, pop notificiation started to show up and few seconds later BOOM another BSOD!...

I emailed FUSION about those issue, let us see if there is support.

In short, amazing hardware package and fantastic application. However, the software is still not mature and work in progress at best.

My hope is that if those bugs are solved promptly, this a killer application for all.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing a somewhat positive review for not a so fortunate product. This product sort of reminded me when I first got my ATI HDTV tuner (pci) ~ ayear ago which if you're brave enough you can read through a very lengthy (several hundred of web pages) product's buggy issues had had to offer from viewers around the country in avsforum site. If my memory serves me right I spent at least the next 4-5 weeks to get the product to work correctly from the first day I received it.
 
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Beiruty

Senior member
Jun 14, 2005
282
0
0
3 things that will make this product hot seller:
1) Fix the buggy software. Have it funcition rock solid!!!
2) A small hard case "pouch" would be ice on the cake.
3) Let the price be $99.
 
videopho

videopho

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2005
4,185
29
91
Originally posted by: Beiruty
3 things that will make this product hot seller:
1) Fix the buggy software. Have it funcition rock solid!!!
2) A small hard case "pouch" would be ice on the cake.
3) Let the price be $99.
Click to expand...

Yeah agreed but it's going to take forever for mfg to fix up their buggy software. I knew my ATI HDTV tuner had taken at least a year to be where it is today and still pretty buggy. You can verify this by going to avsforum site and prepare to spend sometime there if interested because its user bug report has something like 300ish pages long. Ouch!
 
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