[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
James Fidell wrote: > Agreed. IME PC DVB-T cards are far less tolerant of poor signal quality > than your average freeview box, sometimes to the point where they just > won't pick up a signal that a freeview box has no trouble with. "Depends"... I've done quite a bit of research on this in my quest to build a decent home theatre setup. (Postponed for now, can't find any *decent* software, nor is my purpose built shuttle-based pc quiet or fast enough) Tested (under windows, but we're talking about signal strenghts not drivers) in a very poor signal area (We technically do not have Digital coverage according to the BBC) Generic digitv box. 8/10 - when poor signal artifacts and issues loud white noise which is acoustically horrible. Occasionally locks up and needs powercycle. Twinhan "Magic Box" usb dvb tuner. 4/10. Need stronger signal than I can typically achieve. Also locks up after period of use. Drivers horrible. Twinhan analogue usb tuner. 5/10. Cheap and nasty. Avermedia 777 DVB-T pci. 5/10. Again, very poor with a weak signal. Step up from the twinhan but not by much. Hauppuage Win-TV 2000 pci. 8/10. And the one currently recording quite well and easily outperforms all the others including the digibox for coping with a poor signal. So yes, most are worse than the most basic set-top box but they don't need to be. One thing that does hold true for all the above PC tuners is that they take a *long* time to change channel. Typically 1-5 seconds between channels. The digibox does it in a fraction of a second. btw, anyone wanting to play and building a media PC, there's a lot of pitfalls. The most notable is the lack of *good* software. Mediaportal is by far the best I found that wasn't MCE (which costs a fortune to buy and subscribe), MP is opensource but runs on windows. Linux stuff I had no joy at all with, geekbox, myth and some others I tried just flat out refused to work for me. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html