New USB Tuners Combine Small Size and Price

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January, several manufacturers were showing compact, but somewhat larger than "thumb-size" USB tuners for the DVB-T terrestrial DTV standard. Many of these manufacturers said they were working on USB tuners for the U.S. ATSC standard. These tuners are now becoming avai

Author:: TVTechnology
Publish date:: Jul 26, 2006
Updated on: Feb 23, 2018

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January, several manufacturers were showing compact, but somewhat larger than "thumb-size" USB tuners for the DVB-T terrestrial DTV standard. Many of these manufacturers said they were working on USB tuners for the U.S. ATSC standard. These tuners are now becoming available. While I didn't see any ATSC USB tuners (thumb sized or larger) at Best Buy or Circuit City when I checked last month, at least two nearly thumb sized ATSC USB tuners are available on the Web.

These tuners are the Artec T14A Mini USB 2.0 Digital TV tuner, which sells for only $89.99 after an instant rebate at ZipZoomFly.com; and the Fujiplus FD-USB728 USB 2.0 Interface USB HDTV ATSC/NTSC TV tuner, selling for $99.99 at newegg.com. The Artec tuner, which only receives ATSC broadcasts, apparently uses the LG DT3303 demodulator, according to AVSForum.com. The Fujiplus tuner receives NTSC and 256QAM (unencrypted digital cable) signals as well as ATSC broadcasts.

If any readers have had a chance to test the Artec or Fujiplus receivers, I'd appreciate hearing how they work, especially as compared with the other ATSC USB tuners now available.

Two weeks ago I reported on the new Pinnacle HD Stick Pro thumb drive sized ATSC USB tuner. The product is now available at Best Buy and Fry's Electronic stores. I had an opportunity this week to compare this tuner with the FusionHDTV5 USB Gold . I found that the small Pinnacle HD Stick Pro performance is very clo

Over the past 18 months several companies have introduced USB ATSC receivers. The first units were relatively small external boxes. Recently even smaller USB ATSC tuners the size of large USB thumb drives have entered the market, as noted in previous issues of RF Report. However, the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick is the f

I found time at CES to talk with Hauppauge and Pinnacle about their USB tuner sticks, and to visit demodulator chip manufacturer I recently learned about. I also had a look at a few network DTV receivers.

Last week two more companies announced compact USB 2.0 DTV tuners for the European DVB-T terrestrial DTV standard. Hauppauge introduced the WinTV-HVR-900 hybrid DTV stick. This unit combines an analog tuner with a DVB-T digital TV receiver that's compatible with the British Freeview system. Hauppauge's HVR-900 produc

In response to my article last week on the "sexy" Mobix USB 2.0 tuner for DVB-T terrestrial DTV reception on notebook computers, Sean Wallace sent me information and some circuit board photos of the new FusionHDTV5 USB Gold portable ATSC receiver by Dvico. It looks as if the VBox A-3560 USB 2.0 receiver that I've been

DigiTimes.com carried an article by Vyacheslav Sobolev, CeBIT: TV tuner in a USB Stick from Compro , describing the VideoMate DVB-T Stick, a complete USB 2.0 based DTV receiver for the European DVB-T format. According to the article, Compro Technology plans to begin shipment of the tuner and two analog-only USB 2.0

See next month’s RF Technology column in TV Technology for more details.

Last week's announcement of Microtune's MT2131 tri-mode tuner illustrates increasing manufacturer interest in introducing products for off-air DTV reception. It is especially encouraging that tuner and VSB decoder manufacturers are touting compliance with ATSC Recommend Practice A/74 for ATSC receiver performance.