Question about freeview USB sticks

Craig321

Craig321

Craig321

Soldato
Joined
2 May 2004
Posts
19,953
Hi,

I won't link to the actual product as it's competitor, but the name of the product is Digital Freeview USB2.0 Stick inc Antenna (taken out the name of the manufacturer just in case).

This USB freeview stick thing is £35 and says you can record freeview onto your PC, schedule recordings etc etc. (basically like a Sky+ type thing).

Anyway, what are these like, and do they come with all the usual freeview channels? - Sky etc. ?

Also, has anyone got a list of all the freeview channels please? We do have it on the TV downstairs but can't be bothered to go through all of them :p

[Edit]
Also, do I need anything special or can I just plug the stick into my PC and install the software/drivers?
[/Edit]

Thanks,
Craig.
 
Energize said:
You wont get decent freeview reception without an external aerial.
Click to expand...


Ditto to that, they include that little black attenna and that does sod all its not like u can take your lappy somewhere plug that in and enjoy some telly on your laptop or pc if u belive that your in wonderland.

50-60% people buying that from us at purpleworld end up just returning it..... saying its faulty/i just gave up and just refund/swop it now...
 
i disagree i bought one recently from OcUK and can safely say they are brilliant. the one that i bought was good, i got good reception, was able to record, though im not sure i got all the freeview channels. i suppose it depends on how close you are to an aeriel etc. the one that i got came wiht its own aerial so was brilliant......
 
In reference to the desktop aerials
Yes they are great if you are somewhere with great reception, unfortunately a lot of us are not in that situation.

It was bad enough the likes of the BBC telling people it was just a simple purchase of set-top box required and then adding that you may need an aerial upgrade in the small print.
Desktop aerials for digital are a joke and usless to the average user

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with usb digi units though, they do after all do exactly the same as internal cards, they just give you higher cpu loading.
 
Computer equipment I buy nowadays rarely impresses me. I've spent too long struggling with dodgy analogue PCI TV cards. I have to say, though, the Freecom DVB-T dongle* I bought 4 months ago did impress me. Having set it up with BDA drivers (Yakumo) and fed it a good signal signal from a rooftop aerial it's performed fine as a backup for my DVR.

Yes, if you expect to waltz around with a laptop using the dinky little aerial these devices come with, you'll almost certainly be disappointed. But if you feed them with the kind of decent signal you'd expect to use for a set-top Freeview box, they work very well.

* I wouldn't particularly recommend the Freecom device now because they've changed the hardware and the new version doesn't work with the available BDA drivers. But there are other dongles around now with BDA drivers.
 
Since you cant use them without a decent aerial its better to just get a normal tv card, which will have a load more features.
 
As long as you have a desktop pc and not a lappy. Also usb versions remove a source of heat from the pc and makes it remote from a case which may give interference on the signal.
 
The case couldnt interfere with the signal, there no electricity going through it and it doesnt touch the metal cable inside the aerial wire.
 
What I was meaning and hoped I didn't have to explain is that the multitude of components inside the case can cause RFI which may degrade your reception, not the physical case itself which would actually help block RFI.
Having an external unit can mean less problems of that nature.

However it may be that noise is picked up over usb that can interfere with it.

I'm just saying usb units are not a totally lost cause.
 
I have a freecom USB pen and found it to have a really good reception with a roof aerial, great picture quality but the software that comes with it is crap making the picture laggy.

Just bought a Leadtek Winfast DTV1000-T Digital TV Tuner Card and it's very good, picture quality is great and the software is also good. Very impressed for £35.00 and worth getting.

I recond it's only worth getting a pen if you have a lappy and you travel a lot.
 
Yeah internal cards are fine. Although in the case of Hauppauge you get the same naff software with cards and sticks.

Be aware that there are PCI and PCI-E cards around now

One thing I have found in the last couple of years is that different units (cards, sticks or set-top boxes) work differently with different signal strengths.
This makes it a bit harder to get a good setup
Thats another part of the digital rant I sometimes go off on :(

Problems aside, having a good digital setup on your pc is great. Having the digital radio stations is cool also, I listen to more radio at night now than watching tv.
 
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