TerraTec Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS FM?

[MrJinx]

For the price, features, and availability, This would be a nice addition.
I was impressed to find a USB capture device available in 2.x but the Cinergy T2 is hard to find and expensive.  I'm an owner of the 1.x release. I have a PVR-350 card in my desktop and love it. I am looking for a TV tuner/DVR for my Mini form factor laptop running eCS. This is also the recommended DVR for the ASUS Eee PC. A lot of OS/2 and eSC enthusiasts, Are buying these super small factor laptops. My only complaint about the Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS FM is the lack of Video input. The Analog and Digital tuner makes up for it. If you don't mind cruzin with a RF modulator.   
http://www.terratec.net/en/products/TV_and_radio_on_the_Eee_PC_34649.html

[Rudi]

Hi Jerry (I guess that's your real name ),

I was contacted by several people (including Ed Durrant, who seems to be the EeePC guru) and asked for support of other USB hardware. I'm aware of the status of the Cinergy T2. It was choosen, because the documentation was freely available on the web and because it was so damn easy to handle. Unfortunately, the whole DVB development took much longer than expected and the T2 was withdrawn from market shortly before ETV2.0 was released.

I guess the will be support for some other stick in the future, but my resources are limited. I need to find out a chipset, that is:

1.) widely used by different manufacturers all over the world
2.) not too old, so that we can expect it to be available for a while
3.) officially documented or at least with good Linux support

As for hybrid devices: It's not very likely I will ever support the analog section of these. That is a problem for users in countries, that did not adopt the DVB standard. I would love to support ATSC / Clear QAM (maybe some of the DVB cards can handle this as well), but I cannot test it here in Germany.

At the moment I'm working on fixes / enhancements for the 2.0 application. There are some features missing, that I really want to add. After that, I will turn back to the drivers...


Cheers !

[MrJinx]

Thanks, for the answer, Now it makes sense as to why I could only find 1 Cinergy T2 unit in england.
I'm not versed on what chipsets are mostly in use for the USB capture solutions right now. The PC cards are a lot easier to figure out given the tuner chip at least is exposed on the board. What ever solution you decide on, I will likely follow and purchase. I was hoping you and TerraTec had developed a relationship to get the developer details. I have never owned any of their products but they seem to have quite a lineup of interesting DVR solutions. 

[Rudi]

Now it makes sense as to why I could only find 1 Cinergy T2 unit in england.

Most people here buy it on eBay(.de). Some stores might still have it in stock. At least
the price search engines here report so. However, they are not cheap...

http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/272460.html

I was hoping you and TerraTec had developed a relationship to get the developer details.

I haven't tried this after the poor experience with Hauppauge Germany and Yuan High-Tech.
Usually they say that they are bound to NDAs with the chip manufacturers or that they don't
expect enough additional sales to justify that even one of their employees puts one sheet of
paper from one stack to another...

Currently I'm only in contact with NXP (former Philips RF Components) and some tech guy
at Hauppauge who allows me to ask some questions from time to time.

they seem to have quite a lineup of interesting DVR solutions.

To me it appears that they more and more develop the strategy of buying products from
far eastern vendors, modifying them slightly, combining them with their own software and
put their label on it.

[MrJinx]

Well Rudi,
You came through on finding a widely used and supported USB chipset with release 2.02! The AF9015 is used in lots of USB stick tv solutions. In fact so many, I'm getting a lot of hits on google for devices available. besides having an AF9015, Do you have any other pointers on picking a device to test? (Most of the models in your list are obscure in the USA.). Like dual tuner,, or other details? Many of these are in the $59-$99 US range. Quite affordable..

I have one other question, This purchase is for a netbook laptop, For the most part, These devices are only working with the Panorama video driver w/ widescreen support. Will the new release work with Dive? There is no SDD support for these machines or WarpOverlay. Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind, Asus EEEpc.

Thanks as always..

[Rudi]

The AF9015 is used in lots of USB stick tv solutions. In fact so many, I'm getting a lot of hits on google for
devices available. besides having an AF9015, Do you have any other pointers on picking a device to test?

Not all AF9015 devices are working with the current driver release. That is, because there are different
tuner chips inside. For this very reason, I specified only the three devices that I personally own in the
announcement.

Currently the following tuner chips are supported:

Quantek Qt1010
MaxLinear MXL500x
Freescale  MC44S803
Microtune MT2060  (untested)

I hope to get the Philips  TDA18271 to work within the next few weeks.

I have one other question, This purchase is for a netbook laptop, For the most part, These devices are only working with the Panorama video driver w/ widescreen support. Will the new release work with Dive? There is no SDD support for these machines or WarpOverlay. Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind, Asus EEEpc.

ETV was never locked to SDD or WarpOverlay. It will aways fall back to DIVE mode, if no hardware acceleration is detected.
Sigurd Fastenrath is successfully using a Cinergy T2 on his netbook. I don't remember the exact model, but it can be seen in
one of the videos he uploaded to YouTube and Hobbes.

[MrJinx]

Thanks for the info. That narrowed down the search greatly!
eBay has tons of the China/Taiwan cheap pen TV adapters but of course the chipset specs are limited.
Searching importers directly, I found the WAND-TV adapter. http://www.tootoo.com/d-p14452554-Wand_TV_DVB_T_Stick_A15_/
Uses AF9015 and the MT2060. These are popping up on eBay for $9.99-19.95 US.
I don't think I can use them in the US. ATSC is the standard here and I have yet to find a device listing any combo of these chipsets for use with ATSC. Do you know from programming if any of the 4 tuner chips supports ATSC?
I think the Phillips chip you are working on does. I sent inquiries to 4 china importers for spec sheets on all the USB TV devices they carry in the hope to find a few really affordable and already engineered solutions.
With a 9.99 hardware price point including antenna!, It would almost be worth bundling your software and a stick. At least for Europe... 

[Rudi]

Searching importers directly, I found the WAND-TV adapter. http://www.tootoo.com/d-p14452554-Wand_TV_DVB_T_Stick_A15_/
Uses AF9015 and the MT2060. These are popping up on eBay for $9.99-19.95 US.

Ed Durrant was trying to acquire exactly this device in Australia. Unfortunately, he was delivered
a "MinTV" and as I understood the manufacturer/dealer is silently shipping the other product without
explicitly telling the customers !!!

I don't think I can use them in the US. ATSC is the standard here and I have yet to find a device
listing any combo of these chipsets for use with ATSC. Do you know from programming if any of
the 4 tuner chips supports ATSC?

I don't think the tuner chip is the problem. I would more guess that it's the demodulator and as such
I'm not sure if the AF9015 can be used with ATSC at all. However, I have no idea what modulation
type the ATSC  standard is using and since I cannot test that stuff here, I'm afraid that ATSC is not
going to happen.

<RANT> I really don't understand why the switch to Digital TV was not used to establish a unified
worldwide TV standard </RANT>


BTW, I think yesterday they shut down the last analogue TV transmitter here in Germany. I guess
they did that before in the U.K...

[Rudi]

I hope to get the Philips  TDA18271 to work within the next few weeks.

O.K. I just got an MSI Digivox II (v3.0) to work. The tuner is TDA18271HDC1. Will
see, when I can get hands on a stick with the newer variant TDA18271HDC2...

I have no idea what modulation type the ATSC standard is using

I looked a bit around on the web. It looks like ATSC is using a modulation called
8VSB. The AF9015 cannot handle this.


BTW, MrJinx: Do you have an NTSC version of a PVR350 or PVR250 ?

[MrJinx]

Sorry, I missed you question about my pvr unit. Yes, I have the pvr-350 NTSC Model.