External USB dvb-t tuner + Laptop w/ TV out?

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joepenman

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#20040 11-Mar-2008 10:12

Hi there, i am looking to purchase an external USB dvb-t tuner which i will have connected to my laptop and then outputted to my HDTV. A few questions i have:

Th signal recieving will be 720p upscaled (tv 1, 2) - will my laptop's "tv out" output in HD or SD?
My TV has a VGA PC input, would it be better to use this to receive HD from my laptop?
Has anyone else tested a similar set up to this? If so, do you have any recommendations on USB dvb-t tuners?

Reason being, i am saving my pennys to build my own HTPC and want to test digital in the mean time ie. display 16:9 widescreen and HD (i have a 55" sony bravia :))

Cheers

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mentalinc

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#115950 11-Mar-2008 14:37

What sort of laptop is it Make and Model

Or CPU and GFX card.

Most likely the laptop will not be capable of the HD playback.

CPU: AMD 5900x | RAM: GSKILL Trident Z Neo RGB F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC-32-GB | MB: Asus X570-E | GFX: EVGA FTW3 Ultra RTX 3080Ti| Monitor: LG 27GL850-B 2560x1440

Quic: https://account.quic.nz/refer/473833 R473833EQKIBX

wellygary

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#115951 11-Mar-2008 14:48

The "TV out" port on a laptop will be SD, to get HD out you need to have a HDMI port (or DVI)

Standard VGA (15 pin) will give a better signal for HD than standard Def TV-out

The issue I can see you having is one of horsepower, decoding Mpeg 4 HDTV is reasonably heavy lifting so you would need to make sure you CPU and GPU are up to it,

(most USB tuners simply grab the stream and pass it onto the software to decode)

joepenman

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#115954 11-Mar-2008 14:57

wellygary:
The "TV out" port on a laptop will be SD, to get HD out you need to have a HDMI port (or DVI)

Standard VGA (15 pin) will give a better signal for HD than standard Def TV-out

The issue I can see you having is one of horsepower, decoding Mpeg 4 HDTV is reasonably heavy lifting so you would need to make sure you CPU and GPU are up to it,

(most USB tuners simply grab the stream and pass it onto the software to decode)

Ah, OK, thanks for that peice of information. I was thinking the USB tuner would do most of the work decoding the stream, good to know otherwise. I will just have to wait till i have enough dosh to put together an HTPC and go for the internal tuner.

we don't need no edukation

sbiddle

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#115964 11-Mar-2008 15:56

wellygary:
The "TV out" port on a laptop will be SD, to get HD out you need to have a HDMI port (or DVI)

Standard VGA (15 pin) will give a better signal for HD than standard Def TV-out

A regular VGA output is HD capable as well. Many people seem to forget that the only requirement for "HD" is a minimum of 720 lines. When you're running your PC at 1024x768 it's already exceeding the "HD" requirements.

Hooking a PC up to a TV by VGA is normally the simplest way to connect it. On many TV's it's also the best way as you will not get true 1:1 pixel mapping via HDMI on a large number of flat panel TV's.

brettd

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#116086 12-Mar-2008 10:15

Over the weekend I bought a Hauppauge HVR-900 (USB2 hybrid tuner - DVB-T and analog in) and have it hooked up to my Dell XPS (T2700 2GHz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce Go 7950 GTX) and am using DVBViewer 3.9.2.

Runs well enough though CPU usage ranges from 30-40% on TV7 to 70-80% on Freeview-HD and TV3. Recording and timeshift take up a small chunk of CPU on top of that.

Currently have it hooked up through an HDMI-DVI cable to a Sony KLV40V300a which I believe does 1-1 pixel mapping on the HDMI and VGA ports and it looks real good.