HDTV is mpeg-4 support esential

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kevincraky

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#57585 18-Feb-2010 07:46

Hi anyone and everyone - I am looking at getting a HDTV possibly usb dongly thing for my compueter
I have considered buying on Ebay which offeres far greater choice and often far better price than trademe
but not sure that if I buy it will work in NZ - Is it absolutly esential that the device support MPEG-4

sbiddle

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#300006 18-Feb-2010 07:52

No.

The TV card/usb device doesn't do any decoding, it just passes the MPEG Transport Stream direct to the PC which does all the decoding.

You obviously just need to be aware of the minimum specs to decode Freeview|HD which is a PC with GFX card capable of H.264 hardware decoding and appropiate software or Windows7.

If you are going to purchase from ebay you need to be aware of the different digital TV standards, there are lots of devices that are ATSC which is the USA standard.

kevincraky

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#300009 18-Feb-2010 07:59

thanks for the quick reply - so the software needs to be able to decode the MPEG-4 so if I buy a device that comes with software esential to running the device and it does not support MPEG-4 it wont work ?

kevincraky

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#300011 18-Feb-2010 08:06

so this would be useless as it doesnt even say HDTV?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5437587/Pinnacle-7010i-PCIe-Dual-DVB-T-DVB-S-Analogue-TV-FM-Radio-Tune...

sbiddle

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#300088 18-Feb-2010 11:44

No that would work.

Your first step is probably to decide what software you want to use. If you use Windows7 you can use Media Centre to view TV. If you're not running Windows7 my suggestion would be to look at GB-PVR, Media Portal or DVBViewer. If you use any of those three you will also need to decide what H.264 codec, most people use PowerDVD8.

Typically the software that comes with most cards is pretty basic.

ZollyMonsta

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#300090 18-Feb-2010 11:51

Looks like a cool card actually... Analogue, DVB-T AND DVB-S all in one!

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