New PC DTT PCI card from Nebular Electronics

cybersoga

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http://www.nebula-electronics.com

DigiTV Features

Decoding and viewing of free-to-air Digital Terrestrial Television
Decoding and playing of free-to-air Digital Terrestrial Radio
Pause Live Video
Full Stereo Sound
Integrated MPEG I and II media player
View in widescreen (16:9) or normal (4:3)
Analog Video & Audio capture (from video camera, video recorder etc.)
Integrated 10 programme Digital Video Recorder
'Point-and-Click' programme recording facility
On-screen programme names, start times, duration and description
Video Overlays for all menu options
View in a window or in full-screen mode
Remote Control capability
Channel lockout facility for Parental Control
Support for English, Welsh & Gaelic langauges (where transmitted)
Super-fast auto-tuning (typically less than 15 seconds)

DigiTVCard.jpg

DigiTVRemote.jpg
 
The Nova-T from Hauppage has been available for ages

Hauppage site details

Price for this this is around £100 inc Vat, compared to more like £120 for DigiTV.

The advantage of the DigiTV seems to be that it comes with a remote and can do DAB decoding as well as DVB. I suppose that makes it a better deal overall to be fair. Will be interesting to see any reviews that come up on using it.
 
I used to have a nova-t and I found that the software was in a word "rubbish". It kept crashing when changing channels or tuning channels, the record function hasn't got a timer, it won't display 16:9 picture properly, no remote control... it wouldn't take much to improve on their efforts.
 
I don't think the DigiTV can do DAB. It means the the free terrestrial stations broadcast via DVB as part of Freeview.
It doesn't mention DAB in its specs anyway.
 
If it is as bad as the analogue PCTV series cards, then i would avoid it like the plague, but maybe Happauge have got thier software and drivers working ok now.:)
 
I'm happy to report that i'm very pleased with this card, especially in comparison with the crauupage nova-t. Nebular support is top notch, they respond very quickly and actually listen to their customers. They actually make the card itself and it's software in Kent so it's understandably biased towards the UK market. The card is very new, at the moment you can only buy direct and the software is evolving fast. A couple of suggestions that I had with the software have already been implimented, and they have a large list of features they plan to be adding in future, such as

* mheg5
* remote control customisation
* integration with digiguide
* streaming video over lan
* linux drivers

Features already working that the hauppage card hasn't got:

* very fast tuning
* changes channel instantly
* 15 recording timers that work, even when digitv isn't loaded
* fullscreen or widescreen display
* fills the screen properly at 1280x1024
* on screen displays
* one for all remote control
* doesn't use third party codecs
* WDM driver
* doesn't make your PC take ages to boot because it's not using a network driver
* anologue video capture that works with 3rd party apps

I initially had problems with the card in a Shuttle SS51G system, which turned out the be because in that system the chipset IDE controller (SiS) was stealing too much time on the sole PCI bus, which meant the card couldn't pass the mpeg2 data to the ram quick enough while it was recording to disk. I have since changed my system for a Shuttle SB51G, which is based on the Intel 845 chipset, it has a seperate PCI bus for the card slot and now it works very well.

I have no hesitation with reccomending this card over any of Hauppage's offerings.

http://www.nebula-electronics.com/
 

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