Question.
I have an HP Laptop with AMD Turion 64 mobile tech ml-37
1.59ghz, 1G RAM & an ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200series display adapter.

Would this laptop be good enough for the Autumnwave adapter to watch and record HDTV?
I'm interested in this unit but not if my laptop isn't up to snuff.

- The OnAir GT has superior hardware. We use high quality components. (Other manufacturers do use similar tuners/demodulatos, but most of their other components are inferior.)


Um... sure...


- The OnAir GT also includes an nVidia PureVideo Decoder license, one of the best decoders in the industry. (This alone makes up much of the price difference.)


PureVideo is good, unfortunately Nvidia video chipsets that support it are not very common in laptops.

This guy, for example, would be out of luck (as would anyone who buys a dell or lenovo which ship with mostly on-board intel):
Question.
I have an HP Laptop with AMD Turion 64 mobile tech ml-37
1.59ghz, 1G RAM & an ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200series display adapter.




- The software/drivers with the OnAir GT are a lot more stable than other manufacturers' attempts.


I'll try it out and let you know. It couldn't be worse the DVBView software that comes with the AirStar PCI cards (also based on the 5th gen LG tuner chips).

According the AutumnWave website, the minimum requirements for this device with ATI based video cards are:

Radeon 7200 or higher

Mobility Radeon 7500 or higher

with 32MB Video Memory or higher.

I just tried using the OnAir with my friends Dell Latitude D810 laptop which has an ATI Mobility Radeon X600 video card which has 128MB shared video memory and it worked fine when viewing and recording OTA ATSC HDTV. We didn't even install the Pure Video decoder.

Richard,
Your HP laptop should work fine. One of our Compaq/HP lab computers has lower specs, and works fine. (ML-34, 512MB RAM, ATI Xpress 200)


hamstrung,
Actually, on the contrary, the nVidia PureVideo Decoder (despite the name) will work with other manufacturers' hardware, including Intel, ATI, VIA/S3, (and of course nVidia.) The only difference is that the nVidia cards have additional capabilities to extend the Decoder's functionality.

To clarify: You don't need an nVidia graphics card to run the nVidia PureVideo Decoder.

Thanks for your feedback!

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

Ryan, I think you'll find that we are quite the sceptics here. :)

I just tried using the OnAir with my friends Dell Latitude D810 laptop which has an ATI Mobility Radeon X600 video card which has 128MB shared video memory and it worked fine when viewing and recording OTA ATSC HDTV. We didn't even install the Pure Video decoder.

Yup, with enough CPU power you can do playback of the MPEG2 ts stream without the PureVideo installed... PureVideo really helps lowering the CPU usage and making for less choppiness and stuttering (1080i - 1920x1080 is a big video stream to push around normally).

Richard,
hamstrung,
Actually, on the contrary, the nVidia PureVideo Decoder (despite the name) will work with other manufacturers' hardware, including Intel, ATI, VIA/S3, (and of course nVidia.) The only difference is that the nVidia cards have additional capabilities to extend the Decoder's functionality.
To clarify: You don't need an nVidia graphics card to run the nVidia PureVideo Decoder.


I get the vibe from reading Nvidia's HD and DVD PV pages that PV doesn't do anything without a PV supported geforce gpu. Not to say that your tuner wouldn't work just fine with software decoding...

PV is nice though, I'd be interested to find out from someone who has a non-nvidia gpu how much of a CPU usage drop PV gives when rendering HD.

Yup, with enough CPU power you can do playback of the MPEG2 ts stream without the PureVideo installed... PureVideo really helps lowering the CPU usage and making for less choppiness and stuttering (1080i - 1920x1080 is a big video stream to push around normally).hamstrung,
Without the PureVideo decoder installed, our 'backup' is to use an InterVideo decoder. It has a lot less features, but does the job if no PureVideo decoder is installed. Our software has an option to enable DxVA (DirectX Video Acceleration). Unchecked will use the CPU... checked will use the DxVA of the video card (in either decoder.)

I get the vibe from reading Nvidia's HD and DVD PV pages that PV doesn't do anything without a PV supported geforce gpu. Not to say that your tuner wouldn't work just fine with software decoding...

PV is nice though, I'd be interested to find out from someone who has a non-nvidia gpu how much of a CPU usage drop PV gives when rendering HD. Yes, nVidia's website does not document other video cards other than their own.

In this test, I'm watching a 1920x1080 stream using an ATI X800 with an Athlon 64 3200+ (on Windows XP SP2). Here are some screenshots of CPU usage with various decoding options:

nVidia PureVideo Decoder (roughly 20-25% CPU usage with full HD):
http://www.autumnwave.com/images/stories/misc/forums/PureVideo.jpg

InterVideo Decoder, used by default if nVidia Decoder not found on system (roughly 30-40%):
http://www.autumnwave.com/images/stories/misc/forums/InterVideo.jpg

No DxVA. Using CPU to decode (roughly 60-80%):
http://www.autumnwave.com/images/stories/misc/forums/No_DxVA.jpg

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

Ryan,

Does the "Autumn Wave On-Air HDTV GT" have a hardware MPEG encoder for the NTSC tuner (obviously one isn't needed for the ATSC and QUAM tuners)?

stampeder,
Skepticism is not always bad. I am skeptical of my own personal purchases, and I would expect many to be skeptical of the OnAir GT. However, that's why I make myself available here, so I can answer questions/comments that do arise. :)

Hello Roger,
The OnAir GT does not have a hardware MPEG encoder for NTSC. (It uses a software encoder.) A hardware encoder is something that adds another ~$50 to the cost, and additionally uses more power than a USB port could supply. (We do have a 'Creator' tuner that does have an MPEG2 encoder.)

- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

I'd be interested in a comparative review with the Hauppauge 950 since I've seen that listing for just over a $100 at some online retailers in Canada.

I am considering buying an HDTV tuner for my PC but I am not sure about the reception in my area (Dundas & 3rd Line), anybody has any idea how I could check before I invest in the hardware?

Thanks

NBAraps:

Go to the OTA Forum and read the threads regarding reception in your location.

For those interested, another review of the USB 2.0 HDTV-GT Receiver tested by Cyclism:
http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/onair.html

Please note I am not endorsing this product as I have not tried it. I am just posting additional resources for those who might be interested.

I'd be interested in a comparative review with the Hauppauge 950 since I've seen that listing for just over a $100 at some online retailers in Canada.

I too have been looking at both products. The review link from post 15 kinda gives me the "willies" about CPU usage. It said, in part:

"Anyway, I found that for standard TV, the HVR 950 required about 45-50% of the CPUs power. That is a fairly significant percentage given the power of the Core 2 at 2.16 GHz. But it does its job well, so I am not going to complain. Clearly, this TV Tuner uses software based decoding, but as long as you have a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor you should be fine. Based on my previous experience with software based TV tuner a Pentium M or lesser CPU would choke.
High Definition TV was another matter entirely. When using the standard antenna to receive over-the-air HDTV, it required as much as 75% of my Core 2 (2.16 GHz) processor’s power. Clearly, decoding live HDTV is a beast of a task, and one task that you would probably need a T2500/T7200 processor to successfully run with some head room to spare for additional background programs."

I have a Sony FS980, 1.73 GHz, 1GB Ram. Since I have invested heavily into a good outdoor DT antenna plus Star Choice satellite, it would make sense to purchase a tuner that could handle both when in the home environment. The OnAir looks promising.

After reading the review of the Hauppage, I tested the OnAir's CPU usage when viewing OTA HDTV.

With Direct X Video Acceleration on in conjunction with the nVidia Pure Video decoder for OTA HDTV it required about 10 - 15% CPU usage on my Core 2 2GHz processor.

With it Direct X Video Acceleration off, the CPU usage was over 50%.

Telling numbers, indeed.

With it Direct X Video Acceleration off, the CPU usage was over 50%.Telling numbers, indeed.

So, my Pentium M would probably be at the choking point:eek:

I did try out the OnAir on my friend's Dell Latitude D810 which has a Centrino 1.86GHz (with 2 GHz RAM, albeit) and an ATI X600 video card, and it worked fine. I didn't check the CPU usage, but we didn't see any stuttering or anything else indicative of high CPU consumption. Although, to be frank, we also were not multitasking.
Check the autumnwave website for the minimal requirements for it to work.

jbracing24,
You can check my CPU usage on page 2 of this thread. You'll find that many tuners will use software decoding. The quality of the decoder plays a large role in CPU usage (other than the hardware itself.) The OnAir tuner ships with the nVidia PureVideo Decoder, which (if you look around the web) is usually regarded as the best decoder available.

A good indication of how HDTV will look on your computer is to view our HDTV sample clip.You'll need 2 programs installed to view the sample, which you can find at our website:


Download/Install the Program v2.99P3 (http://www.autumnwave.com/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,53/Itemid,138/) (which installs necessary files on your system)
Download/Install the OnAir HD Editor v1.1 (http://www.autumnwave.com/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,4/Itemid,177/) (the program which you can playback the sample clip)
Download the Sample HDTV Clip (http://www.autumnwave.com/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,3/Itemid,177/), and playback in the HD Editor program


Keep in mind, the above files use the 'InterVideo' decoder (because we can't distribute the nVidia PureVideo Decoder freely on the web.) If you do purchase the OnAir GT, you'd get the PureVideo license, and you'd see even better performance.

Thanks,

- Ryan Pertusio
AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/

Thanks for your help here and online support. I think I will make a purchase from the Canadian supplier listed earlier. Is that the only place?

The only retailers I know of offhand are Expansys.ca (http://www.expansys.ca/p.aspx?i=140064) and US retailers like CopperBox (http://www.copperbox.com/)

Thanks,
- Ryan Pertusio

AutumnWave Technical Support
OnAir Solution North America
http://www.autumnwave.com/