ATSC/QAM Tuners For PC FINALLY available at Major Canadian Retailers

[alebowgm]

Just was on the Futureshop website, and it appears that they are now selling the Hauppauge Win TV HVR USB Stick, available on both their website and IN STORE. While this is not a STB but only for the computer, I think this is a major first step in the right direction by Futureshop. Personally, I may go grab one tommorow to try out, being that Futureshop has pretty much a no questions asked return policy, just to play around with and test somet stuff out (ie, if my STB is the reason I have trouble pulling in some stations)...

[stampeder]

Good catch! I found the FS link:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...33&catid=10524

[climacus]

BestBuy have been selling these for $89 for the past couple of weeks..

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...33&catid=20397

[stampeder]

He was talking about how it is a major step forward for Future Shop, not about the price. I agree that they've finally started to acknowledge OTA and I hope they start to bring in more OTA gear. Odd how Best Buy (same company) has it for so much cheaper...

It says it has a portable antenna too - anyone know if its a ZSS clone?

[Cyclism]

No, the antenna that comes with most USB PC tuners are telescoping "whip" antennas.

[Marc]

I picked one up last week. It's a 6 inch whip type antenna.
If anyone else has one, have you been able to decode closed captions?

[alebowgm]

Futureshop always matches Best Buy prices and vice-versa...

[blakew]

They ought to, their share product inventory numbers ie 100XXXXX

aka. web id

I'm going to just pick one up from the computer department, walk over to the home theater department and give the staff a lesson in DTV. I hate how 10times out of 10, they reply with "what's that?" or "you mean DirectTV?".

[blakew]

I went to futureshop and found the product we're all talking about... it's a USB device no bigger than a USB wireless adapter. At futureshop it retails for $110, however I also saw it at bestbuy for less, I think $80?

Anyways, I caught the eye of a IPG employee and asked him what he knew of the device. He was honest, and said he didn't know and was meaning to take a look at it (okay it's new, I'll give him that). I told him that it'll allow a laptop or desktop the ability to watch over-the-air HD signals. He was impressed, and asked me how many HD channels there were in Vancouver. I said two, CBC and CTV. With that, he started telling others in his department, and before I left, there were three IPG employees looking up the employee cost into the computer, all seriously considering it as a staff purchase. OTA 1, BDU's 0. Potentially three new OTA believers.

Then I walked over to the home theater department, where I saught out a HDTV that had a cable connection hooked up to it. I found one, it was also hooked up to a Shaw HD box (cable was split before entering both TV and HD box), it was a Sony TV so I was familiar with the remote and OSD menu, so I made sure it was on cable, then went to search for digital channels. This caught the eye of some product experts which said that I wouldn't find anything indoors, they're already tried. I explained, yes I know, but this is scanning for digital cable channels without the digital cable box. They also replied with, you won't find anything. The scan takes a while, and in about 10mins it has found 46 digital channels. With a grin, I flag over the skeptical PE, and show him what was being picked up without a DCT (36 or so music channels on various subchannels of ch63 and 64, CBC HD ch79.12, 63.9 some kind of shaw how to work your digital cable box channel that I wasn't able to get at home, and two french language music video channels 106.2 and .3).

He wasn't impressed, in fact he looked kinda pissed that I taught him something. So I said, you can use this to sell HDTVs that have built in QAM tuners as added value. He replied, and I quote "I've been doing this for 7years, I don't need selling tips. <started to walk away> I don't want customers to know about this, I'd rather sell them a HD cable box". I was thinking about stopping him as he left the area, and tell him, that he has a duty to the customer to inform them of what their TV can fully do with respect to OTA and clearQAM especially when they pay thousands of dollars for the pleasure... but I decided not to.

Instead, my impromptu demo caught the eye of many other HT employees, and even one very interested employee from merchandising. I went through the whole demo with him, putting on CBC-HD, and to prove it wasn't coming from the HD box (playing music on ch.407) I temporarily turned it off. I demo'ed the fact that the digital music channels were also coming through, I found the real channel that 407 is on... 64.17. The feed from the box was playing through the receiver, and the feed straight from the TV was playing through the TV speakers.

Interesting note... on the digital music channels, through the HD box there is a slight delay compared to the feed the TV was decoding... it was noticable but not significant (on the scale of a fraction of a second). I'm assuming the decoding abilities of the HD box are slower than the decoding abilities of the TV. This should of course vary from TV to TV.

Also interesting, is that the CBC-HD feed is different on Shaw than it is on *C (playing on a TV nearby). The main program is the same, but the commercials are completely different. The TVs were different, and too far away from eachother to compare the difference in PQ.

[stampeder]

Well I've got to say that you have much more patience and charity towards sales reps than I do, blakew! Good job.

[querty-m4n]

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...ta_hvr950.html

You’re prepared for the future. If you live in an area where you can’t currently receive ATSC digital TV, the WinTV-HVR-950 can still be used to watch and record analog TV from cable TV or a TV antenna. But you are prepared for the future! When ATSC digital TV comes to your area, WinTV-HVR-950 will also receive the new digital TV channels.

Nice! I may purchase one just for that

[hdgeo]

Originally Posted by blakew

With a grin, I flag over the skeptical PE, and show him what was being picked up without a DCT (36 or so music channels on various subchannels of ch63 and 64, CBC HD ch79.12, 63.9 some kind of shaw how to work your digital cable box channel that I wasn't able to get at home, and two french language music video channels 106.2 and .3).

Do you think a QAM tuner is worth getting in Canada? I read the FAQ here which indicated basically nothing was available in Canada. But you were able to receive a number of unscrambled HD channels from Shaw cable including CBC. No CTV?

[blakew]

Do I think it's worth it? Not unless it's already in my TV. I wouldn't go out and buy a QAM STB to just receive unencrypted digital channels.

Maybe for that DHCer his/her area doesn't have any clearQAM channels. I got the idea from a DHCer in Edmonton who said he got a few, so when I ordered basic cable, I ran a scan and sure enough, I got the exact same clearQAM channels he was talking about.

once again, the digital music channels (found in the 400's on a Shaw DCT), an audio free version of CBC-HD (exactly the same feed the HD box decodes), and two SD french language music video channels (with frequent jitters and pixelation - music videos are in english). To the best of my knowledge, these two music video channels aren't available for purchase from Shaw. No CTV. If you ask me, I think all of the local OTAs both SD and HD (if applicable) should be made available for free via clearQAM.

[hdgeo]

Yes, I agree. They should be part of basic cable (not free, but reasonably priced). If the CRTC was on our side the cable companies would be required to carry all local OTA DT channels via clear QAM for those who can't receive them OTA.

[blakew]

yeah, what I meant was that it be included in the basic cable fee.

I was in the HMV at Robson & Burrard, and walk talking with an employee there, and HD came up, and then I brought up OTA. Told him I get two HD channels for free, over the air, and he was interested. I told him about ATSC, and how futureshop and other retailers don't want people to know about DTV. Told him of the new USB ATSC tuner at futureshop, he's gonna check it out.

Another potential convert folks.