Giveaway Week 2023 – TBS7901 mini PCIe DVB-S2X/S2 module

TBS7901 mini PCIe DVB- S2X/S2 module giveaway

The second prize of Giveaway Week 2023 is a TBS7901 mini PCIe DVB-S2X/S2 module designed to be connected to a PC or board with a mini PCIe socket in order to watch, record, or broadcast free-to-air video received from a satellite dish. I received both M.2 and mPCIe DVB-S2X modules last August, but I haven’t had time to test any of those yet. So I’m keeping the M.2 module for my own testing once time permits and will be giving away the mini PCIe module to one of CNX Software readers. The module comes with a coaxial antenna cable, as well as a TBS-7901PW power board and SATA power cable since DVB-S/S2/S2X satellite TV requires 13V and 18V DC as well which will be outputted won’t the power board using the 12V from a PSU. You’ll probably need a Windows machine too since TBS provides Windows drivers for the TBS7901 […]

M.2/mini PCIe card adds DVB-S2X/S2 tuner to desktop PCs and (some) SBC’s

TBS M.2 and mPCIe DVB-S2X/S2 cards

TBS has designed two small DVB-S2X/S2/S tuner cards with the TBS7230 M.2 module and TBS7901 mini PCIe module designed to easily add DTB support to a desktop PC or even a single board computer with the right interfaces. Both models are based on a Lattice Semi LFE3-17EA-6FTN256C FPGA and Montage LZ M88RS6060 single-chip DVB-S2X/S2/S receiver with a tuner, a demodulator, and an LNB controller, but as I understand it, the mPCIe module relies on a USB PCIe (see comments section) interface, while the M.2 module features a PCIe interface and you can even install more than one in a PC through a PCIe card for NVMe drives. TBS7901 specifications: Host interface – Mini PCIe edge connector Tuner DVB-S2X/S2/S DVB-S2 QPSK – 1/2, 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9, 9/10 8PSK – 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 8/9, 9/10 16APSK – 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9, 9/10 32APSK – 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, […]

Google ADT-4 could be a hybrid Android TV developer Kit with ATSC 3.0 and DVB-S2 TV tuners

Google ADT-4

Google is allegedly about to release the ADT-4 hybrid developer kit for Android TV based on Amlogic S905X4 processor with AV1 video support, as well as ATSC 3.0 and DVB-S2 tuners. Launched in January 2020, the Google ADT-3 developer box allows developers to test their app on the latest version of the Android TV OS as soon as it is released. But 9to5Google reports the devkit has been out of stock for several months, will be deprecated, and they’ve read some documentation about an ADT-4 Hybrid Developer Kit that should replace it by the end of the year or early next year with digital TV tuners. The documentation is private/confidential, but 9to5Google says the device looks to the DroidLogic’s Amlogic S905X4 Developer Box with the following specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X4 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR4 Storage – 16GB […]

Realtek RTD1319D STB processor supports 4K H.266 and AV1 video decoding

Realtek RTD1319D H.266 AV1

Realtek RTD1319D is the first set-top box processor to support H.266 (aka Versatile Video Coding) video compression standard. The new SoC also provides a GPU with 10-bit graphics, support for multiple Conditional Access Systems (CAS), and HDMI 2.1a video output capable of up to 4Kp60 with HDR. One would have thought the royalty-free AV1 video codec might have killed licensed codecs such as H.266, but it’s clearly not the case, since Realtek decided to launch the RTD1319D processor with the new codec, and the primary reason may be because the H.266/VCC codec was added to the DVB specification last February for both 4K (3840×2160) and 8K (7680×4320) resolutions. Realtek RTD1319D preliminary specifications: CPU – Quad-core Arm processor GPU – Unnamed GPU with 10-bit graphics Video Output – HDMI 2.1a up to 4Kp60 HDR Video Codecs 4Kp60 Versatile Video Coding (VVC/H.266) 4Kp60 AV1, H.265 Tuner support Built-in DVB demodulators Multiple TS […]

Amlogic S905C2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor supports digital TV tuners, CAS

Amlogic S905C2

Amlogic S905C2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor has been showing up in some Android 11 set-top boxes (with tuner), and a development kit, but with limited public information. The specifications appear to be similar to the ones for Amlogic S905X4 processor plus additional support for DVB tuners and conditional access (CAS) with the latter confirmed by an independent source saying the Amlogic S905C2 processor is part of the Android 11 SDK with a reference board named “ohmcas”. Amlogic S905C2 preliminary specifications: CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G31MP2 with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0/1.1, and OpenCL 2.0 Memory I/F – Up to 4GB DDR3-2133, DDR3L-2133, DDR4-3200, LPDDR3-2133, LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM Storage I/F – eMMC 5.0, NAND Flash, SPI NOR/NAND, SD Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4Kp60, HDCP2.3, CVBS Video Decoding – AV1 up to 4Kp120, 10-bit H.265, VP9, AVS2 up to 4Kp75, H.264 4Kp30 […]

Rockchip RK3568 SBC to power 4G/5G, WiFI 6 connected smart displays, features an optional tuner

Geniatech K3-3568 SBC smart display

Geniatech is back with another Rockchip RK3568 SBC. The K3-3568 single board computer is designed specifically for smart displays with 4G LTE, 5G, or WiFi 6 connectivity, and follows last year’s “Geniatech RK3568 development board” (aka DB3568) offered as a full-featured development kit for Rockchip RK3568 SoC. K3-3568 SBC ships with up to 8GB RAM, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and offers multiple display interfaces with HDMI, MIPI DSI, LVDS, eDP, plus and an internal HDMI input connector, as well as support for an optional DVB-T2, ISDB-T, DMBT, or ATSC digital tuner. Geniatech K3-3568 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor up to 1.5/2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash MicroSD card slot M.2 socket for NVMe SSD (See expansion […]

TVMosaic CE (Community Edition) server released as open source by DVBLogic

TVMosaic PVR server open source

TVMosaic (formerly DVBLink) TV/PVR-server application has been released as a cross-platform open-source software, following the closure of DVBLink business last year. It used to be a commercial solution with support for digital TV tuners, live TV watching, PVR functions, DLNA, and more, and there was also a PVR client for Kodi that was part of the list of support PVR clients like TvHeadEnd. DVBLogic did not release the full source code due to licensing requirements, and instead, released the code for TVMosaic Community Edition (CE) server on Gitlab under an MIT license. Some of the missing features include: The Licensing engine since the server is now open-source DLNA server TVAdvisor electronic program guide (EPG) DVBLogic TVButler USB tuner support except in Windows TVMosaic is a cross-platform solution and is supposed to work on Windows 7  or higher, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit or higher, Debian 9.1 64-bit or higher, MacOS, 10.12 […]

Geniatech DB10 – An AI development board with Amlogic A311D SoC, HDMI input, optional TV tuner

Geniatech DB10

Amlogic A311D hexa-core Cortex-A73/A55 AI processor has found its way into a limited number of platforms including Khadas VIM3 SBC, Zora P1 development board for Orbbec 3D cameras, as well as the upcoming Jevois Pro AI camera. Another development board that takes advantage of the Amlogic A311D processor is Geniatech DB10 which ships with up to 4GB LPDDR4, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and offers interesting features like a digital TV tuner, HDMI input, support for 3G/4G modems, and more. Geniatech DB10 specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D hexa-core processor with quad-core Arm Cortex-A73,  dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor, Arm Mali-G52 MP4 (6EE) GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0 support, 5 TOPS NPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 (4GB optional) Storage – 16GB eMMC flash (8 to 64GB optional) Video Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4Kp60 Dual-channel LVDS (shared with eDP) via 30-pin connector Input HDMI input up […]

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