HawkEye I is a Compact & Lightweight COFDM / DVB-T Video Transmitter with Up to 10 km Range

Shenzhen Falco-Tech Corp has designed a small COFDM transmitter mostly useful for drones, unless you want to make you own very local TV station, that can transmit video from an HDMI camera such as GoPro Hero 4, and compatible with any DVB-T TV tuners as it sends the video unencrypted. HawkEye I DVB-T transmitter specifications: Transmission – COFDM technology Channel bandwidth –  6/7/8MHz (optional) Frequency –  200MHz-2400Mhz (optional) Forward coding – 1/2,2/3,3/4,5/6,7/8 Guard interval – 1/32,1/16,1/8,1/4 Range – Up to 1.5km to 10km SMA antenna connector Video Input – CVBS or HDMI Video Codec – H.264/H.265 encoding with hardware acceleration Resolution – SD/D1/720P/1080p Framerate – 25/30/60 fps Power Supply – 12V via 2-pin terminal Dimensions – 84 x 25 x 90mm (Aluminum case) Weight – 143 grams Operating Temperature Range – -20~60 degrees Celsius There’s no word about power consumption, so it’s unclear how it would impact fly time. I’m […]

Asus Zenfone Go TV Android Smartphone Includes a DVB-T2 & ISDB-T TV Tuner

Asus has introduced Zenfone Go TV Android 5.1 mid-range smartphone that only stands out thanks to its built-in digital TV tuner supporting DVB-T2 and ISDB-T standards letting you watch terrestrial digital TV on the go without needing Internet connection. Asus Zenfone Go TV (ZB551KL) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928) quad core Cortex A7 processor @  1.4GHz with  Adreno 305 GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 Storage – 16GB/32GB eMMC Flash, MicroSD card slot up to 64 GB Display – 5.5″ TFT display with capacitive touch panel; 1280×720 resolution, Gorilla Glass 3; 450nits brightness Tuner – SONY SMT-EW100 Digital TV (DTV) tuner supporting  DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-T2 Lite, ISDB-T, ISDB-Tmm Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi; Bluetooth V4.0+EDR +A2DP; GPS, GLONASS, AGPS & BDS Cellular Connectivity Dual Micro SIM card with Sual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) support Network Standard – WCDMA/TD-SCDMA/TDD-LTE/FDD-LTE Data Rate – LTE Cat4 – UL 50 / DL […]

LimeSDR Open Source Hardware Software Defined Radio Goes for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Canonical and Lime Micro showcased SoDeRa software defined radio (SDR) a couple of months ago, with a promise to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year. They’ve fulfill their promise, and launched the open source SDR, renamed to LimeSDR, on Crowdsupply. LimeSDR board specifications: FPGA – Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 Altera FPGA compatible with EP4CE30F23 System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M RF transceiver with continuous coverage of the frequency range between 100 kHz and 3.8 GHz; 61.44 MHz bandwidth 4 x TxOut and 6 x RxIn U.FL connectors Power Output (CW): up to 10 dBm Wi-Fi, GSM, UMTS, LTE, LoRa, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, Digital Broadcasting, configurable through apps. USB – 1x micro USB3 via CYUSB3014-BZXC Cypress Microcontroller  for control, data transfer and power Misc – Status LEDs, RGB LEDs, 4x switches Power – USB or external power supply Dimensions –  100 mm x 60 mm The board […]

Watch Live TV on the Go on your Smartphone or Tablet with a $38 Portable WiFi Digital TV Tuner Box

Companies have showcased products letting users watch DVB-T or ISDB-T channels since 2013, with products such as Geniatech WiTV, Tivizen USB dongles, or Geniatech PT115m/PT115e USB DVB-T Sticks. The only problem is that those devices never seem to become available, but I’ve now found that they’ve become easier to purchase since 2014 & 2015, with for example a “DTV Link” WiFi tuner box selling for $45.99 on Buyincoins, and compatible with SianoTV app for Android or iOS.“DTV Link” WiFi TV tuner box specifications & features: Digital TV Standards – DVB-T & ISDB-T Oneseg Codecs – H.264/MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, 7 to 10 meters max range. Battery – 600mAh rechargeable battery good for about 3 hours of TV viewing Dimension – 69 x 54 x 21mm Weight – 52g The device ships with a USB Charging Cable, and user’s manual in a bubble bag (no retail package). […]

Review of U4 Quad Hybrid Android Set-top box with DVB-T2/C and DVB-S2 Tuner

U4 Quad Hybrid is an Android 4.4 satellite, cable and terrestrial TV receiver powered by HiSilicon Hi3796M V100 quad core Cortex A7 supporting video decoding for H.264 and H.265 up to 4K @ 30 Hz. I’ve already taken a few pictures of the device and the board and tuner, shown how to easily configure another device or computer to stream live TV from this Android TV box, so today, I’ll write more about the Android and DVB parts both in terms of features and performance in the full review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve started by connecting USB peripherals and cables: USB 3.0 hard drive to USB 3.0 port, USB keyboard, and RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse and Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad, as well as Ethernet and HDMI cables, and the terrestrial and satellite antenna cables. The DVB-T2 connector is using an F-connector, so […]

OpenELEC (Vitmos OS) for VideoStrong/Venz K1 Plus Android DVB Receiver

Many recent TV boxes with digital TV tuner ship with Android, and run a custom DTV app to watch live TV. However, most ships without Dolby and DTS licenses, so you may end-up without audio for channels broadcasted with AC3 audio only, and if you’ve gotten used to Kodi TV interface previously you may want use it again. One workaround is to have Tvheadend or CESBO media server running in the device, and configure Kodi to use Tvheadend HSTP client to stream the video within your device. I’ve tested such video streaming on U4 Quad Hybrid recently since it’s enabled by default, but there’s no guarantee it would work with all Android DVB receivers. Another options is run version of OpenELEC with support for tuners, such as Vitaley S’ Vitmos 2.0 RC3 for Venz/VideoStrong K1 Plus based on Amlogic S905 processor. [Update: Vitmos 2.0 RC5 for K1 Plus DVB Combo […]

Stream Live TV to Your Computer or Smartphone with U4 Quad Hybrid Android TV Box, Kodi and TVheadend

TVheadend is a streaming server and recorder for Linux, FreeBSD and Android supporting DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C, DVB-T, ATSC, ISDB-T, IPTV, SAT>IP and HDHomeRun as input sources, and while in theory it should be possible to configure any recent Android TV set-top box with digital TV tuners, configuration is complex, and there’s no guarantee the tuner will be recognized. However, the manufacturer of U4 Quad Hybrid has already configured their box to support HTSP clients, so I’ve installed the latest firmware, and given it a try with my Android smartphone running Kodi 15.2 with TVheadend HTSP client, and I could successfully stream live TV (DVB-T2 free-to-air channels) to my smartphone. Once you’ve scanned the channels using DVB-T2 and/or DVB-S2, there’s no other configuration in U4 Quad Hybrid TV box, but you’ll still need to find out your IP address by going to Setup->Network, and WiFi, Ethernet or 3G depending on your […]

Review of K1 Plus Android TV Box with Combo DVB-S2/DVB-T2 Tuner

VideoStrong has launched K1 Plus TV box powered by Amlogic S905 processor last year, and I had the chance to review their model last November. But here I am reviewing K1 Plus again. Why? That’s because the company’s has several K1 Plus models: the “standard” version that’s just like any Android TV boxes, and the DVB version with DVB-S2, DVB-T2/C, or DVB-T2/C + DVB-S2 combo, and the latter is the one I’m reviewing today. K1 Plus DVB combo teardown revealed that the main board was exactly the same as K1 Plus “standard”, and that only a tuner card was added. So I’ll have a two part review with the first part checking if they fixed any of the bugs found on K1 Plus “Standard” with “November 2015” firmware in the new “January 27, 2016 DVB” firmware, and the second part will focus on testing DTV app with DVB-S2 and DVB-T2, […]