DVBT 2 (2 Viewers)

[allanp81]

Why not combine the 2 though?

 

[brian_damage]

Why not combine the 2 though?

Cost!

If that single Hauppauge DVB-T2 tuner is going to retail for £99, BlackGold's dual tuner could easily be double that price.

So why buy two DVB-T2 tuners when you only need one?

 

[allanp81]

I think people would look at it as a single tuner and be put off.

 

[brian_damage]

Maybe... but like I said before - I wonder how much it will cost!

With set-top boxes selling for around £100, and that Hauppauge tuner priced to match, the BlackGold card is quite likely to be twice the price.


I don't know about you (or any of the other potential customers for this) but speaking for myself, I'd be put off by a price tag of £200 for a TV tuner card. Especialy if I knew that I could buy one DVB-T2 tuner and one DVB-T tuner and be equally well served.


A few years down the line (2015 did I read somewhere ?) DVB-T might get replaced by DVB-T2 in the UK, but by then I think it's safe to predict that the price of DVB-T2 tuners will have dropped substantially.


Don't get me wrong, it's great to see that BlackGold will be launching a DVB-T2 tuner, I just don't think a dual tuner is necesary, affordable or going to sell very well. I think a single T2 tuner, or a combination of 1xT + 1xT2 would have been a more tempting option, and would have been more competitively priced. But that's just my opinion.

 

[funkstar]

Because it probably doubles as a DVB-T tuner as well, so you can view normal freeview as well as the freeview HD channels.

But surely, one (expensive) DVB-T2 tuner and one (very cheap) DVB-T tuner would do just the same.

The DVB-T2 components will also handle DVB-T, just like USB3 components also handle USB2 and every other version as well.

What would happen if you had a DVB-T tuner and a DVB-T2 only tuner? You'd be watching a DVB-T mux and want to record from another DVB-T mux, aw shucks, that won't work and the DVB-T2 tuner is sitting there useless. What happes if Freeview decide to launch a second DVB-T2 mux in a couple of years time? Then you can only access one of them at a time.

If you are going to go DVB-T2 on a dual tuner product, you are just as well making them both DVB-T. Also, as more countries adopt DVB-T2, which I believe a lot of countries will in time, a product like this makes more and more sense. Other countries may convert their whole digital TV platforms to DVB-T2, you never know.

 

[brian_damage]

Because it probably doubles as a DVB-T tuner as well, so you can view normal freeview as well as the freeview HD channels.

But surely, one (expensive) DVB-T2 tuner and one (very cheap) DVB-T tuner would do just the same.

The DVB-T2 components will also handle DVB-T, just like USB3 components also handle USB2 and every other version as well.

What would happen if you had a DVB-T tuner and a DVB-T2 only tuner? You'd be watching a DVB-T mux and want to record from another DVB-T mux, aw shucks, that won't work and the DVB-T2 tuner is sitting there useless. What happes if Freeview decide to launch a second DVB-T2 mux in a couple of years time? Then you can only access one of them at a time.

If you are going to go DVB-T2 on a dual tuner product, you are just as well making them both DVB-T. Also, as more countries adopt DVB-T2, which I believe a lot of countries will in time, a product like this makes more and more sense. Other countries may convert their whole digital TV platforms to DVB-T2, you never know.

Nope - You've misunderstood.
WRT your first point: DVB-T2 is backwards compatible with DVB-T. It's part of the DVB-T2 spec.
WRT your second point, in your "couple of years time" DVB-T2 hardware will be a fraction of the cost it is now. Would you really want to pay for a premium priced dual-tuner card now, when you won't need it until 2015? Why would you do that? Can you even be sure that the OS you'll running in five years time will support it?!

Anyway, 'during the meanwhile', BlackGold have published details of their DVB-T2 card, the 3620. It's neat little card:

BGT3620 - BlackGold

It seems that the rumours of it being a dual DVB-T2 receiver were wrong. And quite right too, I say.
But I'm just not enitrely sure of the wisdom of including dual DVB-C tuners... I guess someone will have use for them, but not me! (Nor will I be paying for them)


So what do we expect the price of the BGT3620 to be? I suspect it's not going to be cheap... A "brave" (stupid) move by BlackGold if that's the case: DVB-T2 tuners are like "hen's teeth". BG could have made a real killing by launching an entry level PCI-E tuner. They would have had zero competition. And let's not forget that DVB-T2 is not just limited to the UK.

Instead BG have gone in the opposite direction and launched a product which many people won't want. They will surely suffer as a result. To quote the yellow guy: "Doh!"

 

[allanp81]

If it's around £100 or more then no chance I would buy it. All that money for just a couple of channels?

It seems that the rumours of it being a dual DVB-T2 receiver were wrong. And quite right too, I say.

Where is your information for that? It says dual tuner in the description clearly:

The world’s smallest (dual DVB-T/T2) half height card design enables this product to grace even the smallest and sleekest entertainment PC’s.

 

[brian_damage]

If it's around £100 or more then no chance I would buy it. All that money for just a couple of channels?

Where is your information for that? It says dual tuner in the description clearly:

The world’s smallest (dual DVB-T/T2) half height card design enables this product to grace even the smallest and sleekest entertainment PC’s.

As quoted by yourself, DVB-T/T2. Not dual DVB-T2.

 

[allanp81]

I read it as 2 tuners, capable of dvb-t and dvb-t2.

 

[funkstar]

Hardware receiver support - Analogue terrestrial (PAL, NTSC, CECAM), dual digital terrestrial including both DVB-T and DVB-T2, dual digital cable DVB-C.

I would say you can interpret that as being dual DVB-T2.

As for the need for dual DVB-T2, some unfortunate people use media center apps that will use a tuner per channel, even if they are on the same MUX. So if you want to record one HD stream and watch another you need dual DVB-T2 tuners. Of course MediaPortal doesn't have this limitation... which is nice