Q: Does PCIHDTV Work with Microsoft WindowsXP Media Centre Edition 2005?
A: Yes the included BDA driver works well. In addition, Inventa Australia offers a Windows GUI utility software "freqchange" that allows easy viewing & editing any DVB-T frequencies used by MCE2005 to better locate TV channels, which MCE2005 from time to time does not scan very well no matter which DVB-T tuner hardware is used.
Q: In Which Aspects PCIHDTV Is Better than All Other PCI DTV Tuners?
A: In all these aspects:
-- Guaranteed tuning to all Australia DVB-T channels. In Sydney metro this means about 45 channels.
-- Guaranteed fully synchronised DVD-compliant MPEG2(.mpg) recording regardless time/length
-- Always-on perfect quality timeshift regardless recording on/off with easy one-click operation
-- Powerful Channel Frequency Editing down to any Herz add, change, delete
-- Absolute smooth HD/SD TV viewing inc. AC3/1080i HD TV viewing without jitter
-- Full Teletext, Subtitle, EPG Functions in separate windows side by side with video window
Q: So PCIHDTV Beats All Other PCI DTV Tuners including those Most Expensive Ones?
A: Yes absolutely.
Q: Will different digital TV tuners deliver very different quality video/audio on the same PC?
A: Yes absolutely, despite the broadcast digital TV signal are the equally high-quality, different digital TV tuners on the same PC can deliver very high, or very low quality video and audio, including video frame break-ups, jittering pictures, colour noise, and out-of-sync'ed audio. The claims that using same software will make all digital TV tuners deliver same quality video are totally incorrect. Furthermore, there is no TV software that can work on all digital TV tuners.
Q: Why So Many PCI DTV Tuners Cannot Find Australia Digital TV Channels?
A: Because they were not customised to work in Australia. Both PCIHDTV and FireDTV have been specifically customised to work in this country, while they also work in their designers' area/country.
Q: Why So Many PCI DTV Tuners Display Poor Quality Video and Audio?
A: Because their hardware and software were not designed properly. We have several brand DTV tuners in our office that always display blocky and choppy video accompanied by broken sound, since year 2004 until now, using the same so-so quality antenna that allows PCIHDTV and FireDTV display perfect video and audio, on all 45 channels, of which many cannot even be found by those poorly designed "digital TV tuners".
Q: Why Timeshifting Never Work on Many DTV Tuners?
A: Mainly due to their poor design of video recording mechanism. While PCIHDTV and FireDTV can easily timeshift on multiple tuners even during simultaneous multi-channel recording on Celeron 2GHz or Athlon 2000 PCs, many PCI DTV tuners cannot timeshift on even the fastest PCs and have to turn off timeshift during any TV recording.
Q: Are DVD-Compliance and Audio/Video Out-of-Sync Problems Wide-spread?
A: Yes, most of the DTV tuners on the market cannot record DVD-compliant A/V synch'ed video file.
Q: Which Personal Video Recorder/TV Tuning Software Work with PCIHDTV?
A: ShowShifter, MyTheatre, MediaPortal, GBPVR, MedaiCentreEdition2005, etc.
Q: Will All TV Tuning Software Supporting DBA Driver Work with PCIHDTV?
A: In theory yes, in practice some settings might need to be done on some software.
Q: What Antenna Do I Need to Use with PCIHDTV?
A: The same TV antenna as you use for analogue TV reception.
Q: Can We Burn PCIHDTV Recorded Digital TV Programs onto DVD disks as DVD-Movies?
A: Yes straight away after recording using DVD authoring software such as Ulead DVDMoviefactory, Nero, Adobe EncoreDVD, etc.
Q: Can Other PCs Play PCIHDTV Recorded Digital TV Video Files?
A: Any PCs with appropriate MPEG2 decoder, inc. Windows PCs, Mac PCs and Linux/Unix PCs will play them immediately, because the recorded files are generic program-stream MPEG2 video files.
Q: So PCIHDTV Is Perfect? How Does It Compare with <<PC-User>> only Top-Buy Award Winner FireDTV?
A: No product could be even near perfect, PCIHDTV is just better than other PCI DTV tuners. It is not as good as FireDTV in at least these aspects:
-- cannot be used by Laptop PCs
-- cannot run on PentiumIII PCs
-- cannot run two tuners to record/watch/timeshift simultaneously
-- have no DVB-S model
Generic Question on Digital TV:
Q: Can I Receive Digital TV Program?
A: Most Australian cities inc. small township can receive digital TV broadcasting, please check
http://www.dba.org.au/index.asp?sectionID=89
Q: How Many Terrestrial Digital-TV Channles Can I Receive in Sydney?
A: Currently (Jan. 2005) about 45~46 TV channels from 6 TV Stations: ABC(Digital Channel 12), SBS(Digital Channel 34), 7(Digital Channel 6), 9(Digital Channel 8), 10(Digital Channel 11), and DigitalFortyFour(Digital Channel 35). Each station has several sub-channels.
Q: What is the maximum resolution of video we can receive in Australia' digital TV program?
A: Currently 1440X1080-Pixel interlaced. This probably will change to 1920X1080i by 2008 when full conversion to digital TV broadcasting is in place.
Q: What is the maximum data rate we can receive using digital TV Tuner cards in Australia' digital TV program?
A: 19.3 Mbits/sec.