Artec T14A Mini USB 2.0 HDTV tuner - Page 2

not realy a weasel.... my HTPC has a ati550 card for analog and a Fusion USB for HD.... I unplugged the Fusion, took the antenna cable off the ati550 and hooked it to the Fuji, plugging the Fuji into the USB port that the Fusion was in. Fired up Media Center and went into setup. set up the Fuji with OTA and scanned channels.... I was able to recieve ALL of my locals, both analog and digital !!

So does this mean you had dual tuner capability for the analog channels since you already have a separate analog tuner? Too bad you can't hook cable up to the fuji to get more analog channels.

Also, this does indicate that you probably still need a separate analog tuner for the fuji to work. I was sort of hoping the fuji might work around the MCE analog tuner requirement since its analog channels are recongnized. I suppose this is still a remote possibility.

well, the ati550 was still in there, but with no signal.... maybe this weekend I'll yank it and try without the ati card in the box....

didn't put the cable on the Fuji cause I won't get any HD !!! I was really stoked at first when they said it would do QAM, which was later retracted....

If you could run that experiment, it would be great.

Also, I suppose if you're planning to catch OTA HD using the Fuji, the analog capability is severely cut because you'll never get as many analog signals OTA as you would straight from cable. With the Fuji, you can't have cable connected for analog and antenna connected for HD, can you? That would be the next best thing to QAM in my opinion.

Only one "F" connector on the device, so I believe the answer would be no.

I knew there was a trick to it.

Let me be a contrarian: the Artek t14A will not work in WMCE without the presence of a separate analog tuner that does hardware MPEG encoding.

Ok here is something strange that I don't know quite how to explain why it works.

I own the Artec which is of course only ATSC, no analog. I don't own any other USB based tuner, and I am using a laptop thus I can't use PCI based cards. I have MCE on my laptop, but wasn't using it for TV since I had no tuner prior to buying the Artec. I heard all the reports that it would not work without an analog tuner, so at first I didn't bother trying it. But then I decided what the heck.

When I went into setup in MCE I tried the automatic setup. It failed because it could not find a tuner. But then I tried the manual setup. I chose the antenna connection option and then setup my zip code etc. To my amazement it showed guide listings for both ATSC and NTSC. Of course it could not tune to any NTSC channels, but would tune in ATSC.

So this is somewhat contradictory of what I have been reading. One article I read was that the requirement for NTSC tuner was something to do with getting the guide listings correct. My setup now shows NTSC and ATSC listings, but I just can't tune the NTSC.

Maybe this behavior is specific to just the Artec. I have never connected any other tuner to this machine previously, since I have not had access to a USB based NTSC tuner. But it is definately working. My laptop has some cpu utilization issues with some HD channels, but it still works.

See here

Interesting.... what intrigues me is that MCE uses the Fuji unit on NTSC, which implies one of two things... either the Fuji is a true hardware mpeg tuner on NTSC, or, the requirement for a hardware encoding card is also gone.... hope I get some time to play this weekend.... if it continues to work the way I see it, I may buy another one for my analog cable channels (it has an s-video input dongle !) and free up a PCI slot by removing the ati550....

Those of you with the Fuji unit: is the heat generated by the hardware excessive in your opinion?

It's definitely "warm".... but it keeps on workin'

Well, I got the FujiPlus unit today. So far, so good for the most part. It's reception is fairly good in my house, but not perfect. But then my HDTiVo isn't perfect either with a better antenna. The HD picture it produces is stunning. I haven't fully figured out the DVR and EPG functionality yet, but it definately ain't a TiVo! I'm running this on a 1.83Ghz Core Duo Sony Vaio laptop with XP Pro. Since I don't have MCE, what other DVR software should I try to use with it?

My wife is severely hearing-impaired, so closed caption support is a must in any home theater stuff I use. (DVD subtitles are a godsend!) Could one of you with the Fujiplus try out the captions on normal and HD?

Just ordered the fuji from newegg..a few bucks cheaper than mwave with shipping factored in. We'll see how it does!

How was the setup/installation? Do you use the antenna that comes with it? Would it work with my laptop which is a dell Ins 9300 (1.6ghz)?
Sorry for too many questions.

artec just dropped to a nice price at zzf...

MyHD supports both NTSC and ATSC CC also.

The reason I specifically ask is that at least some HD solutions don't show captions. My parents have a 4:3 36" HD Sony XBR, purchased ~3 years ago, hooked up to Dish Network. They don't get captions on the HD channels. CC is required only for 13" or larger TVs; external tuners don't necessarily support them. (And indeed, I made the mistake of purchasing one such external tuner -- of the kind that displays straight to a RGB analog pinout.)

$49.99 after a $70 Instant Rebate.

in regard to several earlier questions....

1. Setup - I had the best luck installing the software first, then when it comes up with a dialog that says the device is not attached, I plug the FujiPlus into the USB port and all continues well.

2. Antenna - the supplied antenna is almost useless. A channel scan with the supplied antenna gave no results, but when hooked to an external TV antenna, the scan found everything it should in my area. I think the little tuner "needs" a fairly strong signal to pass it's receiving threshold.

3. I tried a recording of network HD, but it bombed out.....probably operator error....I have not read the manual yet - that would make it too easy.... 8-}

Try out the littel antenna outside your building.

Anyone knows if there is a store online that would ship the Fujiplus to Canada ? Could not find any. I would be really greatful if someone could.

Thanks

I recently purchased the Artec T14A for 59.99 at zipzoomfly despite reading numerous reviews that ripped mercilessly on this poor little TV tuner. After reading these, I had very low expectations for the Artec and planned on returning it if anything were to go wrong.

I opened up this hoss yesterday and was a little confused by the bizarre antenna. I don't know how they managed to make what looks like a Thai postcard into an antenna, but what I do know is that it works better than the behemoth of an antenna atop my roof. After inspecting the unorthodox antenna, I immediately connected everything and installed it on my new laptop:

IBM Thinkpad Z61t
Intel Core Duo 2.0 ghz
1GB RAM
Intel 945GM graphics chipset (128mb shared)

The installation went smoothly and I then fired up the supplied viewing (not recording) software, which looks like it was whipped up in one day by some underpaid programmer in Taiwan. To my surprise, it found all the digital channels in my area on the first scan. Not only did it find them, I was able to watch them without any signal losses or hiccups in picture quality. I was amazed. After I figured out that recording wasn't possible in the supplied software, I acquired Beyond TV which recognized the tuner without problem and I was watching and recording HDTV in no time.

The Artec T14A is a brilliant, blinding light from heaven.


Boo haters!
Hooray Artec!

Good to hear the positive review on the artec. My only complaint is that it's not compatible with MCE 2005. The Fuji is...

Huh? my Artec is and has been working in MCE for two weeks now.... make sure you get the latest drivers from the website... as a side note, I removed the Fuji from my MCE machine since the NTSC section caused MCE to be unstable...

Will newegg?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815132001

"Ripped mercilessly" - Now c'mon, just reporting our actual experiences. Glad you got yours to work. Must be the faster processor you're using and you are probably closer to the signal. For me it did not work. Plus I would of needed to upgrade to BeyondTV as I don't have MCE. The OnAir GT was a better solution especially with S-video in from say a satellite and the built in cable tuner... but then again $100 more too! $59 is a great deal especially since you got it working.

If anyone wants WatchHDTV support, let me know. I think I have the information I need, but I'll need confirmation from someone that can get the info from graphedit or similar tool.

tuner- "Digital TV Tuner Filter"
capture- "Digital TV Capture Filter"

You can find these under BDA Receiver Component(capture) and BDA Source Filter(tuner) categories. If those names are correct for the tuner and transport stream capture, then that's all I need.

I'm going to update for other tuners as well so I can do them all at the same time.

If you can help, send me a PM with an email where I can send it to you test first.

Thanks.