Artec T14A Mini USB 2.0 HDTV tuner - Page 3

Bit the bullet and bought one for $59.99 at ZZF. It will be here sometime end of next week. Will post a review bad or good, let's hope it be a good one.

I posted a review of the Artec on pcalchemy after purchasing this. The results weren't encouraging at that point. But I found later that the issues I saw seemed to be coming from the incompatibilities between the ATI HDTV Wonder and the Artec.

Both tuners had issues while in the same computer. If used seperately they worked fine.

I've updated WatchHDTV to support the Artec. If you want to try it out, send me a PM with an email where I can send it to you.

Does anybody know whether the FujiPlus (or the Artec) will work with BeyondTV on XP? i.e., does anybody have it working, or think that it ought to work?

Allright guys, heres the deal. I've been researching USB HD tuners for awhile now. Originally I was planning on getting the Fusion USB Gold, but cost is quickly becoming an issue. Now I'm looking into the Artec, but I'm worried about what my reception is going to be. I live in the middle of San Diego county (Southern California, zipcode 92064), and according to AntennaWeb, I'm 15-20 miles away from both of the major transmitters. One signal is to the south, and the other to the south-west. If I got the Artec, I'd put the antenna in my bedroom window which faces south. Will the distance from the transmission towers be an issue? My laptop should have no problems showing the signal. It's an AMD Turion 64, 1.8ghz, 1gb ram, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (128mb), over 400gb of external hdd space, and running Windows MCE 2005. I also already have an analog tuner, Hauppauge PVR2 USB, and my laptop decodes 1080i .tp files just fine. For everyone that had positive experiences with the Artec, how far away from the transmission towers were you?
Thanks!

I am about 26 miles from the towers. Great reception with the Artec.

35 miles but using a Silver Sensor....

I have tested the Artec with BTV 4.0 and it works fine with it. Just make sure to download the latest drivers from: http://www.ultima.com.tw/ehtm/be124.htm

Just saw this in its web bsite, spec:

Special System Requirements P4 3.0 GHZ CPU or above
for HDTV function

Which concerns me. I just bought this (being shipped) to use with my Dell Insp 9300 lappy since I'm on the road a lot. My Dell's is Pentium Mobile 1.6ghz I think. Would it still work?

I have tried my ARTEC in my Desktop PC 2.4GHz. It works fine for DTV, and sometimes gets lags for HDTV, but still works.

I have a Dell's 1.6GHz laptop too, performence is ok for DTV and HDTV. However, I just upgraded to a HP 2.0GHz laptop recently. It almost perfect for both DTV and HDTV. (Just make sure you updated to the latest driver and software.)

Here's a dumb question on the FujiPlus tuner. Is the included composite/SVideo connector for video input or output?

Input.... it actually does a fairly good job as an MCE analog input...

Yes! I have tried that too! ARTEC and ATI HDTV Wonder "DO" conflict!! So I removed and uninstalled the ATI HDTV Wonder. Because ATI only scaned 2 or 3 'Digital' channels. Most of it scaned are analog channels. And Using ARTEC, I can see more than 10 channels.

Installed the latest driver from its web site. Scan which took a few minutes tuned in a bunch or DTv stations but I'm only interested from primary networks. Standard def worked w/o any lagging. HD prgrams worked mostly okay with some lagging, especially when with fast motion like sports. Overall I'm happy with its performance.
My computer is a Dell lappy Ins 9300 (1.6ghz Pent Mobile with 2gb dram)

Thanks for all the input guys! I went ahead and ordered one from PCAlchemy yesterday, and it should be here on Monday (Their warehouse is only ~10 miles from here, but I was too lazy to call in and schedule a pickup ) I'll post my results here once I get it.

note that any complaints about video lagging and such have NOTHING to do with the Artec (or FujiPlus, for that matter) hardware.... I have one plugged in alongside a Fusion5 USB and under MCE, there is zero difference.... I suspect laptop video is the culprit above...

I almost concur. The antenna strength is another big factor as always with OTA tuner. I used two different antennas, one being indoor and another is in my house attic. Same dtv station, the indoor lags horrible, the attic one is smooth as silk. the cpu is another pretty big factor in crunching HD data. For $59.99 shipped, this one is clearly a steal! Does it support DVR, anyone know?

I am noob and I had a simple question to ask. If money weren't an issue, Which usb tuner would you buy. Currently I have a 2.0 GHz Centrino Processor on my Dell Latitude with 1 gig of ram. The options are the Artec T14A, the FujiPlus, or the DVICO Fusion 5 USB. Thanks!

The appeal of the DVICO is the QAM tuner, but is you only care about OTA NTSC, the form factor of the other two are much nicer.

I guess the primary things are OTA SD DTV (rather than HD) as well ease of use. Hopefully one is easier to install that the others. I don't think I have the processing power to do HD. I am just leery about the fujiplus and artec because they seem pretty new and less covered (via forums/press). They seem like good deals but I rather spend the extra money if I have to pull out less hair.

I just received my ordered FujiPlus from NewEgg. Here is my comparison:

Extra infomation: I live in the north of Dallas ,TX. It's about 25 miles away from the downtown TV stations. (according to AntennaWeb)


= ARTEC14A =
support ATSC only
Scaned channels : 16~21
Viewable channels (no serious lags) : 10~17
EPG : some
Caption : no
Time shifting : no
Record : no
MCE compatible : yes
BDA compliant : yes

= FUJIPLUS =
Support ATSC/NTSC and (S-Video ?)
Scaned channels : 1~8
Viewable channels (noserious lags) : 1~3
EPG : some
Caption : yes
Time shifting : yes
Record = yes (but haven't try it yet)
MCE compatible : no
BDA compliant : no


Like Audiopho said, I think antenna is a big factor that decides how many channels you can see/scan. Above results are using the same antenna which came with ARTEC, and facing the same direction by my window (the direction also provides by AntennaWeb). However, when I changed to the antenna that came with FUJIPLUS (also by my window), I can scan/view 0 channel! And I saw a note on the box of the FUJIPLUS said, Provided small antenna is for strong signal area use only. So I think this antenna is not for my home location.

P.S. Using ARTEC's antenna and FUJIPLUS TV Tuner, I can't scan/tune/view any analog channel. So I assume for analog, I should use different antenna?

Does anyone know about the tuner described in

http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/..._0828hdtv.html

is it a new player? The article says Walmart is selling it, but I didn't see it on their web site.

Sheesh. Can nobody use Google anymore?

Try this thread.

As realtors say location, location, location. I get all 10 digital Austin TX channels just fine with the Fujiplus and the included antenna, and I'm in a bottom area with lots of trees in the antenna farm direction, from about 10 miles away.

The Fujiplus does have BDA drivers and works just fine with MCE. In fact it works w/MCE without a separate analog tuner if you use a part of the Kram Drivers. I'll have a full install routine for the Fujiplus w/MCE on my site www.hdtvtunerinfo.com by the end of the week.

As far as analog, the Fujiplus stinks. I would definitely recommend a real analog tuner if you want SD stuff.

Hey, Russ, nice site! Thanks for the link. (One nit: I think that the H2M description would be improved by pointing out that it actually doesn't always work for "converting" and its main purpose is really editing TS without conversion to PS)

Russ,

Thanks for the great website!

I am totally agreed with you! Location is important! Looks like you got a great location with very strong signal (only 10 miles away)! BTW, trees don't blocks the signals, only metal does. And bottom area is not an issue either, as long as it covered by the station's signal tower.

I will try your routine for the FujiPlus w/MCE today. Thanks again!

By the way. With MCE its no longer required to have a seperate analog tuner, you can just use an ATSC tuner if that is all you want. One of the patches from Microsoft fixed that. I was suprised to find this out when I tried the artec with my laptop, which hasn't had another tuner hooked to it ever before.

Just thought I would point this out, in case you are wanting ATSC and worried that you need a NTSC tuner as well.

Is that true of XP MCE 2005? I thought that was just for Vista?

Are you sure about that? I thought a previous poster mentioned he got both the ATSC and NTSC tuner working in MCE.