Bob wrote:
Hi,

Figure that some of you folks would likely know something about this.

Those really cheap USB Dongles that apparently allow one to watch TV on
their PC's:

The ones on Amazon, and elsewhere, all seem to be for European TV formats.

The magic keyword is ATSC. There are three formats for transmission, the
data streams are all variations on MPEG-TS data.

Europe and most of the world uses DVB-T and the improved DVB-T2, the
US chose ATSC based on the main criteria it was NOT DVB-T compatible,
and there is another incompatible format used in Japan.

Due to patent licensing issues, the really cheap ones will never be ATSC
compatible until someone in China produces them "under the table" (probably
a few years off).

As a comparison, DX.com has them for around $30, while DVB-T ones start
nder $15. eBay has similar prices.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
"Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician."
(sent to me by a friend)