I have one of these lying around from the switch to digital TV. Would this work w/ SDR Sharp?
Sabrent TV-USBHD Dual ATSC & Digital HDTV and Analog TV Tuner
Sabrent TV-USBHD Dual ATSC & Digital HDTV and Analog TV Tuner
Will this work w/ SDR Sharp?
- Thread starter galenxxxx
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N0IU
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This is pretty much a WAG on my part, but my thinking is that it won't work. At the heart of all of these SDR systems using an RTL dongle is the Zadig driver.
My guess is that it won't see your device, but what the heck... get the Zadig driver and see if it recognizes it.
Zadig - USB driver installation made easy
My guess is that it won't see your device, but what the heck... get the Zadig driver and see if it recognizes it.
Zadig - USB driver installation made easy
br0adband
Member
No, it won't work because it's designed to be used with the ATSC digital TV system here in the US - I'm not 100% certain of this but I'm pretty sure one of the reasons (perhaps the primary one) that all the RTL sticks we currently use do function is because they're designed for use with the DVB-T type of digital TV broadcasting which is used everywhere else in the world - we Americans, just gotta keep doing things our own way I suppose. 
I know the basic principle should be "a tuner is a tuner, period" but I'm fairly confident that any ATSC tuners just don't work the same way and that's why people are always told to get the "cheap USB TV tuners" which means those designed for use everywhere except the US because we stick to the ATSC standard.
Again, I could be wrong about that so if someone more knowledgeable cares to chime in, by all means do so.
But from what I've gathered in my time with RTL sticks, every mention of them I've noted is because they're designed for DVB-T operation and that's why we're able to do all these cool things with them nowadays instead of digital TV. ATSC and DVB-T are similar in some respects but, stick with DVB-T devices like those from NooElec and other places - they'll plainly say DVB-T + DAB + (whatever, usually FM) on the stick casing itself. If it says ATSC then you're probably better off skipping it.
I know the basic principle should be "a tuner is a tuner, period" but I'm fairly confident that any ATSC tuners just don't work the same way and that's why people are always told to get the "cheap USB TV tuners" which means those designed for use everywhere except the US because we stick to the ATSC standard.
Again, I could be wrong about that so if someone more knowledgeable cares to chime in, by all means do so.
But from what I've gathered in my time with RTL sticks, every mention of them I've noted is because they're designed for DVB-T operation and that's why we're able to do all these cool things with them nowadays instead of digital TV. ATSC and DVB-T are similar in some respects but, stick with DVB-T devices like those from NooElec and other places - they'll plainly say DVB-T + DAB + (whatever, usually FM) on the stick casing itself. If it says ATSC then you're probably better off skipping it.
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The TV tuner sticks with the RTL2832U chip work because ... well ... they have an RTL2832U chip in them. This particular chip supports 8 bit sampled IQ data at up to 3.2 million samples per second.
The chip has a hardware decoder for a soon to be obsolete European digital TV broadcast standard (which is why they're so cheap). When using the RTL stick as an SDR, the digital TV decoder is not used. The Windows drivers included with these sticks also decode DAB (digital audio broadcast) and analog FM stereo by placing the RTL chip in IQ mode and demodulate in software.
It's the IQ data mode, not the video demodulator, that makes this work. Most likely, the TV tuner stick linked above does not have an RTL2832U chip in it. Buy one with an RTL2832U and save your TV stick for watching TV.
The chip has a hardware decoder for a soon to be obsolete European digital TV broadcast standard (which is why they're so cheap). When using the RTL stick as an SDR, the digital TV decoder is not used. The Windows drivers included with these sticks also decode DAB (digital audio broadcast) and analog FM stereo by placing the RTL chip in IQ mode and demodulate in software.
It's the IQ data mode, not the video demodulator, that makes this work. Most likely, the TV tuner stick linked above does not have an RTL2832U chip in it. Buy one with an RTL2832U and save your TV stick for watching TV.
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