TEST REPORT DVB-C PC Card

DVB-C on the PC – Thanks to TBS

• at long last: cable TV on the PC or laptop computer • tuner with extremely low threshold • works with many TV applications thanks to BDA drivers • CI available for subscription TV

62 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 63 TEST REPORT DVB-C PC Card

TBS 5680 USB box has the IR receiver already built into Now you can receive cable TV its box and hence does not require an external unit. In- stead, we found a USB cable and an external power sup- on your PC or laptop computer ply unit in the cardboard box of the TBS 5680. We started out with the TBS 6618 which we con- The TBS 6618 is a PCI-e known as Tenow) prod- TBS 6984 with no less than nected to our test center PC. card with tuner and CI slot ucts have been presented four tuners. It was with The LGA 775 board we use for CAMs. The TBS 5680 is in TELE-satellite in recent great pleasure that TELE- provided an available PCI-e an external USB tuner which months and we even ran a satellite gave its ‘Innovation 1.0 slot. Since all TBS PCI-e also features a CI slot and company report in TELE-sat- Award’ to this extraordinary cards are compatible with all which is part of the QBox ellite 02-03/2011. The TBS product. versions, it does not make product family. Both devices product portfolio comprises TBS is now launching two a difference which slot you share a rather unique char- all types of PC receivers, more PC receivers that can use. Any will do, no matter acteristic: They are designed such as PC cards with DVB- be used to process DVB- whether 1x, 4x, 8x or 16x. for DVB-C, which stands for S/S2 and DVB-T/T2 tuners C signals on the PC. Many Slotting in the card was digital television distributed like the ones we introduced manufacturers turn their easy peasy – its measure- via cable networks. in TELE-satellite 10-11/2011. cold shoulder to DVB-C as ments fully comply with A number or TBS (also Among them is the famous far as PC cards are con- industry standards and so cerned, and you have to it fit into the existing slot look long and hard to find space nicely. The TBS 6618 suitable products at all. But draws its entire power from not everybody has access to the PCI-e interface, which satellite television and the means no more cables have range of digital terrestrial to be attached. channels is nothing to write For all its Windows-based home about in most regions. TV cards TBS uses so-called Each of the two DVB-C PC BDA drivers. BDA is short receivers arrived at our test for ‘Broadcast Driver Archi- center in a neat black card- tecture’ and has become the board box, complete with a Microsoft standard for ATSC driver CD-ROM, an F-adapt- and DVB/ISDB video cards. er and a remote control. The The interface is fully docu- TBS 6618 comes with an mented and therefore allows additional IR receiver with both hardware manufactur- standard phone jack. The ers and developers

to supply suitable drivers for their products. What’s more, programmers of TV applica- 01-02/2013 tions are able to make sure their software is compatible TBS 6618 & TBS 5680 Excellent hardware for watching DVB-C with different TV cards. TBS with an extremely sensitive tuner. customers, in turn, can use their cards with all stand- www.TELE-audiovision.com/13/01/tenow

64 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com 1

ard TV applications such as from Microsoft is practically is not always so easy. TBS 6618 all you need to do pied another PCI-e slot) and it seemed WMC was able to DVBViewer or ProgDVB, to the only TV software not al- The first time you launch is call up TV Configuration had us select one of the two download transponder data give just two examples. lowing installation of Soft- WMC you’re greeted by the under Settings. available cards to configure from the Internet. Even In order to put the TBS CAM plugins. The obvious installation wizard. In case On our test PC WMC de- and pair with WMC. though, you need a lot of 6618 and TBS 5680 to their result is that pay TV recep- you interrupt that process tected the TBS 6618 DVB-C Even users without pre- patience for the channel paces we tried them out with tion is simply not possible. or if WMC was already used card right away (as well as vious experience need not search that took some 20 a number of different soft- You’re left with watching before the installation of the a DVB-S2 card that occu- worry: WMC automatically minutes in our case. ware suites. We had a go what is available free-to-air. 7 downloads channel lists To be fair, we cannot with the TBS 6618 first. • WMC tries so hard to from the Internet that corre- blame the TBS 6618 for the create a pleasant user expe- spond to the actual location. rather lame performance. (WMC) has never gained rience it misses out on con- This way the channel search With DVB-C each provider much ground and we only figuration options to make that follows is completed uses their own transponder know a handful of people in the software work with a much faster. matrix, which means that for Europe who use that soft- broad range of hardware In our first go, however, a complete channel search ware. In our opinion, two products. Users are guided we had no such luck and all channels of the standard- crucial limitations are to through strictly defined in- WMC could not find a sin- ised transponder table have blame for that: stallation routines and can- gle channel. Apparently, no to scanned with all possible • Windows Media Center not even freely edit their transponders were detected parameters: QAM4, QAM8, 2 3 channel lists. for our particular post code. QAM16, QAM32, QAM64, Those restrictions aside, Of course we did not give QAM128, QAM256, and dif- WMC is a very capable and up so easily and entered the fering symbol rates such as user-friendly software prod- post code of a major town 6100, 6875 or 6900. uct than can easily turn any nearby, instead of our local Nonetheless, chances conventional PC into a multi- code. This did the trick and are the available channels media box that cannot only are not found after all, be- present TV channels but play 8 cause some cable provid- back more or less all media ers do not use frequencies files. It sports an intuitive that conform to the industry user-interface and since it standard. This is why many comes as part and parcel TV applications come with a of any Windows7 operat- stupefying search mode that ing system you don’t have tries out all possible modula- to worry about troublesome tions and symbol rates one installation. Ask any after the other for each and user with VDR and XBMC every frequency. One nota- and they will tell you that life ble exception is ProgDVB, 4 5 and we’ll deal with that soft- ware a little later. ProgDVB 7. Easiest channel scan, even our cable provider was pre- configured! 8. Lots of functionalities in an easy to use interface – ProgDVB matured over its 10 years of existence 9. Just a software blind scan, but still pretty good, in case no pre-defined frequency list is available. 10. CAM’s are recognized and supported, thanks to the integraded CI interfacecurrent version is a limited OEM one. 9 10

6 DVBDream 1. Many optional modules may be selected 2. Though the TBS tuners are shipped with a remote, they don’t require remote configuration in the TV application, since the remote buttons are mapped as regular keyboard keys – very clever! 3. DVBDream features so many modules, one is in doubt, which to select… 4. Configuration goes on: what CODECs should be used? A little technical insight is an advantage here. 5. Finally we can enjoy TV with a very clean user interface. 6. Sadly, most of the available buttons refer to the full version of DVBDream and you only gets this message box, stating that the current version is a limited OEM one.

66 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 67 At the end of the second cards are installed during dends tab in order to select pay TV channels or those search run WMC once again the installation process. an appropriate transponder with unsuitable content. had not found any channels. Next, we had to tackle the list. Next, we had to visit WMC This was a clear indication DVBLink configuration. The The list on offer is quite again in order to reconfig- that Microsoft had the US manual that is supplied with huge in comparison with ure it. This time it detected market in mind when imple- the software gives very de- other TV applications we four new satellite cards, all menting DVB-C. tailed instructions and you tested, even though for our of which carried the name We tried to find the fre- should definitely make a cable provider (TV Cabo) we ‘DVBLink Tuner’. The next quency table on our PC – point of giving it a read. The could not find an entry. How- step involved selecting any yet, to no avail. We looked way DVBLink works follows ever, we quickly discovered of the available satellites, for it with Windows Explorer a certain logic that is not so the transponder list directo- followed by choosing a uni- and even with the Registry easy to understand without ry and simply created a new versal LNB. Given the fact Editor and could not find some background informa- file for TV Cabo. we’re talking about DVB-C anything. Our usual method tion. This is a self-explanatory here, we felt this was a de- of last resort is an Inter- For software configura- procedure and we found it cidedly awkward configura- net search, and this finally tion you need to launch a surprising that the new file tion process and you can im- brought some light into the dedicated application called is automatically added to the agine our surprise when the matter: WMC has all tran- DVBLink Configuration. You list of available entries. This signal quality of the selected sponder data embedded in need to select TVSource as way we could start a chan- satellite was finally indicated DLLs, which means there is source before you can pro- nel search right away, with- with 100%. no way you can edit these ceed. In the Devices tab you out having to re-launch the It was only with the help of data. then activate the TBS 6618 software. The search was the DVBLink manual that we So once again we sifted before moving to the Hea- very swift, which is hardly figured out that no additional surprising since the tran- channel search needs to be sponder list only featured performed at this stage. In- correct parameters which stead, we had to turn to the simply had to be scanned. Extras menu of WMC, launch Back in the main menu the DVBLink plugin and sync of the DVBLink Configura- the channel list. Lo and be- tion application we then had hold: At long last WMC re- to set up the server in the warded our efforts with a list lower tab. To the left you of DVB-C channels! can see all found TV and ra- Whether or not so much dio channels, which can be time and effort is worth your copied into the list to the while is not for us to de- right. All entries in that list cide. One thing is for sure, are then made available by however: WMC looks simply the server. stunning and once fully set We think this clever layout up all members of your fam- deserves special praise as ily will get the knack of it af- it allows selecting individual ter only a short time. For us, channels and filtering out some of the high points are

through the manufacturer’s website and finally discov- ered the DVBLink software, which addresses TV cards directly through their BDA drivers and provides all re- ceived streams to other cli- ents by way of virtual satel- lite TV cards. This is a neat detour around WMC’s insuf- ficient support of TV cards. While it took us some time to figure out how this set-up works we simply didn’t want to do without this added functionality. The first step involved in- stallation of DVBLink. For our test we selected the DVBLink Server and DVBLink TVSource components. A to- tal of eight drivers for virtual

68 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com 1 8

automatic time-shifting and sisted of clicking OK when- Windows Media Center the recording function, both ever possible. That turned of which seemed to appear out to be a worthwhile idea 1. Installing the driver is straight forward… out of nowhere just when since it led us to the chan- 2. After finishing the driver installation without a reboot, the Device Man- we needed it. That’s what nel search quickly and effi- ager lists TBS 6618 as a BDA tuner. we call a perfect interface ciently. 3. Even the start screen of Windows Media Center looks impressive. between man and machine, DVBDream comes with 4. The user is guided smoothly through all configuration steps. and at that point all our con- a pre-defined transponder 5. First attempt at configuring the DVB-C card and start a channel scan. figuration troubles seemed list, but it was of no use to 6. But at the end, no channels were found! like vague memories of a us since our cable provider 7. In a second attempt we chose the post code of the nearest big city and distant past. mainly uses a symbol rate this time we could chose from different cable TV providers. Unfortunately, DVBLink of 6875, while all pre-set stubbornly refused to iden- transponders were set at 8. We did another channel scan, which again took almost 15 minutes to complete, only to find out that no channels were found. What was wrong? 2 tify any CAM we threw at it, a symbol rate of 6900. We 9 WMC does not support DVB-C outside the USA properly, so DVBLink fills which is why we could not then tried a manual search the niche and provides a virtual DVB-S card for WMC. check whether or not it is at 690 MHz – the frequency 9. Drivers for the virtual card are installed automatically. generally possible to watch of a free-to-air transponder 10. The DVBLink server needs to be configured. This software does not subscription TV with WMC in – and the software was able only make WMC work with DVB-C cards. It actually can do much more combination with DVBLink. to identify all 14 channels and acts like a streaming server for many different devices or applica- Another downer with this right away. tions. solution is the fact that Inspired by this easy win 11. DVBLink provides many pre-defined frequency lists for DVB-C. DVBLink does not come free. we added the transponder 12. The channel scan worked immediately. TBS customers receive a to the transponder list and 10% discount off the regular initiated another search with 13. Despite wanting to configure our DVB-C device, we had to tell WMC that a DVB-S tuner is to be configured. Strange. price and the DVBLink soft- network mode activated. We ware can be evaluated for a expected DVBDream to read 14. All four virtual DVBLink tuners appear. period of 20 days before you out the network information 15. Because we are actually using DVB-C, it does not matter what satellite need to purchase a licence table that is transmitted on is chosen. 3 key. the newly added transpond- 10 13 The second software can- er and to use that data to didate we looked at was detect all remaining tran- DVBDream, which is shipped sponders and channels as by TBS as an OEM version well. Albeit, this didn’t seem on CD-ROM together with to work and the number of the PC cards. During instal- new channels remained at lation and when the applica- zero. tion is launched for the first We approached our ca- time new users are con- ble operator and inquired fronted with a multitude of whether correct NIT infor- parameters that need to be mation was transmitted adjusted. at all, but as the test with Some of them are ambigu- TSReader (further down in ous and so our strategy con- the report) later showed 4 6 14

11

5 7 15

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70 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 71 16 22. The timeline lets you go Windows Media Center back and forth in the time shift – we never experienced a more 16. DVBLink recommends that comfortable time shift imple- the Universal LNB is selected. mentation. 17. And we have signal! 23. DVBLink runs in trial mode 18. DVBLink installs a plug-in for 20 days, then you must in WMC’s Extras menu. purchase it. Through TBS you 19. This is used to synchronize get a 10% discount. the channels. 24. Because DVBLink didn’t 20. Finally we can relax and include frequencies for our enjoy some TV cable operator, we just created a new text file with the right 21. All functionalities you frequencies. The structure of would expect from a media the file is easy to understand, center are of course available. so this was no big deal. 17 21

18 22

19 23

20 24

72 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com 1 2 5 only DVBDream is to blame this version is another great for that flaw. feature that allows watching This left us with only one two channels of the same way out to add all channels transponder at the same to the channel list: Start a time. manual search for every While the pre-set channel known transponder. While list clearly has satellite TV in this worked out fine in the mind the channel search will end we believe it definitely also accept DVB-C modula- should not be the way to go. tions without further ado. In its OEM version DVB- For t he fir s t t ime in our te s t Dream comes with extreme- we seem to have reached ly reduced functionality. common ground: Umpteen What’s worse, all buttons different DVB-C transpond- with inactive functions are ers are offered, divided up still displayed and every according to countries or time you click on one of modulation types. What’s these an alert window pops more, new lists can easily be up informing you that the added manually. Then again, 6 function you’re looking for is network search and blind not available. In addition, an scan mode are not available. earlier test in TELE-satellite While the TBSViewer soft- 10-11/2011 already demon- ware was not included on the strated that the DVBDream CD-ROM that was shipped the software you’re looking application a try as well. It is 3 software is really made for with the TBS 6618, it was for you can always find the evident right from the start DVB-S/S2 and therefore is available with the TBS 5680. missing pieces for download that this software suite is a not an ideal match for DVB- This product also came from the TBS website. well-developed, sophisticat- C. with the TBSVHID tool that As mentioned above, TB- ed and thought-through so- Being a professional man- is required for the remote SViewer is an OEM version of lution. All installed TV cards ufacturer of PC cards, TBS control, as well as a PDF file DVBViewer, which is why we showed up in the hardware has its own TV software in with an electronic manual. gave the original DVBViewer options immediately and store as well. It is called TB- Even if you buy a TBS card SViewer and is essentially a that does not come with all customised version of DVB- Viewer with tailor-made ap- pearance. Plus, it will only work with TBS cards. The user interface sports a pleasant layout 7 and the channel list is displayed as soon as the cursor approach- es the right window frame – this makes for a channel selec- tion that is both convincingly sim- ple and genuinely 4 elegant. The PiP (picture-in-pic- ture) function available in

8

TBSViewer 3. Scaning all transponders 4. Listing all found channels 1. TBSViewer allows an easy 5. Nice and simple interface. selection of the desired card, in case you have more than 6. Many functions like a full one installed. EPG are available in this free software. 2. Many pre-defined fre- quency lists – these allow for 7. CAM’s are recognized. a very quick channel scan, 8. Amazing for a free TV appli- as all tuning parameters are cation: even PiP and EPG can known. be used

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TSReader both the TBS 6618 and the 1. TSReader fully supports TBS 5680. Beginning with both DVB-C tuners from TBS. the TBS 6618 we reduced the 2. Channels can be viewed signal level from 55 dBµV to through streaming to VLC. 32 dBµV dBµV. Conventional 3. All details of the transport DVB-C receivers will look in steam can be analyzed. wonder at such a weak sig- 4. This transponder features nal and will not be able to 12 channels! produce a usable picture at 5. In this chart one can see the all. Your TV screen will stay signal drop, when our artificial blank and the receiver in all attenuation was activated. The tuner of the TBS 6618 was probability will not even be amazingly able to regain a in a position to get a signal lock after under one second! lock. 6. Naturally the pictures is full Out reference meter of artefacts – no other DVB-C shows a BER value of <1- tuner was ever able to get a 0e-8 when the signal has its lock on such a poor signal, not 5 2 even our meters original level of 55 dBµV and consequently identifies all channels of the transpond- cessfully identified during ers flawlessly. Once the re- our test. ception level is reduced to One of the most popular 32 dBµV, however, our refer- TV applications is ProgDVB, ence meter cannot lock the which is available in two signal any longer and hence versions: free and profes- cannot give out a BER value sional. We only looked at either. the free version and what Given the above, we could we found speaks volumes. hardly believe our eyes when On the market since 2002, the TBS 6618 nonetheless ProgDVB is something like managed to get a signal lock a classic and it’s no surprise and was even able to whizz after ten years of continuous up a picture on our screen development that this soft- at times. We obviously could ware seems to have more not expect faultless video features and functions than but we were surprised that you will ever need. But this some picture artefacts ap- is only one side of the coin. peared at all, which is im- 3 What contributes hugely 6 pressive proof of the tuner’s to the enormous popular- capabilities. ity of ProgDVB is that it al- Next, we checked whether lows developers to program both models would allow re- plugins. While it is true cording an entire transpond- that DVBViewer also offers er. Since it is a single tuner, that option, it is only with the TBS 5680 happily re- ProgDVB that programmers corded all data, even though are not faced with any re- it is connected through a striction whatsoever, which USB 2.0 interface with its means that SoftCAM plugins inherent data rate restric- can be installed and used tions. as well. This in turn allows We finally looked at the watching encrypted chan- NIT and were in for quite a nels in connection with a surprise: All transponders valid smartcard. The free used by our cable provider version in itself offers a host transmitted the relevant re- of functions, and ProgDVB ception parameters, which Pro adds premium features means it is indeed possible such as picture-in-picture, to perform a successful net- mosaic screen, recording without any additional con- in the home network pro- transponder lists, which are should be! have a look at the ProgDVB first go. This software re- work search. Why none of and streaming. figuration requirements. vide great value for money rather limited. While this is ProgDVB even offers blind software. quired that reception pa- the software solutions we Here again detecting and We particularly liked that if you opt for the DVBViewer a problem that can easily scan, although this is with- Strictly speaking, TSRead- rameters of the selected tested was in a position to integrating the two DVB-C channel lists can be grouped software that must be pur- be solved, it still tests your out hardware support. To er is not software for transponder(s) must be en- also put this information to tuners was as easy as A-B- and linked to a correspond- chased. patience as you need to per- circumvent that limitation watching TV but a high- tered manually, but once practical use is beyond us. C, and of all tested applica- ing TV card in case more We found that the soft- form a search across the ProgDVB scans the entire performance professional that is accomplished you Now that we had checked tions only ProgDVB provided than one card is connected. ware met all our expecta- entire frequency range and frequency range in pre-de- application for analysing are immediately presented out the TBS 6618 with all TV useful transponder lists by Obviously, DVBViewer tions: No matter whether with all modulation types fined steps (2 MHz by de- transport streams. In TELE- with all transponder stream channels available to us it default. We even found a works very similar to TB- it’s EPG, , time-shift and symbol rates to make fault), which takes forever satellite 06-07/2012 we al- details. We found that truly was time to turn to the TBS dedicated list for TV Cabo, SViewer, but a great deal of viewing or recording, eve- sure you don’t miss a sin- (we’re not talking minutes ready presented TSReader impressive! 5680 as well. our cable provider in Por- additional functions such as rything performed up to gle channel. This may easily here but hours) but in the and its creator Rod Hewitt. Rather than for watching Basically, this is an exter- tugal. This meant the chan- a streaming option or dis- standard. The one thing that take 10 to 20 minutes, but end delivers a result. Those Thanks to the BDA DVB-C TV we used this application nal USB version of the TBS nel search was done with tributing the currently re- could use some improve- at least all channels of our of you who haven’t already profile setting up TSReader to have an in-depth look at 6618 that will find users in in a breeze, just the way it ceived signal to other clients ment was the pre-defined cable provider were suc- done so should definitely was successful in the very the reception capabilities of the laptop computer com-

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only prompted an alert mes- we can send out to all those quickly discovered the tbs- recommendation that to- Expert Opinion sage telling us the receiver interested laptop PC users vhid_v1.0.0.8.zip archive for day’s generation of TV cards TBS 5680 in use is not CI+ certified out there is: Don’t worry downloading. Unfortunately, should always be as inde- great DVB-C receiver for USB and therefore will not work about USB 2.0 restricting this handy solution is listed pendent as possible from simple installation with CI+ CAMs. Fair enough! the performance of your ex- neither for the TBS 6618 nor . BDA drivers for compatibility with most cur- We tested all channels ternal TV box – you’ll never the TBS 5680. The DVB-C PC cards test- + rent TV applications mentioned before in the notice it! After installation TB- ed in this report are shining great TBSViewer application included course of this report with What we did notice in the SVHID can be launched on examples of that strategy. good remote with clever integration Vitor Martins Augusto the USB box as well and no course of our test, however, the PC and it really works TBS clearly focuses on top- TELE-audiovision Test Center matter how hard we looked, is that the TBS 5680’s tun- wonders: The buttons of a quality hardware and fault- – None Portugal there was no difference at er does not have as low a remote control are visual- less drivers, while leaving all. While this generally is a threshold as the TBS 6618 ised as keyboard keys and the choice of TV software to TBS 6618 very good outcome we were that performs almost mirac- since TV applications invari- end-users. great DVB-C receiver for PCI-e nonetheless surprised be- ulously in that regard. ably are operated with key- That does not mean, how- simple installation cause in theory the transfer Something odd we also boards you will never have ever, that those simply look- BDA drivers make the TBS 6618 compatible with most current rate via USB 2.0 is inferior to found out: When testing to face any compatibility is- ing for an easy tool to watch + TV applications PCI-e. That is why we used TSReader on a PC with the sues. Major TV applications DVB-C are left in the dark. great TBSViewer application included TSReader to record an en- TBS 6618 and on a laptop such as WMC, DVBViewer, They should opt for the TB- good remote with clever integration tire transport stream (as de- computer with the TBS 5680 TBSViewer, DVBDream or SViewer which will provide extremely sensitive tuner using the same channel ProgDVB come already fully just the functions and fea- 2 started at exactly the same pre-configured. tures they require. some applications are missing on the included CD and must time via VLC the output of If need be, you can also Our test has demonstrat- – be downloaded from the TBS website the TBS 6618 lagged one conveniently set up the sys- ed that both the TBS 6618 second behind that of the tem to work with other soft- and the TBS 5680 are excel- TBS 5680 – for no apparent ware as well. Quite frankly, lent DVB-C receivers that TECHNICAL reason. we do not know of any man- will integrate well with any DATA The table below provides a ufacturer with a similarly TV application that runs un- Manufacturer Tenow International Ltd, Unit C-8A, Shennan Garden Building concise overview of our ex- clever system integration of der Windows. Both of them High-Tech Park, Shenzhen, CHINA periences with all tested TV the remote control. are characterised by top- Phone +86-755-26501345 or 26501201 applications (Table 1). If you own an a laptop notch hardware components [email protected] Admittedly, since our pre- computer and would like to and extremely low-thresh- Email vious test of TBS cards we use that device for watch- old tuners. Website www.tbsdtv.com had totally forgotten how to ing DVB-C at home, the TBS On the software side TB- Function PCI-E card / USB 2.0 Box for DVB-C, integrate the remote control 5680 is the solution you’ve SViewer is fine for simply compatible with most current TV applications into the workflow. been looking for. The fact watching TV, but if you in- Initially, we were wonder- that the USB box comes with tend to exploit all capabili- TBS6618 TBS5680 ing why none of the TV ap- an external power supply ties of the TBS cards to the Fully compliant with DVB-C Fully compliant with DVB-C plications we tested could unit is not a problem at all, full and to get the most out and ITU J83 A/C Specifications and ITU J83 A/C Specifications be operated with a remote as DVB-C can only be used of DVB-C there’s no way Receiving Frequency: Receiving Frequency: control and why a remote stationary anyway – contra- around purchasing profes- 47~862 MHz Tuning Range 47~862 MHz Tuning Range was not even offered in the ry to DVB-T. sional software. Input level: -65~-10dBm Input level: -65~-10dBm configuration options. The For desktop computers we TBS has complemented its 16QAM, 32QAM, 64QAM, 128QAM and 16QAM,32QAM, 64QAM, 128QAM and scribed above) to find out if TBS 5680 CD ROM that is shipped with recommend the TBS 6618, product range with DVB-C 256QAM Support 256QAM Support the TBS 5680 really is that the TBS 6618 did not include which is a sturdy PC card tuner with CI slot for PCI-e 1. The CD for the TBS 5680 comes with an automatic installer and fast. Symbol Rate: 0.87 to 9Mbaud Symbol Rate: 0.87 to 9Mbaud includes a manual and TBSViewer. Buyers of the TBS 6618 can a relevant driver either... that also comes with a CI and USB. still download everything from the TBS website at www.tbsdtv. It turned out that the USB It took us a while until we slot. Thanks to BDA driv- In our eyes, TBS has Single CI Slot Single CI Slot com. box can indeed keep up with remembered that TBS offer ers you don’t need an engi- rightfully become a refer- Standard Profile TV Card Size: TV Box Size: 103x88x22mm 2. Despite the USB-2.0 connection, we could stream the whole its PCI-e counterpart, irre- their own in-house tool for neering degree to turn your ence manufacturer for DVB- 130x83mm (Length x Height) (Length x Width x Height) Transport Stream without a drop. No worries if you want to use spective of theoretical USB the remote control and when desktop PC into a Windows- S/S2, DVB-C and DVB-T/T2 TV Card Weight: 80 Gram TV Box Weight: 165 Gram your laptop to watch DVB-C. limitations. So the message we checked their website we based multimedia center. cards at this stage. Keep up Package Gift Box Size: 205x140x50mm Package Gift Box Size: 210x175x55mm TBS lends proof to our the good work! (Length x Width x Height) (Length x Width x Height) munity, for example, since WMC with DVB Dream ProgDVB DVBViewer TSReader TBSViewer it offers the only solution for DVBLink (OEM version) (free version) (Pro version) (Pro version) More about this company System Requirements: System Requirements: watching DVB-C on such a Channel + + + + + www.TELE-audiovision.com/11/03/tenow mobile device. If you look at switching /XP/Vista/7 or Linux Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 the TBS product range there Ease-of-use +++ - + + + - DirectX9.0 or later Version DirectX9.0 or later Version is a similar model in store Functions + - + ++ ++ +++ Available PCI-E x1, x4, x8 or x16 slot Available USB Port which is called TBS USB- Restricted OEM version Plugins can be Lots of functions, Professional Cable TV connection Cable TV connection C TV STICK, but it comes OEM version, of DVBViewer, added and used easy to use application for without a CA slot and thus aggressive drive different skin without limitation stream analysis cannot be used for the many for selling the full Integrated For HDTV: For HDTV: encrypted cable channels. version Only works with Lots of functions, streaming Extensive Comments Dual core CPU Dual core CPU TBS cards including streaming functions streaming All the more reason for us to 1GB RAM or Above 1GB RAM or Above get truly excited about the functions Graphic Card with at Least 64MB RAM Graphic Card with at Least 64MB RAM TBS 5680, as it makes your Best free TV software for TBS life so much easier. Simply cards insert a CA module with a Package Content: Package Content: CI / CAM support yes (*) yes yes yes yes (*) yes (*) valid smartcard and off you 1 x TBS6618 PCIe 1 x TBS5680 USB yes – with many go. OEM/free version no yes yes yes yes DVB-C TV Tuner CI Card DVB-C TV Tuner CI Box restrictions We tried several modules 1 x remote control 1 x remote control Full version and the TBS 5680 seemed to yes yes - yes yes yes (for purchase) 1 x IR receiver 1 x USB Cable be happy with all except one: It was the CI+ CAM which ■Table 1. * did not work in our test – CI or CAM not identified 1 x Software CD 1 x Software CD

78 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 79