21 replies to this topic

[renura]

Hi Guys,

Those of you who have an Apple Ipad might be interested in the next product we are planning to release.

A Digital TV tuner for the Ipad.

More details/specs etc will made available on our website soon; in the meantime those interested might want to e-mail sales@digitalnow.com.au

First 100 customers that express interest will receive this item for the special price of $99,

I would be happy to answer any related questions you may have.

Cheers

Renura

[Grampus]

renura, on 09 February 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:

Hi Guys,

Those of you who have an Apple Ipad might be interested in the next product we are planning to release.

A Digital TV tuner for the Ipad.

More details/specs etc will made available on our website soon; in the meantime those interested might want to e-mail sales@digitalnow.com.au

First 100 customers that express interest will receive this item for the special price of $99,

I would be happy to answer any realted questions you may have.

Cheers

Renura

Renura,
I note that it is IPAD2, and only SD channels.
Will either or both IPAD1, and HD solutions become available, or are there limiting restrictions?

Cheers

[renura]

Grampus, on 09 February 2012 - 03:49 PM, said:

Renura,
I note that it is IPAD2, and only SD channels.
Will either or both IPAD1, and HD solutions become available, or are there limiting restrictions?

Cheers

The DVB-T tuner is capable of locking any and all DVB-T channels, but decoding of HDTV is not  currently possible because of IPAD Hardware/Firmware restrictions. I believe the reason might be becuase Apple does not allow third party applications to access fully certain functions of the hardware (hardware acceleration?).

The tuner is sold for use with the Ipad 2 mainly because it is the device on which the tuner works well.

I have tested the tuner with iphone 4s and it works on it too, BUT once you finish viewing Digital TV and want to go back to the phone function, you need to reboot the phone in order to re-gain the network signal. not sure of the long term consequences if one were to keep doing this....

Similarly the tuner also can work on the Ipad 1, but video decoding is not as smooth as it should be.

We are questioning some of these restrictions, but not sure if we will be able to resolve them.

Hence, at this stage, the product will be sold for use with the Ipad 2 only.

[renura]

For those who might be interested to know.

ETA for this device is end of March.

The good news is that improvements to the software mean that the device can now be also used with the Iphone 4S

[alanh]

renura,
Do you know if it will decompress MPEG-4 from an off air signal?

AlanH

[renura]

Quote

renura,
Do you know if it will decompress MPEG-4 from an off air signal?

AlanH

No, it only records the MPEG 2 stream as is.

[MLXXX]

renura, on 11 March 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

No, it only records the MPEG 2 stream as is.

I note that even if it could record an MPEG-4 AVC stream as is, there isn't any free-to-air DVB-t MPEG-4 video stream in Australia for testing MPEG-4 AVC reception cabability with, since Seven reverted to MPEG 2 for their advertorial channel TV4ME.

Edited by MLXXX, 11 March 2012 - 02:59 PM.

[alanh]

Renura,
Does it just demodulate the DVB-T to an asynchonous serial data stream which is feed into the IPod?
I take it that the IPod cannot down scale 1440 x 1080 used here.
There are many DVB-T countries using MPEG-4 for HD and some for SD including France, Norway & New Zealand. See http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/index.xml download the spread sheet.
The US now has ASTC-H which uses MPEG-4 for transmission to handhelds.
Sounds as if Apple is ignoring, not only the amount of MPEG-4 compressed files on the internet but also to broadcast.
AlanH

[DrP]

MLXXX, on 11 March 2012 - 02:46 PM, said:

I note that even if it could record an MPEG-4 AVC stream as is, there isn't any free-to-air DVB-t MPEG-4 video stream in Australia for testing MPEG-4 AVC reception cabability with, since Seven reverted to MPEG 2 for their advertorial channel TV4ME.

Even without having clapped eyes on it it nor the software that comes with it, it'd be safe to say that it could record an AVC stream if one was transmitted.  The ipad2 has enough grunt to decode SD AVC but I have my doubts about the ipad2 doing 1920 (1440) x 1080 AVC.

Like all the rest* of these receivers for PCs or like they simply recover the entire transport stream and pass it on to the PC etc for processing**

Anyone that is familiar with Apple's ipads and itunes software would know that Apple fully supports recent audio and video codecs such as the AAC family and MPEG-4 AVC.  These technologies are essential due to the (comparatively) limited storage capacity of the ipads.  It would be a gross error to describe Apple as ignoring these technologies.

*there were some PC receivers (cards) that could do hardware video decoding but they are they are well and truly 'dinosaurs', similarly there were receivers that could filter PIDs in hardware.
**The native IO interfaces of the PC (or other device) will be used for costs reasons.  ASI/SDI in this market adds nothing but expense.

Edited by DrP, 12 March 2012 - 06:22 AM.

[renura]

Hi Guys,

A couple of things that need to be clarified and remembered:

- The device hardware is not much different to other solutions used on PCs, it is fully DVB-T compliant and it can receive any DVB-T broadcast, irrespective of the format of the program streams (Mpeg-2, Mp4/H.264, whatever).

- The application software is what does the decoding and, as is, it does not support HDTV or H.264/Mp4 channels.

- The Ipad 2 and New Ipad is capable of supporting HDTV and mp4/H264 files, etc. BUT this does not mean that any program that runs on it will support (or can support) those formats/codecs.
One of the reasons is that Apple does not necessarily provide full access to the iDevices hardware to enable such support.

As far as this device is concerned, the software bundled with it is developed by Elgato and the device is an OEM version of this
http://www.elgato.co...-Mobile.en.html

Cheers

Renura

[DrP]

Not trying to be contrary but the software does support MPEG-4 AVC, just not at Australian standard broadcast resolutions.  The ipad2 doesn't, from what I can gather, have enough grunt to decode 1920 x 1080 AVC in real time.  It can handle 720p though.

Edited by DrP, 12 March 2012 - 08:50 AM.

[MLXXX]

Thanks Renura.

DrP, on 12 March 2012 - 06:07 AM, said:

Anyone that is familiar with Apple's ipads and itunes software would know that Apple fully supports recent audio and video codecs such as the AAC family and MPEG-4 AVC.  These technologies are essential due to the (comparatively) limited storage capacity of the ipads.  It would be a gross error to describe Apple as ignoring these technologies.

Yes I felt alanh was very much on the wrong track with that suggestion.

[alanh]

Funny how DrP and MLXXX answer as if they are renura

AlanH

[DrP]

MLXXX, on 12 March 2012 - 08:48 AM, said:

Yes I felt alanh was very much on the wrong track with that suggestion.

It shouldn't surprise anyone to see statements from alanh that defy reality.

[alanh]

Renura,
Will your tuner plug into the new ipad. Does it display our HD video?
http://www.apple.com/au/ipad/specs/
You will note that the new ipad will accept H264 or MPEG-4 video and HE ACC V1 and HE AAC V2. It is also capable of 1080p

Alanh

[DrP]

alanh, on 13 March 2012 - 12:24 AM, said:

You will note that the new ipad will accept H264 or MPEG-4 video and HE ACC V1 and HE AAC V2. It is also capable of 1080p

<snicker>

I wonder if alanh means the ipad3 or has it suddenly dawned on him that prior models handle MPEG-4 AVC et al despite Apple apparently 'ignoring' things.

FWIW alanh's question regarding what the software / hardware is and isn't capable of WRT HD is already answered by renura here

Edited by DrP, 13 March 2012 - 07:04 AM.

[DrP]

Anyway, back to more sensible questions.

Renura, how does the viewing of Australian digital TV impact on battery life?  ie, if I fully charged an ipad (with a good battery) and set about watching TV on it, how long would it last?  A gadget-mad friend of mine is bound to hit me with questions about digital TV on his ipad when he gets wind of the possibility.

Edited by DrP, 13 March 2012 - 07:06 AM.

[renura]

DrP, on 13 March 2012 - 06:44 AM, said:

Anyway, back to more sensible questions.

Renura, how does the viewing of Australian digital TV impact on battery life?  ie, if I fully charged an ipad (with a good battery) and set about watching TV on it, how long would it last?  A gadget-mad friend of mine is bound to hit me with questions about digital TV on his ipad when he gets wind of the possibility.

I have not timed it continuously, but elgato reckons it will last around 8 hours on a fully charged IPad and 4 hours on an iphone.
As a gadget is very cool, so I would not discourage yor friend from having one.

[renura]

alanh, on 13 March 2012 - 12:24 AM, said:

Renura,
Will your tuner plug into the new ipad. Does it display our HD video?
http://www.apple.com/au/ipad/specs/
You will note that the new ipad will accept H264 or MPEG-4 video and HE ACC V1 and HE AAC V2. It is also capable of 1080p

Alanh

Alanh,
I have not tested this device with the New Ipad, so not sure about whether it will display our HDTV channels. It will certainly display the SD channels and yes it plugs into all IPads and iphones via the 30 pin connector.
Here is a video of the elgato version

[renura]

Hi Guys,

Those interested might like to know that the the iDTV iPad/iPhone tuner is in stock now and can be purchased from here
http://www.digitalno.../idtv/idtv.html

Cheers

Renura

[Chopsus]

Should those of us that pre ordered revcieved shipping notification by now?

[renura]

You should by cob tomorrow