I surprised myself yesterday morning when I managed to get live digital TV working at 120kmh. I had heard reports that the dual-tuner DVB sticks in ‘diversity’ mode were good but never expected it to be this easy to get live TV working in the car.
I was using a Terratec dual-tuner diversity DVB-T USB stick connected to a Wibrain B1H UMPC for this test. DVB-T is an over-the-air (terrestrial) digital TV standard that is common in Europe (not in the U.S) and without any real testing of antenna positioning inside the car was able to get a smooth signal at all city speeds. On the autobahn I was up to about 80kmh when it started to drop out but by moving one of the antenna I was getting a good signal at 120kmh. Of course, reception quality depends on where you are in relation to the transmission tower but even so, I didn’t exactly do much to optimise the antenna positions and I dare say that I could have got things working even more smoothly if I’d have tested out a few more positions. For under 100 Euro, this is a great way to add TV to the car if you already have a CarPC, UMPC or Laptop. Taxi and mini-bus drivers take note! More notes and a video after the pic…
