Tiny USB2 Digital Tuner Review

The reviewed unit was supplied by DigitalNow, an ACT based company operating since 1994 who have been enthusiastic about digital TV since bringing the first digital TV card to Australia in 2003. (http://www.digitalnow.com.au)

One of their latest DVB-T devices is known as the Tiny USB2. What a name, what a mouthful – calling it something like the ‘USB Beetle’ may have had more punch to it? Never the less, the device is MCE compatible with the supplied BDA drivers. Full specifications of the unit are found at http://www.digitalnow.com.au/product.../tinyusb2.html So how well does it perform? Is it really suitable for MCE use? Would you use it only on a laptop or use it for a desktop too? I will try and answer these questions in this review.

I must say that I have originally purchased my first visionplus card from digitalnow back in 1993 (Yes it is always great being an early adopter – ouch, hit me again!). The quality of service from digitalnow is nowhere to be compared. Renura hangs out in many online forums answering questions, he is certainly enthusiastic about DBV-T in Australia, and best of all, when he ships items, they tend to arrive well packaged, the next day.



What do you get ?
Opening the Tiny USB2 box, you will find a well packaged unit with lots of extra’s. You get the Tiny USB2 device itself, a USB extension cable, remote control, batteries for the remote, CD’s with software and manuals, but what I didn’t realise at first is after lifting the inside packaging, underneath is a small TV antenna ! Very cute!!!

Handy for when you just much watch TV on your laptop sitting in the rotunda sipping a cool drink… Nah that’s never going to happen!

I must admit – my first impression of the unit, besides noticing this unit was blue, was its size. I had seen pictures of the unit on the web, even pictures besides other USB devices, but it still gave me a little shock… This unit is called the Tiny USB2… Hmmm… Its Huge – for some reason when I saw the product name Tiny, I expected the unit to be smaller. Ten minutes after this shock, I realised, it may not be ‘Tiny’ but it sure is small for what it does… The best way to give an idea of the size of this unit – is to hold it in the palm of my hand.




Installation
The hardest part is the physical part – plugging it in – as windows will automatically detect the device in the USB slot, and prompt you for all the drivers you need. Of course the BDA drivers are on the CD, along with other software.

Hmmm… plugging the Tiny USB2 device into your computer is determined by the type of computer you have, I will show you several installs I completed;

The Laptop install, I believe you are most likely going to require to use the USB extension cable, as all the laptops I have used, the USB port is mounted vertically (up and down). Unfortunately in this picture, the Tiny USB2 device has a horizontal mounting USB plug, and the unit is too thick to be just plugged into a laptop without raising the base at the back of the laptop off the ground. Would a better design have the USB plug rotated 90 degrees? Probably not, as in other installations this arrangement may work well. You will notice the portable antenna plugged in – TV on the Go !!
This scenario works well too for the aerial, being on the opposite side to the USB plug – nice, neat and easy to install.







Rear of a desktop / server / htpc is very cluttered with cables everywhere, the unit may be tiny – but there is no hope of directly plugging the unit into your PC. The extension cable is going to be mandatory here!









Now you may have noticed that the device has a couple of black circles on the top of it, this is for the inbuilt IR receiver, yes the unit comes with a remote control, and the one hardware device is not only the DVB-T tuner but also the IR receiver. Exceptionally well designed, however IR works on line of sight, or at least the ability for light to bounce of walls. If you intend to use the IR receiver with this unit, you are going to need to have it out in the open, instead of it dangling on its cable amongst the mess of everything else behind your computer.
Not so good of a design having the USB and aerial cables at opposite sides, just causes a little problem in running your wires everywhere. It is workable, and is not a distraction – it would have been nice for this scenario to have both cables terminate on the one side.

The last hardware installation I can show, is of my HTPC – Yes you can mount the USB device directly without the extension cable, if you desire. Obviously plugging the unit into a front mounted USB port is not the most aesthetic of options!

(Hmmm has my Silverstone case got its USB ports mounted upside down – might make the IR awkward?)


As described earlier, once the Tiny USB2 is physically plugged in, Windows XP (MCE) will detect the unit and ask for the drivers as per the usual method of installing when it finds new hardware.



There are 4, yes FOUR devices to be installed! Just when you think you have finished, it comes up asking for another driver and another… But again – very simple installation process.

Amongst these you will find;
- The BDA DVB-T Tuner/Demod
- HID Compliant Mouse
- HID Keyboard
- HID Compliant Consumer Device


The IR device and Remote is HIP compliant, so you can set up the supplied remote to operate MCE, instead of purchasing the Microsoft one. Mapping any of the keys to available functions as desired.

Hint – If your not going to use the IR component of this device, just install the BDA drivers and tell the windows installation process not to install all the other items, and not to remind you of them again…

You have now installed the Tiny USB2 device, and its ready to use with MCE (Of course you will still need to install compatible Codecs to view any media, and the Tiny USB2 package includes a registered version of Power DVD 5 which will at least get you started).



Using the Tiny USB2 / Testing
Probably the most important question about the Tiny USB2 is how well it performs with an aerial – is it a strong or weak tuner, will I receive dropouts or stuttering? Many factors contribute to your viewing pleasure, and we should all know that good cabling and a good antenna is required for digital reception, and some stuttering can be caused by interference from wireless networks or some sata controllers on motherboards.
At first I thought important in this review to provide figures such as Bit Error Rate, Signal Noise Ratio’s – you know all that mumble grumble stuff that you see in a review showing how good or bad a device works. Then I came to my senses that for the average reader these numbers mean nothing.
I decided to test the Tiny USB2 and compare it with other cards that I had available at the time and use real world examples that may help you determine if this device performs well or not. (Disclaimer:- Now these tests were performed in semi controlled conditions on my hardware, in my reception area, they may differ from results that you receive.)

I performed the following tests;
Test 1: Tuning – how well did tuning occur, receive all services without modifying any dll’s or changing registry settings.
Test 2: Channel Changing – how quick does channel changing occur, if you wish to surf to see what is on…
Test 3: Reception – how well are channels recorded, how many drop outs occur, stuttering, lost signals etc.

I choose to test the Tiny USB2 tuner in comparison with the next most popular DVB-T cards used by our members at xpmediacentre.com.au. Those being Twinhain Visionplus (PCI), and Dvico Fusion DVB-T Plus card (PCI). All tests were carried out on two P4 3Ghz machines, using Nvidia codecs.

The tests were performed on a good quality aerial setup, with RG6 quad shield cable and F type connectors throughout using a Hills digital quality antenna located (In northern suburbs) approximately 30 kms from the Melbourne transmitters. No true line of site to the transmitters due to low level housing, however no real obstructions like tall buildings or trees. Basically an average Melbourne house in the burbs…


Over to the results
Test 1: Tuning
After installing the card, performing the installation of the BDA drivers, and confirming that the card was recognised by the XP operating system, I followed the setup procedures in MCE to scan for channels.
Tiny USB2 card found all services except SBS
Twinhain found all services
Fusion found all services except SBS

Replacing the psisdecd.dll with the Australian developed one containing proper Australian frequencies resulted in all cards tuning to all channels.

Conclusion, Tuning of the Tiny USB2 device works well, we all realise that there is a bug in the current version of MCE and tuning of DVB-T in Australia, and that is why some of us have to replace the DLL. I am confident that the next release of MCE will resolve this, and allow the Tiny USB2 device to tune all channels without needing to do anything.

Test 2: Channel Changing
The speed of changing channels is important to a lot of you. It is not for me. I use MCE for time shifting, watching the 6pm News at 7:12pm, or the Sunday Night Movie on a Wednesday. I personally never channel surf to see what is on TV that is what the EPG is for… On the rare occasions that I do want to sit in front of the TV, and surf the channels – I do that through analogue reception, as there is no delay.
DVB-T is an mpeg stream of data, no matter what card or device you use, there is always going to be a slight to longer delay in changing channels, as the device determines, interprets and gets ready for the picture to be displayed.

The Tiny USB2 device is not the fastest channel changer that I have seen, its comparable to the Fusion Plus card that I tested, and both are slower than the Twinhain. I know of reports from members of faster changing of channels with other cards – but keep it all in prospective… The Tiny USB2 device still changes channels in around a second.


Test 3: Reception and Recording
I broke this test down into several parts, for I was lucky or unlucky to replace my antenna during the review period. Similarly, I had the Tiny USB2 device running in my second MCE machine for several weeks, so I was able to compare recordings from my production MCE machine with this test machine.

To me, the most important results of any DVB-T device is how well the tuner performs, minimising errors that the viewer would see as stuttering and glitches.

I would often see a glitch in my old twinhain card, and immediately go and view the same recording with the Tiny USB2 – and to my surprise there was no glitch in that second recording. At first glance, the tuner in the Tiny USB2 appeared to be rock stable under similar conditions in my environment.

I decided to test further so devised the following plan (oh the hours and days it actually took)

- Compare recordings on both machines and count the number of glitches that occurred in each recording
- Perform these recordings at different times of the day and even different weather conditions (Hey the test was in Melbourne, we often get four seasons in one day)
- Push the envelope – introduce some bad cabling, and some non-required splitters to introduce lesser quality signals…
- Then swap the devices between the machines to eliminate any possible problems with hardware

Using 3 cards, and only two machines, meant a lot of swaps – 6 different tests minimum for the combinations
I will admit it was a frustrating exercise at times to watch the same program several times – carefully to count any glitches in the viewing… (Yawn). However over a few days the tasks were completed.

In determining a glitch or stutter – it was counted if the vision stuttered, in most instances the audio was complete and fine, however there was some kind of small jump in the video that made it look strange or abnormal. In some later tests, a blue screen with No Signal was displayed, and this was counted as only one glitch in these tests no matter if the signal was lost for seconds or minutes.

I chose ABC for the morning tests (just wanted to vedge out with the cartoons), thus allowing me to spend quality time with the Kids watching wonderful educational stuff (who am I trying to kid here?)
For the evening tests I chose Digital 7 – Standard Definition.



The summary of results are not that surprising;

Test 3a: On a good fine day, using an old weathered corroded antenna with excellent cabling, very few errors were found using the Twinhain card. Six glitches over four hours is still annoying to the purist, but certainly viewable.

However, not a single glitch was experienced with the Tiny USB2.








Test 3b: Same tests performed on a cool clear night. Approximately double the number of viewing errors are experienced.








Given the same circumstances, the tuner in the Tiny USB2 does appear to be more forgiving in the quality of received signal. As one would expect with developments of new technology, later designs and further understanding on how to achieve things.


Test 3c: Same tests were performed on differing days, when it was cloudy, windy and rainy.

The twinhain for the first time started to experience some blue screens showing signal loss for 30 seconds or more – resulting in programming becoming un-watchable.









Test 3d: Evening viewing with cloud, wind, and rain (winter in Melbourne – lol !)
Twinhain experienced large stuttering, at times and Fusion also started to display signal loss.
The Tiny USB2 only suffered twice during this period.

Clearly demonstrating that the tuner was more forgiving.

As previously described, these tests were performed on an old antenna – installed some 15 years ago prior to any thought of digital television… I was lucky enough to be conducting the review during a period that I had decided to replace the antenna (after having replaced all the cables / splitters / connectors in the house and still not satisfied with my stuttering…)


Now I realise that not everyone would have powered splitters (I have Kingray powered splitters) in their setups at home, and you are more likely to have the common variety splitters, so a couple of tests were performed in using a standard 3-way splitter purchased from an electronics store.

During the day with good conditions it dramatically increased the number of viewing errors on the Twinhain, making it impossible to watch, and really annoying on the Fusion card. The Tiny USB2 still performed better than the Twinhain in good conditions without the splitter.






What would happen if I had a splitter feeding another splitter – probably very common in the larger household… as it was always easy to wire up a cable this way. Searching my box of goodies I found another splitter – a 5 way one.
The twinhain basically refused to lock onto any signal, the fusion card would sometimes work, and the Tiny USB2 gave a few stutters, would still receive the signal – although at times would become so annoying you would not sit and watch it.


Conclusive that of the three units tested the Tiny USB2 gave the far better reception, even under the poor conditions that I tried to enforce upon it. Certainly having a good quality signal and signal strength plays a major role in receiving a watchable digital picture.


At this point of time, I decided it was time to replace my existing TV antenna, I had set up my MCE environment late last year, in the good warmer weather, and noticed as the months got colder, cloudy, windy and the weather deteriorated, so did my enjoyment in watching digital tv. I had previously replaced all my cables, connectors, installed powered masterhead amplifiers and splitters – each step gave me a slight improvement, but as fast as I was doing this, the weather would get worse and any gain I had achieved, resulted in its loss very quickly. Yes it was time to climb the roof.

A Hills 18 element digital ready antenna was subsequently installed – the complete digital wiring was completed from top to bottom in the household, time for one last quick test on all the cards I had available.


With the new antenna installed, no dropouts were received with the Tiny USB2 device, and the number of errors decreased for the Twinhain (they were really minor little ones – not as annoying as before). This test was performed during a cloudy evening.









With the new antenna, if I introduced the bad cabling of two splitters reducing the signal strength – the Twinhain just died again, the Fusion was annoying to say the least, yet despite the loss in signal quality going through these splitters – the Tiny USB2 only gave a couple of errors.



Reception Conclusion
Of all three devices tested, the Tiny USB2 device was by far the superior product in giving a rock stable image. Yes I could make it stutter and cause errors on the screen – but I could not make it come up with the Blue Screen saying signal loss. Given the right cabling and antenna, this device can produce a stutter free viewing experience.

The quality of picture in both Standard Definition and High Definition was (to my eyes) equal in each card. Not one produced a perceivable softer or sharper image, and this is expected of dvb-t cards, as they should just be gathering the mpeg streams and processing them to hand over to MCE for display purposes.


Final comments
At first I was reluctant to try a USB DVB-t card, even though USB2 should have the bandwidth to transfer enough data for the unit to operate sufficiently – it was just a mind-shift to occur with me… So used to major devices being PCI based, USB to me was just for temporary storage cards, dongles, things like that.
How I have changed my mind. Having a USB tuner to me actually makes sense – there is no IRQ conflicts to worry about, no SATA interference, newest motherboards tend to have a limit of 3 PCI slots these days, it is just an easier installation process than something on a PCI board.

If you’re looking for a tuner – certainly consider the Tiny USB2; it gives you a rock solid performance, works well as a portable device for laptops and for desktops. They may be the way of the future as also available now is the dual tuner usb device, and yes USB2 can handle at least two of these (4 tuners). They look cool, and are the identical unit to the Tiny USB2 tuner, except no IR remote.


My last comments are about the complete package, this review is primarily for the MCE community – how well it works for us. But there are other HTPC solutions available (believe it or not). DigitalNow have been leading the local thrust with an Australian developed application DNTVLive! I am not going to go thru the full details of the package, except to say it is local therefore it works for Australian SD / HD, has great control over Aspect Ratio’s, incorporates scheduling and music. It is a stand alone excellent application that runs on Windows XP.
Not only do you get a great USB device, but you get some other software to play with. The CD also contains directx 9, digitalwatch, webscheduler, and the HIP software required for the remote control. Drivers are available for Xp, Linux, Mac ---- And even Xp 64 Bit !!

Renura (who is on this board and all the dvb-t forums) offers 5% discount to members of DBA and DVB Owners forums, has now extended this offer to all members of MCE - so if this item is of interest, dont forget to mention where you saw it.

(5 out of 5 MCE Remotes)