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back to article PCTV Broadway 2T network Freeview tuner

The marketing for the new Broadway 2T very much focuses on the iPhone and iPad, yet this network TV tuner chooses to omit some pretty obvious features when it comes to the iOS side of things. PCTV Broadway 2T TV streamer Global vision: PCTV's Broadway 2T The Broadway is similar to Elgato’s Netstream DTT, in that it houses …

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  1. Christian Berger

    VDR and Streamdev-server

    You can do the same with VDR and the streamdev-server plugin. Plus you have a video disk recorder and can even export the EPG.

    Ohh and it can either scale down the video, or stream the original video stream. Even HDTV in case you wonder.

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    1. Robert E A Harvey
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      I was thinking that

      So, how does the power consumption compare to an htpc?

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      1. MrX
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        power consumption

        Hi,

        Power consumption varies depending on wired vs wirelss, the quality profile used, bitrate of the channel, but for typical use while streaming it's significantly below 10w.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Knobbled for Home Use again

    It annoys me that when I can send 1080p+ signals down a gigabit connection, that for some reason when a clever consumer product like this, is restricted to 480p for Anti-piracy reasons. The unit is capable of 1080i with the DVB-t2 channels but we not allowed to stream those, so here's a unit with composite and low res output streaming. No wonder its targeted at IOS, problem is IOS just went 1080+ video capable with the 4s and ipad2.....

    Knobbled Knobbled Knobbed and a total waste of money. We want 1080i/p streaming. Not this sh*t!

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      It can't do 1080 anyway

      "The unit is capable of 1080i with the DVB-t2 channels "

      Don't know where you got that from. This box has only DVB-T tuners, not T2, so it can't get any HD services in the UK.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        2T

        nuff said....misleading if its just T

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      2. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Oh it HD too according to Haupagge

        So no T2 and its only capable displaying HD material DVB-T which we dont have in the UK...Unless heap of junk!

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    2. MrX
      Reply Icon

      Correction

      It's not "restricted to 480p for anti-piracy reasons". The Analogue tuner inside is only capable of Standard Definition (e.g. 720x576). The unit is not capable of recieving DVB-T2 channels. The unit has a Dual DVB-T tuner inside.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Which TV is in the front room?

    I'm looking for precisely this kind of device, but as far as I can see, Sony TVs don't allow embedded video in the web browser, so which TV is the writer using that they were able to stream TV to over the network?

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  4. Jon Press

    Maybe it's just me...

    ... but £160 seems expensive as a remedy for a missing USB host port. Especially when you can stream a large number of channels directly from the broadcaster without it.

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    1. MrX
      Reply Icon

      Benefit of not having PC on

      PCTV also have DistanTV Mobile for those who do have a dedicated Home Theatre PC setup (that has enough CPU power to support transcoding of MPEG-2 -> H.264 in real time), however the Broadway has the benefit of not needing to have your PC turned on all the time, you can just plug the unit in and leave it.

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  5. ElNumbre
    Thumb Up

    Myth?

    I wonder if this can be hacked/rooted/crowbarred into running MythTV, VDR or some 'unlocked' decoding service.

    Could make a useful low power tivoalike, especially if an alternative OS enables access to the USB ports for a hard-disk/usb stick to record to.

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  6. ph0b0s

    Something missed by the review - buyer beware

    I see from the EPG sceen shot on the first page of this review (http://regmedia.co.uk/2011/10/11/pctv_broadway_2t_tv_streamer_3.jpg), that the PCTV center still cannot deal with the freeview EPG, so channels are rather randomly assigned numbers rather than conforming to the standard numbering all other TV tuner software seems to be able to deal with.

    You can see this in the picture with BBC News set to channel no 5. You can't change that and PCTV admit it does not work. You can set up favourites with numbers, but that won't allow the number gaps in the freeview EPG, so you would still not be able to get BBCNews set to it's standard EPG no of 80. Shame this was missed by the reviewer. Whether it will be a major issue for people I don't know, but just wanted to give a heads up.

    Also with other PCTV tuners you just use other TV tuner software like Windows Media Center to get around this issue, don't know if this is possible with this device as it is based on streaming.....

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    1. jolly
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      That's not all

      They also missed the fact that it's a Haupage product (or however it's spelled). Buyer beware indeed!

      Agree with the other comments about the 2T misleading title.

      IMO: no T2 no point.

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  7. nemo20000
    Thumb Down

    Or for approximately £160 less

    http://www.tvcatchup.com/

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  8. bertino

    What about expats?

    Think this is who the products is aimed at. Just like a slingbox with built in tuner. You can only watch iPlayer etc in the UK from a UK IP address. So it is either a device like this or a proxy server.

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  9. Rob Beard
    Meh

    I can kind of see the attraction of this, but at £160 it's way too steep. Maybe if it was nearer £75 it wouldn't be so bad.

    I woudn't be surprised if one day that Freeview boxes have this sort of feature built in, in the mean time I'll stick to setting up a MythT box (current cost of box is running at about £150 with PVR funtionality).

    Rob

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    1. bertino
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      MythTV

      Will not do live telly over the internet though will it? At least it is not properly supported, there was a script/unofficial plugin that was supposed to work but that was years back.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Buyer Beware

    I have another of this Co.'s products and I can tell you that their "PCTV" software has issues galore. It took their support no less than 3 weeks to respond to my emails/support ticket. After a series of disjointed email conversations (usually someone else on their end picking up the conversation from start.middle.end.random) I finally got the answer I needed. It must be my USB ports (bog-standard Intel chippery) not their software.... I used another piece of generic TV software and had no USB port problems... They even told me maybe my PC was too old and I needed to upgrade.... i7D920, 6GB, ATI HD5970 Win7 Pro 64!...

    The word fuktards comes to mind.....

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