USB Freeview TV Tuner Stick - August DVB-T202 – Watch TV on Your PC - No Internet Connection Needed - Supports Windows 11/10 / 8/7 [Black]

Got this little tuner. Must admit, wasn't really sure it would work.Delivered super fast next day by Amazon, though I had chosen Super Saver free delivery.. They had even sent me an e-mail telling me it was coming... The supplied software and drivers come on a mini cd that fits in the centre of your standard CD tray. The supplied booklet, contains instructions specific to you operating system, so read this before installing the software.Installed without a hitch and once I had waved the little supplied aerial around a bit to get the best signal I could find. It picked up 93 stations. And as long as the signal is strong, it displayed them without hitch.I then tried out the TV record function.On my machine, it placed the recordings in the my video folder and when I tested the screen shot (capture frame) button it put the image in the My Pictures folder. You can alter where it stores pictures and videos, on the home page screen under Setup/General.I then moved one of the recordings to a USB stick and played it back on my HD TV. It was surprisingly good quality.I'm impressed.A very simple to use interface with basic functions and nothing too technical to cause confusion.An electronic program guide (EPG) with a brief program description and channel list, provide a way to scroll through the channels and when you are viewing in full screen, hovering the mouse pointer over the bottom of the screen pops up a floating tool bar with the most required functions on it. Pressing escape takes you out of full screen and back to the TV page. Here you can set up your scheduled recordings and rescan your TV channels if you need to. You can also save channels in a favourites list.No idea how long it will last, but considering the price,it was worth a punt, for a handy little device, that so far has worked very well..August DVB-T202 USB Freeview Tuner Stick - External PC TV Card with Digital (DVB-T) Television Receiver and PVR Style Recorder - Wintv Dongle Supported by Windows 7 / Vista / XP for Desktop and Laptop Computer

Don't bother if you're on Windows 8.1, because the latest update has rendered this tuner totally unusable, and even before that it was buggy and frustrating way to watch TV.So first things first, when it decided to work it did it's job nicely: providing a way of watching both SD and HD UK TV through the supplied software as well as Windows Media Center and MediaPortal. There would be the occasional blip where the picture would break up into alarming green and purple squares, but I suspect that anything connected to the same areal would be equally affected. Obviously with a digital signal there's no picture degeneration to worry about, but there's always aerials, signal strength and mischievous pigeon antics to consider.The included software (for watching/time-shifting/recording TV and EPG/DVR features) would similarly just stop working regularly, but at least it would break itself in funny ways like saying that refusing filenames that it automatically assigned. MediaPortal turned out to be great as a DVR, and a bonus with a PC DVR is that (unlike downloads or commercial discs) everything you record is DRM-free (and at best in 1080 HD with 5.1 sound).But even when it was new it could be hit-and-miss. I realized within a few days that the PC wouldn't recognize it from start-up unless the USB stick was physically removed and plugged back in; takes the convenience of a set recording away a tad. But that was just the beginning. After a year or so the thing would sometimes just not work, prompting a fresh re-install of the drivers. And of course, that came with the inevitable disappointment after disappointment when I discovered stuff that didn't record. Not too bad for a BBC/Channel 4 original with catch-up sites, but for a film? Outta luck. For the past year it was more common for me to re-install the drivers every single time I tried to watch/record anything. When something I really wanted to see was on, I'd make sure to check the tuner at least 10 minutes before, and sometimes that wasn't enough time to fix the tuner before the show started. I would say I was watching about 75% of BBC stuff on iPlayer by default, because it wasn't worth fighting with the drivers to update and sometimes they just wouldn't work that night.But now (possibly due to a new Win 8.1 update) the tuner just flat-out doesn't work. I've emailed August, and they're clueless. I've tried looking for new drivers and I can't find any. The drivers on their website are from 2014. And even when it "worked"... what's the point of a TV tuner that only works some of the time?

I hope you find the following points useful:1. Check online first to see if you have a strong signal in your area. Without it you're DOOMED.2. Do as they say: scan for stations using a rooftop aerial if possible. At least you know the stations are "caught" even if you have trouble locating them later.3. After reading the horror stories, I did not dare put the mini disc in the slot in my laptop so downloaded the software from the website. This was easy to do but then I couldn't find it... so I opened a dedicated folder for the 3 software items and downloaded them again.4. My computer is quite old with not much space left on the hard disk. Make sure you have enough before you embark on the "journey".5. Setting up the software is easy & the interface is user-friendly. (Thank you, I said).6. The supplied aerial is useless unless you're very lucky. (Mine half-heartedly picked up 2 stations & I decided it wasn't worth expending more effort). I then researched aerials and bought a Philex 27769R from B & Q. The supplied cable is quite short so I also bought a 5m aerial extension.7. The aerial worked immediately but, as expected, it took some fiddling to find the best position. Boy, did I need that aerial extension!8. I now have an excellent picture & 77 stations to choose from. There is very slight freezing now & then, especially on full screen, but not enough to get bothered about. I haven't tried recording etc. yet. I am not a great telly watcher and wanted TV on the laptop mainly for the news. The remote control didn't work at first but the battery was the wrong way round so that was easily solved.