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Watch Free-to-Air TV on your Smartphone, Tablet or Laptop By ROSS TESTER The photo above is not a wide-screen TV set – though it is showing a wide-screen free-to-air TV image. It’s actually a still image on an Android laptop, showing a televised World Cup match in real time! T he internet is a wonderful, powerful thing. Just think of the things it lets you do every day as a matter or course, which you never would have dreamed of, say ten years ago. But there is another, seldom-thoughtof benefit of the internet: it has in fact spawned the development of a plethora of equipment to use this power – again, equipment which was only the often outlandish musings of science fiction writers of a decade earlier or so. 24  Silicon Chip Take smartphones, for example. These amazingly powerful computers (for that’s what they are) often relegate the ‘phone’ function to a distant second place. It’s all about apps (applications for you Luddites!) which turn your smartphone into, well, anything you want. Now there’s TV on the move Add a tiny USB dongle to your smartphone and you’re able to watch free-to-air digital TV services wherever you are – without using either your phone service or even a broadband connection. We should add that Australian TV services are now all-digital, with analog TV now permanently off the air. And perhaps we should also add that we are talking here about Android phones. Despite all the marketing hype, Android holds about 70% of the smartphone market (and its still growing). Apple users – don’t despair: there are similar services available for siliconchip.com.au you. But they’re not what we are talking about here. Back to the Android smartphone and TV. Recently, Altronics sent us one of their ‘PadTV’ packs to try out. Their Director, Brian Sorensen, waxed lyrical on the ‘phone about how amazing the tiny dongle was. And now we know why! The PAD TV Tuner dongle You almost feel cheated when you look at the dongle. It’s not much bigger than your thumbnail. Yet within this tiny device is all the ‘smarts’ to turn your Android (4.1 or higher) device into a very high performance TV and even a DVR. Think about that for a minute: virtually a complete TV tuner in a package that’s MUCH smaller than the remote control for your home TV! Of course, it doesn’t get anywhere without the computer power of your smartphone or tablet but you carry that in your pocket anyway. Now you can take TV wherever you want it – obviously, assuming there is a TV station to pick up. Whether that’s camping out, on a boat, at a sportsground, in a car (maybe!), at Shown significantly oversize for clarity, the front of the PAD TV tuner has a micro-USB plug to mate with your Android smartphone, phablet or tablet, while the rear has a SSMB connector to take one of the supplied mini antennas. An SSMB-to-TV antenna adaptor is also supplied to connect to an outside antenna. work (sorry, boss – it’s research. . .), you name it – mobile TV at its finest. Now before you take those locations/situations as gospel, we should point out that there are limitations. The most obvious is that there must be a good strength TV signal. That’s not just a function of the dongle and its tiny antenna (though naturally, that does have a major influence), it’s also a function of digital TV with its ‘digital cliff’. You either have a picture, or you don’t – there’s no in-between snowy half-picture like there was with analog. TV reception in a car is also a bit hit- and-miss for much the same reason, added to the fact that the moving car is likely to be in and out of good signal areas, between city buildings, behind hills or mountains, even a large dense tree can interfere with reception. So while it might be tempting to keep the kids amused on a long trip with the PAD TV, it’s probably best to have some DVDs or games available as well! Another limitation is the size of the screen on your device. It might seem pretty cool to watch TV on a 3.5-inch phone but the lack of detail is less than satisfying. Seeing any horse in the Radio, Television & Hobbies: the COMPLETE archive on DVD YES! NA R O M E THA URY T N E QUARTER C NICS O OF ELECTR ! HISTORY This remarkable collection of PDFs covers every issue of R & H, as it was known from the beginning (April 1939 – price sixpence!) right through to the final edition of R, TV & H in March 1965, before it disappeared forever with the change of name to EA. For the first time ever, complete and in one handy DVD, every article and every issue is covered. If you’re an old timer (or even young timer!) into vintage radio, it doesn’t get much more vintage than this. If you’re a student of history, this archive gives an extraordinary insight into the amazing breakthroughs made in radio and electronics technology following the war years. And speaking of the war years, R & H had some of the best propaganda imaginable! Even if you’re just an electronics dabbler, there’s something here to interest you. • Every issue individually archived, by month and year • Complete with index for each year • A must-have for everyone interested in electronics Please note: this archive is in PDF format on DVD for PC. Your computer will need a DVD-ROM or DVD-recorder (not a CD!) and Acrobat Reader 6 or above (free download) to enable you to view this archive. This DVD is NOT playable through a standard A/V-type DVD player. SILICON CHIP Exclusive to ONLY 62 $ 00 +$10.00 P&P HERE’S HOW TO ORDER YOUR COPY: BY INTERNET:^ siliconchip.com.au 24 Hours 7 Days <at> BY EMAIL:# silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au 24 Hours 7 Days BY PHONE:* (02) 9939 3295 9-4 Mon-Fri * Please have your credit card handy! # Don ’t forget to include your name, address, phone no and credit card details. siliconchip.com.au BY FAX:# (02) 9939 2648 24 Hours 7 Days BY MAIL:# PO Box 139, Collaroy NSW 2097 ^ You will be prompted for required information November 2014  25 Melbourne Cup is difficult; identifying it by number or even jockey colours is near impossible! That’s where the larger screens of today’s phones, phablets and tablets really makes a difference. Assuming you don’t have either wrong version Android or wrong port problems, search for the PAD TV app in Google Play, download it and install it. The first one we found was a freebie; there may be others offering more facilities but we didn’t bother to go further. Using it Unfortunately, it’s not simply a matter of plugging in and playing (or viewing in this case). First, you need to download the appropriate app. As an Android device, you would log on to Google Play and search for Pad TV. And here is where you might find the first (and often insurmountable) hurdle. Remember a moment ago we mentioned that you needed to have Android 4.1 or higher. For the latest smartphones and tablets, that shouldn’t be a problem. Check it by going to ‘settings’, thence ‘about phone’ and scroll down to ‘software information’. If it doesn’t say ‘Android version 4.1’ (or higher), you’re out of luck. Yes, some phones can be updated but unless your manufacturer has the appropriate patches, you’re on your own. Your smartphone or tablet must also support USB On-The-Go, or USB OTG. This is a specification and standard that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host allowing a USB flash drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached. Most devices now do (especially those with Android 4.1+) but it’s worth checking your specs. Tied up with this is another potential sticking point – the USB port itself. The micro USB male plug on the PAD TV dongle needs to mate with a USB micro female socket (also known as, respectively, type B and type A). Fortunately, these days most smartphones have that micro USB type B port we mentioned earlier. That means the PAD TV dongle will plug straight in. But it’s not always the case. And if you can’t find PAD TV? Once the app is downloaded and installed, setup is straightforward, logical and quick. There are (currently) four types of USB ports: the ‘standard’ type A male and female, the smaller type B male and female, the Mini-A, the Mini-B and finally the Micro-A and MicroB. As their name implies, the micro USB ports are the smallest. There is a combined Micro-A and Micro-B socket which is designed to allow USB OTG, as mentioned earlier. Incidentally, despite countless millions in use, Mini-A and Mini-B USB sockets are now regarded as obsolete. Unfortunately, tablets often have only standard or mini USB ports (or perhaps even a proprietary data connector). You might be able to find an adaptor (did your Tablet come with one?) but if you can’t connect the PAD TV, you’re out of luck . . . again. We found female micro USB adaptors almost impossible to buy. Note that we did say almost! We eventually found one on ebay for the unbelievable price of $2.39 (including postage from China!). Here are the two antennas supplied – the small loop antenna shown plugged into the PADTV Tuner (above) and the small whip antenna on a base, as seen at left. Just be aware that small antennas such as these don’t pick up a whole lot of signal so you need to be in a strong signal area. 26  Silicon Chip We mentioned earlier that the PAD TV dongle requires Android 4.1 or higher to operate. If you cannot find PAD TV when you log onto Google Play and search for it, the chances are your smartphone is not Android 4.1 – Android is clever enough to only show those apps that will operate with the Android iteration on your smartphone. (Go to Google Play from Windows, for example, and you’ll see all that are available). Setting up Once the app is installed, when you plug in the PAD TV dongle, the app will automatically find it and load it. Then you need to set it up. First, you will need to select the appropriate country from the ‘settings’ menu then scan for available channels. This takes a few minutes, particularly if you’re in an area with lots of TV signals. Here’s where you might discover one or more of those wrinkles we mentioned earlier. Our first scan, indoors (wet brick walls), discovered 16 channels but no ABC, 7 or 10. And when we tried to view any of them, they all said ‘No Signal’. Our second scan was outside and this yielded 60 channels, including multiple ABCs, 7s, 9s, 10s, Gems, etc etc. However, not all worked – again, many said ‘No Signal’. But the ones that did work ranged from patchy to excellent. Obviously the PAD TV was picking up translators from here, there and everywhere – but most didn’t have enough power to give us a picture. You can sort the channels into the order you want them by selecting ‘sort channels’ and dragging the three horizontal bars on the right side of the listings and dropping them into position. It would make sense to place the unusable channels at the back of the queue (so far, we haven’t worked out siliconchip.com.au how to delete them but there must be a way!) Antenna adaptor plug If you can’t find any channels, or if you can’t get a picture on any that are found, Altronics include an SSMB-toPAL adaptor which allows you to plug the PAD TV dongle into your home TV antenna. Assuming you have a reliable picture on your home TV, this is a proofof-operation which will allow you to go through the above steps and make sure it’s all working for you. Of course, reverting to the tiny loop or whip antennas might not give you any joy but at least you’ll know that it does work with your smartphone. The phone’s ringing! And speaking of your smartphone, what happens if you are watching TV and someone calls you? No problem – the phone becomes a . . . phone! (It reverts to TV when the call is over). Power While we haven’t measured it, we would imagine that watching TV on your smartphone would be fairly hun- gry on the battery. In fact, the PAD TV dongle itself gets fairly warm with continual use, suggesting that it is dragging a bit of power. So if you need your phone to be always available for phone calls, that’s something to keep in mind. We noticed the battery level symbol had dropped down a couple of notches in the time we were playing researching. Obviously, you can’t plug in a charger while watching TV as they both use the same Micro USB socket. The verdict? Even at significantly higher price, we would rate the PAD TV dongle as a bargain. Of course, there’s plenty of apps around to let you stream live TV to your device (want to watch TV from outer Mongolia?) but all these cost you bandwidth – and significant bandwidth at that. On a limited plan, that’s going to cost you plenty. Not so the PAD TV. Because it receives its signal off-air, there is no bandwidth overhead once you’ve downloaded the PAD TV app (about LINTEK INTO RADIO? How about SiDRADIO? Take a <$20 DTV Dongle and end up with a 100kHz-2GHz SDR! Published October 2013 Don’t pay $$$$ for a commercial receiver: this uses a <$20 USB DTV/DAB+ dongle as the basis for a very high performance SSB, FM, CW, AM etc radio that tunes from DC to daylight! Want to know more? Go to siliconchip.com.au/project/sidradio Want to know more? Go to: siliconchip.com.au/Issue PCBs & Micros available from PartShop /2011/July/Ultra-LD+Mk.3+200W+Amplifier+Module 16MB). So, with the proviso that you must be in a good signal area, you can watch TV on your smartphone wherever you go. We love it! Where from, how much? The PAD TV Digital TV for Android phones package (dongle, loop antenna, tiny whip antenna and PAL-SSMB adaptor) costs just $69.95 and is available from any Altronics store, reseller of via their website (www.altronics. SC com.au). Cat no is D2800. PRINTED CIRCUITS TOMORROWS PRINTED CIRCUITS TODAY Incorporated in 1986, Lintek is a quality Australian manufacturer of Microwave printed circuit boards. Lintek’s patented High Vacuum Deposition process enables the production of extremely accurate microwave circuit features on a wide variety of conventional and exotic substrates including precision milled metal backed carriers. High bond strength to PTFE and minimal side wall undercut are two key features synonymous to Lintek’s process. This innovative process allows Lintek to provide PCB’s for the latest high frequency commercial or military designs as well as the standard FR4 Single sided, DSPTH and Multilayer circuit boards. Unrivalled Accuracy i) Lintek’s process requires significantly less etching to remove a very thin 1-2 micron vacuum deposited copper seed layer instead of the standard 18 microns copper base layer used on Electroless copper processes, thus eliminating undercut and ensuring the repeatability of:a. very fine track and spaces. b. accurate copper features and filters. c. near perfect side wall resolution. d. superb impedance control. Repeatability of Fine track and spaces. e. High bond strength to exotic substrates ii) Plated through holes are stronger and more reliable due to the same amount of copper being deposited in the hole barrel as on the surface. This is particularly important on PTFE materials, which have a large thermal expansion in the Z direction. iii) The elimination of Sodium etching that is normally used on PTFE materials, this saves time, cost and our environment. Testing and Verification Quality System AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008 compliant. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Approval File Number EI24884. IPC-A-600 Trainer on staff, all Inspectors are IPC-A-600 Certified Specialists. Compliance certification is available on request. Please visit our website to see our latest stock list. www.lintek.com.au Lintek Pty Ltd, 18-20 Bayldon Road, Queanbeyan NSW 2620. Australia Tel: +61 2 6299 1988 Fax: +61 2 6297 6958 sales<at>lintek.com.au siliconchip.com.au Near perfect side wall resolution and minimal undercut. Strong plated through holes, Copper on the surface and through the hole is the same thickness. ISO9001:2008 UL Approval November 2014  27