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im in the build with my carpc and ive always loved the idea of maintaining my radio and being able to have a tv in the car for passengers to watch.
I have just found this;
http://www.digitalnow.com.au/product_pages/Dabby.html
just wondering if anyone has used it and whether its any good.. from what i have read about other devices like this they tend to crash alot or do not get good reception.
I intend to have it connected to my car antenna so getting reception shouldnt be a drama.
thanks
Not sure but would be interested to see how people go with it..
I am currently trying to weigh up my options for radio here in Aus
yeah i might just buy it and see how it goes and i will post up a review
Someone tried :
http://www.mp3car.com/road-runner/14...-device-2.html
Not sure what happened in the end. Generally those radio stick are not sensitive at picking up station.
I have seen TVs in many cars but not sure about the product. However clarity was good. So you can give it a try.
I have a supplied SDK for the Mygica T188 and T1800B (Single and Dual tuner DAB+ and DVB-T PCI cards, but they use the Realtek DVB chipset).
The cards cost about 30 bucks Australian for the T188, and about 50 for the T1800B. Mygica also sell USB based DVB-T / DAB+ cards too (I have a wholesale account with the distributors).
BOTH WORK PERFECTLY FOR DAB+ radio!!! But everyone seems to keep pushing for the Venice systems, that are mated to a hand made circuit board (Not bagging the build quality, but I know there have been issues with the Craigbrass ones), and piped to the computer via an analogue lead.
If anyone can take the SDK, and use it to make a plugin for RR and CF, I dare say these would be just as good, if not better than the craigbrass based Venice system, as the audio is kept digital throughout the whole process (Decoded to digital format, and sent via the PCI bus, or the USB bus to the OS).
I have the T188 installed in my car computer, using a powered antenna, and I pick up 33 DAB+ stations in Perth, at full quality, with no dropouts, except when doing things like driving into tunnels, undercover carparks, or the like. And that is with no slow playback (That plagued the early Dabby drivers).I can pick up DVB-T broadcasts for all stations, and watch them in the car when the car is stationary (It sometimes works while moving, but drops in and out, as I am a fair way from the transmitters, and from what I know, its near on impossible to pick up normal DVB-T broadcasts while moving).
I am on good speaking terms with the representatives from Mygica, who are more than keen to help with producing plugin products for their cards.
The SDK I have apparently may be missing some information (one of the guys here had a quick look at it, and thought it might be missing something), however a Visual C++ example program and source code IS supplied, if anyone can hack it up to fit.
At the moment I'm using the TotalMedia 3.5 software that comes with the card for listening to the DAB+ broadcasts, and it works a treat. Just not quite finger friendly on a 7 inch monitor (Has a few small buttons on it!). If we could even embed that, it might be an option.
PM me if you want to try out playing with the SDK, I have been advised that as long as we can keep Mygica updated on our progress, and release any plugins we have created, they are more than happy for us to work using their SDK.
That sounds really interesting and quite cheap too!
Can they pick up fm as well? No idea about AM..
This is one of the things I haven't figured out is can I still pick up all the stations AM and FM I can get now using a dab+ card or if only some are digital...
Going to have a look at the digital radio website soon.
They pick up FM, although admittedly I don't have as much luck with it, but that is down to the fact that my powered antenna is designed more for DAB and DVB reception, so its not made for FM signals.
If you are tuning for DAB+, then you can only pick up those channels that are broadcast on it. So its like the difference between FM and AM, you can pick up both signals if the chipset supports it, but only FM if its an FM only chip.
These units are FM, DAB/DAB+ and DVB-T. You can pick up the FM as well as the digital stations, but you will need a multiplexer antenna (So one that can mix the FM reception from an FM antenna in with the signals from a DAB/DVB antenna) to do the job right.
That's possibly one point where the Mygica cards (and any others that do a similar thing) might help, is that they take a standard RF 75ohm antenna connection, so you wouldnt have to do impedance matching, just take a DVB/DAB antenna, and mix it in with your cars normal FM antenna (on some cars anyway, others are 50ohm) which is 75ohm as well.
Ah righto..
Sounds very interesting.
More research required:D
Ah just looking at the maps and it's really only urban coverage :(
Have to make sure fm still works so I can get tunes the rest of the time what a pain.. and no am if out of the city either.
Be nice to get a device that just does it all in one..