Mygica USB QAM HDTV Tuner, Clear QAM and ATSC with Bonus Antenna

by Geniatech

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• ASIN: B003GX4PR2
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,403 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 12, 2010

Product Description

A680B is the latest generation hybrid USB HDTV tuner for your laptop and PC. It integrates multiple tuners supporting following: Digital Cable (Clear QAM), and ATSC free-over-air HDTV. You can enjoy the crystal clear HDTV with resolution up to 1920 × 1080i. With its bundled player software Total Media from Arcsoft, your viewing experience is like a breeze. The player software also offers personal video recorder, picture viewer, music and DVD player capabilities. A fully functioning remote control is also supported

Features
* Digital Cable (Clear QAM Tuner)
* ATSC HDTV Tuner over antenna
* Advanced TV Application -- TotalMedia licensed from ArcSoft
* Rewind and Fast Forward live TV shows with Always Time Shifting recording
* Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
* Automatic Station Searching
* Digital Personal Video Recording
* Schedule TV recording for later viewing or burn to DVD

Specifications:
* Input : 75 Ohm PAL-NTSC Connector
* Clear QAM Tuner
* Fully ATSC 8VSB Compliant
* Input Signal Level (Channel power) : 0 to -75dBm 0 to -75dBm
* Tuner Input Frequency Range: 48.25-863.25 Mhz
* External Connectors: PAL-NTSC F Type Female
* IF Frequency: 44MHz

System Requirements
* Geniatech A680B
* Infrared Remote Control
* Mini RF to F connector converter
* Mini Antenna
* Multifunction Cable
* Software CD (Driver and Total Media 3.5)

System Requirements
* Microsoft Windows XP/Vista
* P4 2.4 GHz and above, or AMD equivalent
* 512MB RAM or above
* Video card 128MB for HDTV and 64MB for SDTV
* USB 2.0 Compatible
* Microsoft Direct X9.0 or above
* Microsoft media Player 9.0 or above
* UHF/VHF Antenna for ATSC Terrestrial TV (A small bonus indoor antenna is included for strong signals) or Cable TV for Clear QAM HDTV broadcasting

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value, expect to spend some time configuring, June 5, 2010

By 

home "techie geek" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mygica USB QAM HDTV Tuner, Clear QAM and ATSC with Bonus Antenna (Electronics)

I am using this on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.

You may hit one website where this is documented and where you can download the latest drivers, meritline...Here are some helpful hints and what I was able to get to work and what you may not want to try because it doesn't work. The only reason I am giving this one less star is because I had to compile information from everywhere and the remote is useless i.e. they should just send this product without remote, it doesn't work, DOA, bad design, well known problem. Of course don't expect tech support, well written manuals. If I am rating this as a novice user, I would give it 3 stars.

Connected the tuner to my usb port, driver failed to install. As suggested, do not use the enclosed DVD for anything except the Remote IR driver. If you can't find it, wait till you install the new Win7 driver from meritline. Do not use the driver from the DVD else it will default to antenna, no cable, and therefore no QAM.

Note, if you mess up, you will have to go into settings (tasks) in media center to further configure TV. Regardless, Media center will complain that signal or something could not determine (don't remember the exact message). Ignore it and choose configure manually; cable or antenna manually (in my case, comcast so I chose Cable). Wait a long time, could be 2-20 minutes while it scans the channels. If you find no channels, you may have a driver issue or bad cable.

You can install the drivers manually or extract the zipped file from meritline and run setup (32 or 64 bit depending on your os). In my case, the driver release date is 11/17/2009, version 11.20220.176.201. In device manager you should see HDTV Stick Digital Capture under Sould controllers. If any of this doesn't match your conviguration, deinstall all drivers associated with this and start over (maybe use the system restore so create a restore point as an option before you continue for the first time).

Just use the right driver and the rest is a breeze; expect 10-20 min the first time you scan. I am in Chicago and getting about 50 channels. Unfortunately, Comcast here just went encrypted so for all practical purposes, I am only getting OTA channels but they come in Dolby and clear with no stutter. As I said before the IR and remote are useless so time to get another remote or use the wireless mouse. I needed cheap to test, my next one will be a cablecard setup so to me this was money well spent.

I also tried to use the NTSC driver to see if I could setup ch. 3 or 4 and use the comcast box (which works on my ntsc tv and I get all channels because it's a digital set top box). For some reason, I couldn't get it to work. I have always wondered so now I know it's a no go unless I write the driver myself, ain't happening.

I also played with the ATSC driver for OTA digital channels. The included antenna is a joke. I tried the outdoor antenna and the picture was decent and I could get all local ota channels.

Summary, only good for the tuner, the rest is frivolous. For $25, why not. I'll wait for Ceton to come down a bit.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You MUST have a good computer processor for this to work. Here's why...., February 13, 2011

By 

E. Ramirez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mygica USB QAM HDTV Tuner, Clear QAM and ATSC with Bonus Antenna (Electronics)

When I first received the HDTV MyGica USB Tuner I first tried it in my DELL laptop which was a Core 2 Duo laptop running Windows XP, which I first purchased in February 2008! I experienced CONSTANT choppiness in the picture and it was NEVER consistently showing a clear moving-picture of the TV station (though the audio was always in-sync).

I was getting ready to contact the company to request an RMA and a refund but something told me to wait on that.

Three to four months later, I purchased a NEW laptop which is a Core I-7 laptop (with Windows 7 installed) which has a blazing fast processor! Guess what? I installed it the same way I did in my old DELL laptop AND THERE WAS NO CHOPPINESS in the picture whatsoever!

LESSON LEARNED: Make SURE you have a strong enough processor to use ANY USB tuner on your computer/laptop, for this product will not work if you are using an old computer or old laptop. Well it will, but it will be unbearable to watch.

On my Core I-7 laptop, the picture, is clear, and beautiful with in-sync video and audio with NO ISSUES!

The only thing you have to do is adjust the mini-antenna (just moving it on your desk a centimeter or two until you get more "green bars" of reception). But that's something you have to do with ALL OTA stations any way!

So to conclude, please don't think this product is defective if you get choppiness in your TV signal. It's probably that your computer processor can't support it!!!

I'm very glad I kept it and didn't return it. It works like a charm on my new laptop.

BTW, the small mini-antenna that came with it IS VERY POWERFUL. It picked up 9 stations; I couldn't believe that teeny-tiny antenna was JUST as good as a larger antenna I temporarily hooked up to it. As a matter of fact, the mini-antenna did a better job than my Radioshack antenna!

Have fun.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice tuner, work like a charm, February 4, 2011

By 

Mark Twain "wwwumax" (dallas, tx usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mygica USB QAM HDTV Tuner, Clear QAM and ATSC with Bonus Antenna (Electronics)

For $24, it is a nice piece of equipment. Maybe the digital signal make design much easier, this small dongle is quite solid built comparing to an analog USB I used a few years back.

My systems are WinXP, WinVista, Win7 Pro 32b, all work perfectly. The enclosed player is actually better than Media Center on Vista or Win7! MC is kind of slow when playing full screen on my 3 years old laptops, but the enclosed player runs on full screen without issue.

As for the sensitivity, it is better than a 3 years old PCI card! Again, digital signal processing makes the day.

I gave it 4 stars because the recording pull down my system performance and gives only mpg file. The MC can record in HD but it asks for much more video card power hence not practical on older machines.

Overall, I am watching only ATSC, but I assume clear QAM should work just as good. Very satisfied.

Final words, as for all HDTV these days, get a decent signal is more important than working with analog before. I am using rabbit ear with good amps about 10dB. No amp, no signal.