No Freeview HD tuners in time for World Cup?

Posted on 12 Mar 2010 at 11:32

Having spoken to major TV tuner manufacturers, none could guarantee to have a DVB-T2 tuner ready in time for the World Cup finals, which kick off in June. Every game will be shown on Freeview HD by either the BBC or ITV, but a new DVB-T2 tuner is essential if you want watch these high-resolution broadcasts.

While TVs and set top boxes with DVB-T2 support are now trickling out, tuners for PCs and laptops are nowhere to be seen. With so many matches shown over the month-long competition, an inexpensive USB tuner for your HD-capable laptop could be the ideal way to squeeze in a few extra matches without hogging the living room TV and infuriating your family.

The most optimistic estimate we received for a DVB-T2 tuner came from long-time manufacturer Hauppauge. Andrew Cochrane said "It is our intention to have a single tuner USB DVB-T2 product available in the summer. We are currently in the process of testing". Other manufacturers we contacted couldn't provide any timescale.

With only 90 days till kick off, and with only one company currently in the frame to make the deadline, we're hardly optimistic. Prices could also be far higher than for current DVB-T tuners, if only due to high demand and little supply. The lack of interest from manufacturers is due to DVB-T2 being a very new technology, with Freeview HD being one of the only broadcasts in the world. Then again, Sony and Humax have found tuners for their devices, so we can't see why PC tuner manufacturers can't do the same.

Author: Seth Barton

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