Hackaday has a brilliant series of posts on hacking TV tuners. Check these out: Using a TV tuner as a high speed ADC Working software-defined radio with a TV tuner card Those USB TV tuners used for SDR can also grab GPS data Playing air traffic controller with software defined radio Putting a software defined [...]
Archive of posts filed under the VCRadio category.
MP3 Patent Countdown
Various Sagebrush programs are able to record and play MP3, but only if you already have an ACM MP3 audio codec installed on your computer, which was common during Windows XP but less likely in later versions of Windows. We do not bundle an MP3 encoder with our products because the technology is covered by [...]
Anniversary of Betamax Decision
January 17, 1984 the US Supreme Court decided the case of Sony Corporation of America et al. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., et al., reaffirming that home use recording is considered fair use, and manufacturers were not liable for contributory infringement. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqxqYiptNe0]
USB Tuner Support for Vista
VCRadio version 1.9 has been stuck in beta for several months. Here’s why: We have acquired several USB TV/FM tuners to support this product, and none of them have drivers running under Vista yet! We really don’t want to purchase another USB NTSC/FM tuner if we don’t have to, but it might be necessary to [...]
High Def Radio Startup
NPR Morning Edition has a story about a couple starting a business to produce high definition radios and the difficulties encountered bringing it to market. (link) (Our company looked briefly at venturing into the hardware world by designing our own HD Radio device, but were scared away by threats of a broadcast flag.)
Radio How?
The respected Secret Life of Machines TV series explains the inner workings of radio: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ehVVpY6XE4]
Example FM Tuner Design II
In a previous post we pointed to a design project report for a USB FM tuner . Here is another tuner project, a reference design by a semiconductor company wishing to promote its FM tuner ICs. The application note includes software, firmware, board layout, and parts list. The reference design kit is available for purchase [...]