TV abroad on Laptop?

[brelades]

I have just bought a laptop to take with me on our trips abroad.
I see these "dongles" etc. that are supposed to plug in a laptop and enable viewing of Freeview TV channels.
Query one.
Anyone tried them and if so, are they any good?
Query two.
If abroad, will they pick up French, Italian, Spanish and German local TV ?
Torquayite.

 

[Admin]

Yes they are pretty good if you buy a good one.
Alot of the newer ones have the feature to record and pause live TV.

If you are buying a digital one it wont be able to get analog channels in the UK or abroad.

The most important thing is the antenna, if you have a good antenna you should get a good picture depending on where you are parked.

 

[eric3sheds]

I have a laptop with an anlogue usb TV and the main problem in a new area especially if the signal strength is weak is the way they tune, i.e. slowly from bottom to top across the scale. If you are not sure what direction the transmitter is, it can take ages to find a station. This would be the same for digital.

My tips are:

#1 Look at any aerials on buildings just before you reach your site and note direction and polarization (horizontal or vertical). This will give a clue as to where to point your aerial.

#2 Buy one of these £15.00 5" B/W portables to use for the initial set up of aerial as it's much quicker to rotate a tuneing knob while homeing in on a signal that to wait a minute or so for the laptop to scan the band.
When you've set the aerial with the portable, you'll also have a good idea of what channel group the local TV is on.

 

[brelades]

Thanks

Thankyou for the replies. I am going to the Malvern Motorhome show in a couple of weeks, and believe some of the retail outfits will be selling TV on Laptop devices. I'll let you know how I get on. Brelades.

 

[melyncoch]

When is there a Motorhome Show in Malvern Brelades please? Thought the next one was at Shepton Mallet in September? The usual one in Malvern this year was cancelled at the last minute so I missed it.