Importing TV Tuner from Britain

[MongooseMan]

Hi

For reasons involving cost and availability I'm looking to import a TV Tuner from amazon.co.uk. I've got a mate coming over from the UK, so delivery is not an issue.

What I want to know is whether this card will work in SA:
I'm looking at the [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hauppauge-HVR1300MCE-Analogue-hardware-mediacenter/dp/B000DZ838I/"]Hauppauge WinTV HVR1300MCE Kit[/ame]

My question is: Would this card work in South Africa? From what I can see it takes an analog input (so I could plug in the normal TV ariel if I ever move somewhere where there's no dish) and composite (good for when I do have a dish). Also comes with remote etc, which is a bonus.
Am I missing any giant pitfalls?

Thanks
Graeme

(PS Apologies if this seems like a double post, but this seemed a better place to ask this question.)

 

[dj_jyno]

Looks OK. Supports PAL and DVB-T (when it finally launches here)

 

[ponder]

SA uses PAL-I (same as UK) broadcast standard and that card is PAL. These days they are pretty much universal and support all PAL standards so no need to worry about it working here.

 

[risingtide]

The SA standard is not identical to Europe. The video/sound carriers in Europe are 5.5Mhz apart whereas in SA it is 6Mhz.
Maybe the card can be programmed to accommodate different gaps.

 

[Roamer]

The UK only use the UHF band, so ensure you have VHF on the card too.
The DVB-T will be useless here, as the card uses MPEG-2 codecs. We'll be using MPEG-4, probably based on the AVC codec.

 

[MongooseMan]

The UK only use the UHF band, so ensure you have VHF on the card too.
The DVB-T will be useless here, as the card uses MPEG-2 codecs. We'll be using MPEG-4, probably based on the AVC codec.

Hi, I've done some checking and the card seems to work in New Zealand as well as Europe, so it should work here ok.

Regarding the whole DVB-T question, isn't the "mpeg-2" nature of the card only important for encoding, and not decoding. From what I've read, for digital broadcasts the card can simply act as a dumb device, as the mpeg-2 chip is only called into action to encode analog/composite streams.
That said, I may be completely wrong, and am open to some (explainatory) correction

 

[Roamer]

Have a look here ...

http://www.afterdawn.com/hardware/product_details.cfm/265/hauppauge_wintv-hvr-1300_mce

This card will not do MPEG-4 based DVB-T, so it will not here in SA in around two/three years once they switch off the PAL transmitters. You can of course plug in an external decoder into the Video In sockets.