Synology has a list of User Reported Compatible DVB-T Sticks, most of them ranging from 10 to 100€.There're even cheaper devices perfectly fit for the job, such as this little gizmo...
Since most of the software functions, including the scheduled recording are provided by Video Station, there's no need to invest into a high end tuner bundled with expensive OEM software and extra features like an SD card reader.
I found the WL4D on ebay to be one of the cheapest USB dongle for DVB-T. Although it's not in any Synology list, for 6€, the risk was acceptable.
This little tuner comes in 3 formats which mainly differ by their antenna connector and dongle size.
They all come with a magnetic antenna, a remote controller, and a CD containing the Windows drivers and BlazeDTV 6.0.
It must be noted that only the European DVB-T standard is supported and it's not intended to work in US, Canada, Japan and Singapore.
With this inexpensive gadget plugged in a USB port at the back of the Synology Diskstation (DS213+ in my case), the Video Station station DTV feature can be enabled.
After selecting the correct country and region, a rather long scanning process will detect all the available digital TV and radio channels.
Once the streaming is activated, it can be accessed by any capable device on the LAN.
Video Station provides the EPG and direct or scheduled recording.
VLC plugin is used for viewing the streaming and channels can be changed directly from there.
TV can be also watched and recordings scheduled from a phone or tablet using the DS Video app.
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| Channel selection list from DS Video |
More details: http://www.szwanlitech.com/products_view.asp?id=255
2 comments:
Hi Bubbah,
Are you aware of any DVB-C (+ DVB-T) dongle that would work with the Synology DS? The one you mentioned doesn't do DVB-C; on eBay there are quite a few cheap sticks but they don't say anything about Linux drivers. How did you manage to get this one working, was it just luck?
I just took a chance with that device, 6€ was an acceptable gamble.
I've seen no DVB-C model listed in Synology compatibility list and there's one question on its support in the Synology forum which never got any reply. It would probably require a specific development to support analogic video tuning in Video Station.
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