HDTV FOR THE PRO — PRODUCT REVIEW:
Aurora Multimedia V-Tune Pro HD
The V-Tune Pro HD is a do-it-all set-top box for systems integrators that receives 8VSB, QAM, NTSC, and even IPTV content.
As the analog TV shutdown winds towards its conclusion on June 12, it’s worth noting that the days of the stand-alone ATSC set-top receiver have essentially come to a close. Back when the DTV transition started, set-top boxes were the only way you could pick up digital terrestrial television broadcasts (DTTB), and those early boxes were big, expensive, and balky.
We’ve come a long way since then. The 8VSB modulation system has been refined and tweaked to the point where it’s quite reliable now, even in areas with high multipath. And of course, every television manufactured after July 1, 2007 must include a digital TV tuner, many of which will also demodulate and receiver unscrambled digital cable TV channels.
About the only ATSC set-top boxes left now are NTIA converter boxes. While most of them work well, these are strictly down-converting receivers, and won’t provide HDTV signals to older TVs with HD component inputs, or TV/monitor products with RGB and DVI connections.
The last HD-capable ATSC STB offered by a major manufacturer — Samsung’s 5th-generation DTB-H260F — was phased out of production late last year. Problem is, there are still plenty of applications for stand-alone ATSC receivers as part of an commercial AV or home theater installation. What’s an integrator to do?
Figure 1. Aurora Multimedia’s V-Tune Pro HD.
Good news! Aurora Multimedia has introduced the V-Tune Pro HD, an all-in-one, integrator-friendly DTV set-top receiver. Not only does it receive analog NTSC and digital ATSC channels, it will also demodulate 64-QAM and 246-QAM digital cable channels that are “on the clear” (no conditional access).
The V-Tune Pro HD is also future-proof in that it can function as an IPTV set-top receiver, thanks to its 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection. If you’re moving to the next level of AV installs (software-based video and audio switching), you’ll be able to handle MPEG2 and MPEG4 program streams easily with this box — even MPEG4 through the RF input, for cable or private RF distribution systems.
OUT OF THE BOX
The V-Tune Pro HD is a compact 10.5” wide by 7” deep by 1.75” tall, and weighs only a couple of pounds. The small size and low weight is made possible by the use of an outboard power supply, something I’d prefer to have inside the chassis for a permanent installation. As shipped, it comes with a pair of rack ears and needs a 1RU space.
The front panel has a dual-mode LED to indicate red when powered down, and green when operating. Next to that, you’ll find the IR sensor. The center of the front panel has a large green alphanumeric display to show the channel that’s currently being received. (IP channels start at 200 and go up.) On the right, there’s a large menu button with navigation keys surrounding it.
The rear panel has everything you’d need for an installation. The V-Tune Pro HD offers two ways to get 720p and 1080i HD content out to displays — a rack of RCA component video (YPbPr) jacks and an HDMI 1.3 connector.
There are also the ‘obligatory’ composite video and S-video jacks in case you want to drive a separate monitor, plus a pair of RCA stereo audio connections. You’ll also find two SPDIF digital audio outputs – one Toslink optical, and one coaxial. In addition to a single F-connector, Aurora has also included a pair of 1/8” mini-jacks for RS232 control and an external IR sensor.
Finally, there’s an Ethernet jack on the far right rear of the panel, which not only serves as an IP connection for Internet video but also allows you to upgrade system firmware and control the receiver via a LAN connection. And yes, there’s also a USB 2.0 slot, the purpose of which I’ll touch on in a moment.
Figure 2. Hmmm…did they forget anything?
REMOTE AND MENUS
The supplied remote, while functional, isn’t one of my favorites. It has too many same-size buttons and is obviously designed for someone with much smaller fingers. The remote was also designed to operate other pieces of equipment as it includes buttons for Source selection (inoperative), and DVD/DVR play/stop/pause and skip functions.
Those tiny buttons are right below the buttons for selecting close caption modes, changing the aspect ratio (Full, Letterbox, Pillarbox, and Crop), and activating the electronic program guide (EPG) function that’s a key part of the ATSC standard. You can also find out what channel and program you’re watching with the Info key.
The V-Tune menu is broken into four sections — Channel, Caption, Setup, and Parental. In Channel mode, you select either Off-Air, Cable, or IP operating modes (sorry, can’t have more than one at a time!) and whether you want the V-Tune to scan automatically for available channels, or let you do a manual search. You can also edit channels you’ve scanned to delete unwanted channels, like all of those home-shopping hawkers!
Viewing IP channels on the V-Tune requires manual entry of each IP address and port number for the server where the IPTV cast originates. Those settings will automatically be saved to memory. You can also configure the tuner to receive a Unicast (only one client from the program stream) or Multicast (multiple clients are receiving the stream).
The Caption menu lets you customize displayed captions by tweaking Style, Font Size, Font Type, Font Color, Background Color, and Opacity. This receiver will work with both converted EIA-608 and EIA-708 digital captions, by the way.
The Setup menu is where you’ll configure the receiver’s output resolution, choosing between 480i, 480p, 720p, 10080i, and even 1080p/60 output. (Make sure your connected displays can support this option — otherwise, you’ll wind up with a blank screen!)
It’s worth noting that all video outputs are active in the first four modes, meaning that you can drive composite and S-video signals at 480i at the same time you’re supplying 720p or 1080i signals to the component video and HDMI jacks. Unlike Samsung’s DTB-H260F, the Menu shows up on all outputs at the same time. The only catch is that your aspect ratio selections in HD modes will affect the image size through the 480i connections.
Additional Setup options include digital audio output modes (PCM or Dolby Digital), Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time configuration, and Power Saving mode, which shuts the box down after an unspecified amount of time if no channel activity is detected.
The Network menu is where you’ll configure the V-Tune’s IP address using static addressing or DHCP (I suggest the latter). Finally, you can update the firmware either through that same LAN connection, or the rear-panel USB port.
Figures 3a-d: Using a $12 indoor antenna, the V-Tune Pro HD was able to receive and hold onto 8VSB signals from (upper left) WNYW-44 and WABC-45, (upper right) WWOR-38, (lower left) WPIX-33, and (lower right) WNBC-28, despite moderate to strong multipath.
IN OPERATION
According to Paul Harris from Aurora, the V-Tune Pro HD is running the latest generation of 8VSB receiver technology, which usually means improved adaptive equalizing for severe multipath. (That would be Gen 5.5 or possibly Gen 6, which LG/Zenith has alluded to.)
In tests with my rooftop and attic antennas, the V-Tune Pro HD is definitely better at holding onto 8VSB signals off the antenna’s side and rear that frequently drop out on a Samsung DTB-H260F. In fact, the receiver’s performance is equivalent to that of a Zenith DTT901 NTIA converter box, which is effectively a Gen 6 design.
For a real crunch test, I took the V-Tune Pro HD to New York City, and gave it a workout indoors on the 3rd floor of an apartment building on the east side of Central Park — not a terrible location, but a tricky one, due to dynamic multipath issues with DTV channels 30, 44, 53, and 56. For antennas, I used a pair of rabbit ears, an amplified Terk antenna, and an RCA panel antenna (for in-depth coverage of those tests, click here).
The receiver correctly reads Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) information from all ATSC channels, and you can display elementary PSIP (virtual channel, program name, ratings, etc) by pushing the Info button. Tapping the EPG button will give you full program guide info for that channel.
In a second test, the V-Tune Pro HD locked up all available “in the clear” digital cable channels after scanning for about 8 minutes. However, those channels didn’t always display with the correct virtual channel table (VCT) information that Comcast includes on all of the local broadcast stations.
Figures 3a-d: Using a $12 indoor antenna, the V-Tune Pro HD was able to receive and hold onto 8VSB signals from (upper left) WNYW-44 and WABC-45, (upper right) WWOR-38, (lower left) WPIX-33, and (lower right) WNBC-28, despite moderate to strong multipath.
For example, the cable version of KYW-DT, which shows up on my Panasonic plasma with virtual channel 3-1, appeared as 92-1 on the V-Tune, which is the correct physical channel number — but difficult to jump to quickly. WPVI-DT, virtual channel 6-1, appeared as channel 104-1, while WCAU-DT (10-1) came up as 104-2. (I didn’t have a chance to try out the IPTV function, but plan to do so in a follow-up article.)
Picture quality from the video outputs is as good as I’ve seen from any cable, satellite, or terrestrial set-top boxes. For best image quality, I recommend using the 1080p output through HDMI wherever possible, unless your outboard display has a high-end video processor like ICT’s Reon chip.
CONCLUSIONS
My hat is off to Aurora Multimedia (and other manufacturers like Contemporary Research) for continuing to support the discrete set-top box market. Even though there isn’t as much demand from the consumer side for ATSC STBs, the pro AV channel still needs a box like this. I can easily envision a network of projectors that would be served by one tuner, such as classroom reception of news and educational programming.
The home theater market should also find plenty of applications for a tuner like this. With your choice of RS232 or Ethernet control, it’s ready for any installation. Custom video distribution networks that re-modulate blocks of channels to the QAM format are also strong customers.
It would be nice to see a future version that supports a plug-in or add-on DVR, like the Western
Digital MyDVR products. Time shifting of video is now a fact of life in the home, and it has just
as much appeal to the pro AV market, particularly in classroom and conference room applications.
How about it, guys? (And how about some accessory antennas to go with the V-Tune Pro HD?)
