[access-uk] Re: Freecom freeview USB stick
- From: "G. McFarlane" <gmcf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 19:12:53 -0000
Hi Graham
Checking on the chris-tv website it looks as if it only works for analog tv
tuner cards. Recently they've linked with an epg program scheduler/guide called
webshifter and this looks promising. At present Chris-tv has an excellent
scheduler - you can easily set up start and end times and put the computer into
standby until the next recording. The webshifter program allows the searching
of program guides and sends your choices to the scheduler in chris-tv.
It therefore looks as if it will not support the Freecom usb stick but as far
as the program guide goes the epg in Freecom is great anyway. I'm assuming
you're asking this because you want to take advantage of the audio description
recording which I think takes place in chris-tv.
As regards USB1 I don't think Freecom's usb2 stick is recommended as usb1 is
too slow at capturing.
Hope this helps.
Gordon
----- Original Message -----
From: Graham Page
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 1:33 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Freecom freeview USB stick
Hi Gordon.
Can the Freecom USB stick be used as the TV tuner for Chris-tv? Also, can
the Freecom USB stick be used on a machine with only USB 1.1 ports?
Regards
Graham
Regards
Graham
Graham Page
Mobile: 07753 607980
Fax: 0870 706 2773
Email: gpage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MSN: gabriel_mcbird@xxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: gabriel_mcbird
----- Original Message -----
From: G. McFarlane
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 9:04 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Freecom freeview USB stick
Hi Sunil
The following is a compilation of a couple of emails I wrote a while ago
about the Freedom USB stick. I'm just pasting them quickly below to give you
an idea about it - they're not a definitive review but show something of what
the stick can do. The current state of play is that they do give an audio
described channel but it's only the commentary - you can't as yet mix the
background sound (the original audio) with the voice. They're looking into
changing this but a week or two ago they were going to release new drivers then
said they were going to redo them from scratch so it's unlikely there will be
an upgrade for a month or two.
However apart from this it's great for getting free stations, recording them,
time on them and as I've raved before, it's a great electronic programme guide
which only needs a little jaws graphics labelling. I can thoroughly recommend
it for the quality price and accessibility - however if it's audio description
you're looking for it's not a goer at the moment. Another program I have been
looking at is chris-tv which does the same kind of thing and is pretty well
keyboard shortcut accessible. It does offer various audio recording facilities
which probably does include the ability to record and hear audio description
but as yet I've not experimented in this area. It has a 21 day trial and by all
reports the quality of picture is good - it uses your tv tuner card and even
gives an avi file option for recording (as well as mpg).
It's available at:
www.chris-tv
and I must say gives a good measure of control and accessibility in recording
TV.
Regards.
Gordon McFarlane
Now the earlier reports:
Hi
Further to my last comments on this I've had a bit more time to use this.
Those wh are considering buying it may find the following useful
The manual comes with a number of keyboard shortcuts, but by phoning the
extremely helpful helpline and experimentation I've discovered that there are
more
for some of the things I at first thought were going to be inaccessible.
On the main viewing screen a right click of the mouse or the pressing of the
context menu key at the right of the keyboard brings up a context menu in which
many of the major viewing functions and settings can be found. Also
keypresses are available for most of these functions.
On the control panel of the program (alt and tab to get there) it at first
seems impossible to get the icons at the foot of this - these icons are for
setting up favourite channels (accessible from the main context menu), an
open file dialog box (press ctrl and 'o') which allows access to the files you
have recorded so you can view them within the program. Right clicking on
selected file(s) in this dialog box (after tabbing to them) allows a variety
of functions including burning them to disk.
There is also a Setup icon (which can also be accessed fromthe main viewing
window by pressing 'e'.) Here you can scan and alter channel order, setup and
remove preset recordings, etc. You can have what looks like 100 preset
recordings and two buttons allow you to delete one preset at a time or all
The jewel in the crown is the next icon in the control panel - it is the
electronic preset guide (accessible by pressing ctrl and 'e'). Forgive me if I
sound enthusiastic but it's the first electronic program guide which I've
found accessible. if you've found one then I apologise for my ranting.
You can tab through all the options, setting any of the channels, reading the
information about the current program on that channel or on the program you
select from the list which are about to be broadcasted. It takes a second or
two after getting into the EPG (electronic program guide) for the program
to look up the net and input the information but when it's there it's
marvelous. I thought at first that it only gave listings for the same day, but
when
I had some sighted help I discovered that when Jaws announced 'tab' when it
hit a certain field I would then right arrow to the next day, and so on. Once
on a new day it went straight to the listing for that day. To move to the
next day it meant tabbing around again to the 'day tabe' again. Using the Jaws
graphics labeller solved this problem and now it announces the day when it
hits that tab field. I didn't get the labeller to work automatically though
- you have to get sighted help to position the cursor then label each day
icon, but once that's done it works a treat.
When you find a program you want to record you have to position the Jaws
cursor over the time and press the left mouse button jaws key on the keypad
twice
(the equivalent of double clicking on it). This brings up the record preset
window and you can check all the times and program name etc. before accepting
it. (There may be another way of choosing the program you wish to record
apart from finding the time with the jaws cursor but as yet I haven't found it)
You can then take away the whole program from the screen and go back to the
desktop or work on another program. When the program you wish to record is
about to begin, the program loads itself up and starts recording right on
time.
By the way if you do this make sure your computer clock is accurate to the
second then you'll not miss bits of the program as I did at first.
One or two things need a bit of jaws cursoring at first but all in all it's
pretty accessible software for such a new product.
Hope this helps anyone thinking of purchasing it.
Regards.
Gordon
Hi
As promised I'm sending you an email with my congratulations and concerns
about the Freeview USB2 Stick. I would be obliged if you would pass it on to the
relevant person(s) as agreed.
It's great - it's about the only piece of equipment I've come across which
gives blind people access to this type of equipment. The software has been
designed
with most of the functions available by menus and keyboard shortcuts, that
for a visually impaired person are a Godsend. I'm especially impressed with
the EPG which for once in this visually impaired notorious area is pretty
well totally accessible by screen reader. Thank you Freecom.
Now one or two concerns or requests. Only one or two extras if included would
make this device almost perfect for blind users. The first and most important
thing is the use of the audio channels. It's great to be able to switch
between the two that seem to come with many broadcasts, especially when the
second
track is audio description. However it seems strange that when you switch to
the alternative audio described track, only the voice is heard describing
what is going on, not the background soundtrack. I had thought that when
broadcasters put out these programmes they superimposed the voice over the
background
audio and put them out as one channel - here however the two are still
separate and not of much use this way. I'm not sure how Freeview boxes work as
I'm
used to Sky in which I can select a 'Narrative' audio channel in the System
setup, and when I change channels to an audio described one I hear the voice
and the background superimposed on each other. Whether the two are separate
when broadcasted (as with the USB2 Stick) and the box does the superimposing,
I just don't know. Also whether the normal Freeview receiver blends the two
within its circuitry or whether the audio channel comes from the broadcaster
with the two channels superimposed I just don't know, but if you were able to
give us audio setting options to allow the blending of the channels or could
give us a blended third channel, we would be most grateful. At present
unfortunately although it's great to hear the voice, it's of no real use if we
can't
hear the soundtrack. Can you within the program blend the channels or give us
a setting which we can access when we wish to take advantage of the audio
description?
A few of us also see a benefit in another possible innovation. A settings
dialog allowing us to choose which soundcard to direct the sound to could be
helpful.
For the digital quality to be routed to perhaps a hifi soundcard while the
Windows sounds (and our speech synthesiser speech) could be output on the basic
soundcard - this separation of sound would be beneficial to get maximum
quality from the Freeview programmes, and eliminate the problem which we blind
people face when we mute the sound, e.g. the removal of all sounds including
our speech.
A further query is as to whether on this Settings dialog box we could have
the flexibility to choose video bitrate so that varying sizes and lengths of
files/programmes can be recorded.
Also would it be possible in the setup of channels to find all the channels
or to recognise channels which may not be broadcasting at the time of scanning.
I know this can be got around by scanning and saving the resultant files at
different times of the day but a comprehensive listing as with a standard
Freeview box would be useful. Similarly will there be ability to access the
top up channels e.g. UK Gold (and any others) in the future?
One further problem I have and this only may be confined to me, is that when
I try to access the mpg files from within Windows Explorer to pop them into
Windows Media Player or any other program, I find that my computer reboots.
It seems to dislike the MPG file in the folder. I can however access the
recorded
files by using another network computer or by going into your software
player, pressing ctrl and 'o' to bring up the open folder, then bringing up the
context menu and accessing the file that way. Is there a workaround for this
or am I the only one with this problem?
Thanks for reading this email. I realise that it's making quite a number of
demands but hope you might be able to meet some of them at least for us. Please
let me know if you are able to make any amendments to what is already an
excellent and well thought out program.
Regards.
Gordon McFarlane
position it over
T
----- Original Message -----
From: Sunil
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 6:04 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Freecom freeview USB stick
I'm trying to track a review down of the Freecom USB stick that lets you
watch freeview channels on a PC with audio description. I think someone wrote
about it and how it works with a screenreader but I can't find anything on the
web. If anyone's got an electronic version of the review I'd appreciate a copy
sunil.peck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cheers
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