DIY buying TV Tuner & Bluetooth Module?

Thinking of putting it all together myself... anyone have any idea what miniPCI TV tuners are compatible with the HEL80 and where you can buy them? The only place I see to buy a third party TV Tuner for it is from Powernotebooks.com and they only offer the one.

Same for the Bluetooth module. Anyone know where I can buy the module?

 

I have never heard of a mini-PCI TV tuner. I think you are thinking Expresscard/PCMCIA and USB. Those are the major options for notebook TV tuners.

The bluetooth module will be specific to your Compal notebook. Do a search on eBay or google to see what the model#/specs for the module is.

 

The driver CD that comes with the HEL80 from PowerNotebooks has the Bluetooth drivers on it. When I got my HEL80, the Bluetooth module was slightly delayed, and was shipped later. The pictured instructions on the PowerNotebooks website are all you need to install it. The module is made by Foxconn and is Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. It is very small and fits under the hard drive. I don't know if any third party modules would even fit the space or the connector. That's my 2 cents worth.

 

Thanks, yeah I saw that on Powernotebooks, it is a Foxconn T60H928 Bluetooth Module 2.0+EDR, like you said and I Googled it but couldn't find anyplace that sells it.

Same with the TV-Tuner, Powernotebooks sells the Lifeview FlyTV Express Mini DVB-T Hybrid (LR535 MiniPCI TV Tuner (Trident TM6000 TVMaster chip) TV cable-in jack, AV-in jack, CIR & remote control. (NOT Windows Media Center 2005 compatible) Googled it too and noone sells it to Third party only OEM.

Lifeview had some other really cool MiniPCI TV Tuners on their site that were WMC compatible and had FM, I would really like to know if they would work in this notebook. I actually couldn't find this particular model number that Powernotebooks uses on Lifeviews site so it must be discontinued. Either way though they wouldn't sell to me.

Wish we could convince Powernotebooks or the other companies to try out some of these newer tuners. It would be so cool to have FM too.

It's coming but we just aren't quite there yet with being able to MOD our laptops like we want.

 

Is it worth the little money you'll save to have to hunt down compatible parts, and then have to put it together yourself? Not to mention you won't get the comprehensive service like you would if you bought a built system from a reseller like powernotebooks.

 

Awe, you just took all the fun away from DIY!

But for now you are right there is not enough leeway for MODing a laptop like you can a desktop.

But can you imagine really having a custom laptop just like you wanted and the satisfaction of putting it together yourself?

 

I personally would prefer having one that I knew was put together and tested properly by experts using the correct parts.

Laptop parts are definitely not as interchangeable as desktop parts. But if you really want to experience putting your own laptop together, I'm sure with enough research you can figure it all out.

 

So for now what I would really like to do is get Powernotebooks or any other reseller try out the newer TV-Tuners from Lifeview and give us a better choice, preferably one that is compatible with WMC. the one with FM would be awesome.

 

If by FM, you're all referring to FM radio, the TV Tuner in my HEL80 supports it just fine. I bought mine from a local vendor (I live in Finland), but if ya'll are interested, I can easily grab the model name. Unfortunately I won't be able to check WMC compability, since I'm running XP.

 

Yes, FM radio. Hey that would be great if you could get your model number and where to buy it if possible. Does your vendor sell it seperate?

 

It's listed as "FlyTV Express mini DVB-T Hybrid" in my device manager. I don't believe my vendor sells it separately, but I live in Finland, so it'd probably be all the same to you

 

That's the same as all the ones here have. It must be a pre-requisit from Compal to use that particular card. But you say you get FM radio from it or is that the radio stations from your cable company? Does it just pic up FM from the air? Also, can you tell if the card is connected to a slot or the internal USB? How do you like the quality of the TV?

 

Ah. I'll look into sending a mail to the store and see if they'll share the model name.

TV quality is wonderful already when using the little portable antenna and FM is also available with it (I dont know if FM's available via cable at all). Regarding the slot/internal USB question, I'll have to ask the store when I ask for the model name.

 

as for the bluetooth module, any internal module should work, such as the dell truemobile 350. if you compare the pictures they look exactly the same, and all bluetooth devices run off of the usb hub. so they should be interchangable with the foxconn mentioned earlier.

also, as far as internal TV Tuner is concerned, it is a mini PCI-Express module, and all mini PCI-express TV tuner modules would work, the problem is that at this time i personally havent found a mini PCI-Express TV Tuner anywhere. once mini-PCI Express becomes more mainstream in the dells and hp's, they should become more widespread, but until then, i'd say skip the tv tuner, but the bluetooth should work.

i personally am going to try the dell truemobile 350 since its only like, 10 bux for one. i'll tell you how it works out.

 

Hey thanks that info is really helpful and please let me know how the dell module works. You can get those on ebay a lot cheaper.

I had pretty much decided to wait on the TV tuner anyways. I hope you are right about them becoming available. I wish Lifeview would sell Retail they have some newer ones I'd like to try.

 

Where do you get it for $10 and does that include the cable or is it necessary to buy the cable with it? I'm not sure whether the HEL80 comes with the cable installed already or not, I imagine not?

 

The cables are all there for both the TV Tuner and Bluetooth. All you need is the module.

 

after reading up on the dell module some more, it appears that it uses 10 wires that plug into it, while the cable in the hel80 has only 8 wires. i think it's because the dell has a bluetooth switch, while the compal doesnt, so im no longer so confident that it will be as simple as i had hoped.

 

i've found a hp/compaq model that would work as it is 8-pin, but it is only bluetooth 1.1 compliant, hence slow transfer. but it's quite cheap on fleabay.
model # is 348276-001 theres also 348277-001 which is about 50 bux + shipping, but im not sure if it supports bluetooth 2.0, or what. all i know is the 76 is rev1.02, and the 77 is rev1.03.

is there really any advantage to 2.0 over 1.1 other than transfer rate? would the 1.1 not support as many devices, or would it be incompatible with mice or headsets or anything like that?

if anyone comes up with a better module, please post

 

Bummer about the Dell module! Thanks for check it out though.

Wikipedia says this about the difference between Bluetooth 1.1 and 2.0

3 times faster transmission speed (up to 10 times in certain cases).
Lower power consumption through a reduced duty cycle.
Simplification of multi-link scenarios due to more available bandwidth.
Further improved BER (bit error rate) performance.

 

By the way Powernotebooks was kind enough to give some more info about the TV Tuner LR535 that you can get for the HEL80:

it doesn't have FM radio built-in and the form factor is mini-PCI TYPE IIIB.

Please note that while this is a hybrid TV Tuner (digital & analog) that the digital portion is DVB-TV format which isn’t compatible with the digital format used in the US and Canada (ATSC).

I also know there are other USB and possibly cardbus type TV Tuners available but be sure they are NTSC for the current low res analog standard in the US and also ATSC capable for compatibility in the US.