GTMedia HDTV Mate - ATSC 1.0/3.0 USB Device

Just curious... what android version is your tv?

I tried 2.17 on my android 13 phone and it works fine on non-drm channels. On the six drm channels in my area, only two work correctly. But from what I have read, they are in the process of getting certified by the $$$ folks.

I still believe the cpu type and memory makes a difference in how android performs in all tasks. My tv is an older 4 core cpu, while my phone is an 8 core and faster rated cpu. The player is much more responsive on my phone than my tv. The full scan is faster on the phone (130 channels) than on the tv. Using other android programs (like x-plore) on the phone and on the tv. one can see the difference in operation.

If they continue to keep releasing improvements, I'll be a happy camper.
 
If you have the time, make a .ts video showing the tuning problems on your tv and send it to support. This way they will be able to get an idea of what doesn't work on the various android platforms and maybe they can resolve issues much quicker.
 
Yes, using the hdtv player recording function. When you email it to them, indicate the channel number, the frequency (mhz), android version and the brand of phone in the file name.

On mine, on prior versions, when it used to buffer, I would select the channel, let it buffer, then exit the player, wait a second or two, then restart the player, then start the recording. Eventually, the buffering message would disappear and be replaced with a large circle. This sequence usually recorded enough information to email to support.

If the file is too large to send with your email client, you can use wetransfer.com as an alternative. It's free and you do not have to sign up.

Good luck!
 
I was having some problems with channel changes. Some channels would be dark when I changed to them and I would have stop, then restart the app to make them work. I sent Tom some videos showing this problem and he sent me .apk 217d which pretty much fixed the channel change issues! It is good to see improvements being made instead of excuses. More work in other areas is still needed but as a whole, the HDTV Mate seems headed in a very good direction. It may even become famous if they keep working at it (DRM).
 
Yes, it's good to see a quick response when issues exist with a product. He sent me version b and c last week and a day after he received the requested videos, he sent me version d. Sent him requested signal strength videos and hopefully the next version might be a good fix.
 
Version 2.18 Is on Google Play.
Probably always best to uninstall the old version of the app, then install the newer version instead of upgrading existing app.

2.18 Is much improved. There are still a few things to fix, but the progress that has been made with the HDTV Mate is very Impressive to me!
 
el bandido said:
Version 2.18 Is on Google Play.
Probably always best to uninstall the old version of the app, then install the newer version instead of upgrading existing app.

2.18 Is much improved. There are still a few things to fix, but the progress that has been made with the HDTV Mate is very Impressive to me!
Click to expand...

After 2.18 update, it froze my android 11, google tv !!! I had to unplug, remove gt mate & plug back the tv to be able to use it !!!
 
I may be wrong, but I am beginning to think that the reason some android tvs have problems may be with the small internal memory of the tv or memory leakage between running programs. Google likes to run and keep loaded in internal memory a many programs that are not needed. This causes a sluggish op system response, especially when using the menu system of the tv. The sluggishness is very noticeable when opening and closing many programs within a short time span.

I uninstalled, or forced stopped as many programs that Google will allow and noticed a slight improvement in system response. The other option is to install a large fast usb stick in the usb 3 port and allow Google to transfer the uninstallable apps to the usb stick. I was going to try that, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

The only time I've had a frozen tv was when I installed the Tablo program to try out. I did not have to unplug the tv, the tv rc allowed me to shut it off and re-start it.
 
Looks like you may have some garbage files left over in cache. Try this and see if it helps.

Go to settings> apps> hdtv player> (make sure it displays v. 2.18, you should have roughly the same storage amount used as in the attached pix. Then select force stop> ok then select clear data> ok

Select open hdtv player and it should take you right into the player program. If that doesn't work and it still freezes, unplug the mate from its current port and plug it in to another usb port. But, before you restart hdtv player, redo the above steps to clear out memory used. Then restart the player.

Hope it works for you.

settings apps hdtv player.webp
 
It's happened to me when I've used other third party programs when I was testing them on my tv.
 
Last edited:
Looks like the stations are still moving 3.0 channels around in my area (PHX). Back with v. 2.17, a full scan found five 3.0 channels on 599 mhz along with the regular six 3.0 NG channels on 551 mhz. The five 3.0 channels found had *3, after the station call letters, whereas, the six 3.0 channels had NG after the call letters. After v. 2.18 was released, there were no channels found on 599 mhz. Just took it for granted that it was a coding correction in the update.

Turns out that the stations participating in the new rf channel (599 mhz), turn on/off their transmission randomly. So, it's a hit or miss situation to figure out their transmission times.

Found this out by accident when our bedroom atsc 3.0 tv indicated it had a firmware update overnight. I checked the ota tv guide and five (599 mhz.) channels appeared in the guide plus the six NG channels (551 mhz). Prior to the update there were no 599 mhz. channels in the guide.

Attached is a pix of the guide after the new firmware update on the tv. I checked the picture display on KTVK*3 and it indicates 1080p where the display for KTVK-HD shows as 1080i. The 1080i is much softer, whereas, the 1080p is much sharper in appearance. Didn't have a chance to check the other new 599 mhz channels because they stopped transmitting.

20231214_145931.webp

Did a new manual scan on hdtv player v. 2.18 in the living room tv and there was no signal on 599 mhz. Might try again at the same time in the next few days to see if the hdtv player scans the five 599 mhz channels.
 
All these tests were done using the same tv antenna.

Hdtv player v. 2.18 and (five) unencrypted 599 mhz. channels that were transmitting during test.

Checked android 13 phone and v. 2.18 scanned in 132 channels. The 599 mhz. channels scanned in, but they would not tune in and play any video. Displays
"buffering". The atsc 1.0 channels worked fine.

Checked android 9 atsc 1.0 tv and did a full and manual scan and the 599 mhz. channels were not detected at all. It did scan in 125 channels. The atsc 1.0 channels worked fine.

This tv uses same antenna, but has a much longer cable run.

Checked android 10 atsc 3.0 tv using the internal tuner and it plays the current 599 mhz. transmitting channels very well. See 8.1 PBS android 10 atsc 3.0.jpg, 33.1 Univision android 10 atsc 3.0.jpg, 39.1 Telemundo android 10 atsc 3.0.jpg. The soccer game on the Telemundo channel looked great. Other two had no content during test. On other days they did have content.

8.1 PBS android 10 atsc 3.0.webp 33.1 Univision android 10 atsc 3.0.webp 39.1 Telemundo android 10 atsc 3.0.webp

The six NG channels on 551 mhz. still have four of six channels encrypted.

Hope they get their act together soon.
 
Android 9 has atsc 3.0 problems. My Android 9 device is a Qviart Dual, enigma2/Android fta receiver. The Dual handles the HDTV Mate usb device pretty well on atsc 1.0 channels. except I cannot find any record options. The HDTV Mate and the Dual have no advantage over the Hauppauge atsc 1.0 tuners because there are currently not any atsc 3.0 channels available on the Android 9.

I tried to install several Android versions in both Windows and Ubuntu Linux. None of the Android versions I installed in these operating systems would recognize the HDTV Mate Player (.APK).

Smartphones with Android 11 and Android 13 load the HDTV Mate Player app and open Non-DRM encrypted atsc 3.0 channels. But I am not interested in watching terrestrial channels at home on a smartphone. So my tests on these two devices is very limited.

I really wanted to see what atsc 3.0 has to offer, so I purchased the Upvivi Android 13.0 TV Box 2023 4GB RAM 32GB ROM Buitin RK3528 Quadcore 64bit 8K tv box on Amazon for under 40 dollars shipped. The Upvivi does not recognize the HDTV Mate app in the Google Play store, just like the Android 9. The Upvivi accepted the HDTV Mate 2.18 .apk file from one of my usb devices. The HDTV Mate crashed for some reason when it was first installed in the Upvivi, and atsc 3.0 channels that were not drm would not play.

The Upvivi would freeze and the spinner would activate when trying to use the HDTV Mate app. A couple of hard boots by removing and reinstalling power solved most of the freezing problems and allowed the atsc 3.0 that are not drm to play --somewhat. So I think we can say the atsc 3.0 side of the HDTV Mate is buggy and needs work. The problem is writing all of this up and packaging it in a way that someone without atsc can fix it. Some of these problems are hard to describe.

So I have been through about 5 different ANdroid devices with the HDTV Mate, several of which have different versions of Android installed in them. The HDTV Mate is not consistent and seems to have a different set of problems, based on the version of Android being used. This is not good from a development point of view. To have an atsc 1.0/3.0 usb device to work in Android is a good idea, but it must be consistent. It is OK to have bugs, providing solutions are being found to fix them.

I think the HDTV Mate would be a helluva lot more stable on a Windows or Ubuntu-Linux platform. Android has many different versions and has versions of versions. For example, I don't think Android TV and Android on smartphone are the same thing. My only real experience with Android is on a casual basis, more or less used for phone calls and doing basic things with a smart phone. I did play with the development of Android a few years ago, including rooting smartphones and concluded it was more trouble than it was worth.

My opinion of Android is pretty simple: It is a Good Operating system for a smart phone. But when you try to do something like make Android the operating system for a fta receiver, then you have problems. It looks like when you try to make Android the operating system for something like the HDTV Mate, then you also have problems. Android was designed as a phone system. IMO, that is all it is good for.

I think the HDTV Mate can be made to work correctly or at least a whole lot better than it does now on Android, but it is going to take some development. And the correct Android version for the HDTV Mate needs to be specified. OR it needs to be made to run on all types of Android. It is not good when you say the device runs on Android 9, but you cannot download the app. Ditto not being able to download the app on android 13tv.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL9KP13K?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
 
Back
Top