RF TUNER

A TV tuner is a device that allows television

stations signal to be received by a computer. They
can also act as video capture cards which can record
TV programs into hard disk memory. 

A TV tuner card is a computer component that

allows television signals to be received by
a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video
capture cards, allowing them to record television
programs onto a hard disk.
The digital tuner gives the viewers the digital
audio video quality and record the TV program in
the mpeg format. The hybrid tuner can also be
used as the digital tuner and switching in between
the TV and the system mode is quiet simple. 

The combo tuner has two different tuners where

one can record and the other can play live TV. Its
flexibility to be used as both the digital and analog
tuners and its cost is making it more popular now a
days.
TV tuner cards come in four different
types. They are the analog tuners,
digital tuners, hybrid tuners and the
combo tuners. The analog tuners are
cheaper and ideal for live viewing and
do not suit for video recording. It uses
more system memory if used for
recording.
Variants
The interfaces for TV tuner cards are most commonly
either PCI bus expansion card or the newer PCI
Express (PCIe) bus for many modern cards,
but PCMCIA, ExpressCard, or USB devices also exist. In
addition, some video cards double as TV tuners, notably
the ATI All-In-Wonder series. The card contains
a tuner and an analog-to-digital converter (collectively
known as the analog front end) along with demodulation
and interface logic. Some lower-end cards lack an onboard
processor and, like a Winmodem, rely on the system's CPU
for demodulation.
 Types
of Tuner
Analog TV tuners
Analog television cards output a raw video
stream, suitable for real-time viewing but
ideally requiring some sort of compression if
it is to be recorded. More advanced TV
tuners encode the signal to Motion
JPEG or MPEG, relieving the main CPU of
this load. Some cards also have analog input
(composite video or S-Video) and many also
provide FM radio.
Digital TV Tuners
Digital TV tuners can produce
MPEG-2 video formats and there
is no need to re-encode it. They
are capable of providing an MPEG
transport stream which extracts
the audio and video.
Hybrid tuners
A hybrid tuner has one tuner that
can be configured to act as an analog
tuner or a digital tuner. Switching
between the systems is fairly easy,
but cannot be done immediately. The
card operates as a digital tuner or an
analog tuner until reconfigured.
Combo tuners
This is similar to a hybrid tuner, except
there are two separate tuners on the card.
One can watch analog while recording digital,
or vice versa. The card operates as an analog
tuner and a digital tuner simultaneously. The
advantages over two separate cards are cost
and utilization of expansion slots in the
computer. As many regions around the world
convert from analog to digital broadcasts,
these tuners are gaining popularity.
Like the analog cards, the Hybrid and
Combo tuners can have specialized chips
on the tuner card to perform the
encoding, or leave this task to the CPU.
The tuner cards with this 'hardware
encoding' are generally thought of as
being higher quality.Small USB tuner
sticks have become more popular in 2006
and 2007 and are expected to increase in
popularity. These small tuners generally
do not have hardware encoding due to size
and heat constraints.
While most TV tuners are limited to the radio
frequencies and video formats used in the country
of sale, many TV tuners used in computers use DSP,
so a firmware upgrade is often all that's necessary
to change the supported video format. Many newer
TV tuners have flash memory big enough to hold
the firmware sets for decoding several different
video formats, making it possible to use the tuner
in many countries without having to flash the
firmware. However, while it is generally possible to
flash a card from one analog format to another due
to the similarities, it is generally not possible to
flash a card from one digital format to another due
to differences in decode logic necessary.
Many TV tuners can function as FM
radios; this is because there are
similarities between broadcast television
and FM radio. The FM radio spectrum is
close to (or even inside) that used
by VHF terrestrial TV broadcasts. And
many broadcast television systems around
the world use FM audio. So listening to an
FM radio station is simply a case of
configuring existing hardware.
Mobile TV
External TV tuner card attachments are
available for mobile phone handsets like
the iPhone, for watching mobile TV, via TV
stations on 1seg in Japan (SoftBank), and
for soon for the proprietary subscription-
based MediaFLO in the U.S. (Qualcomm).
There is also a "converter" for
watching DVB-H in Europe and elsewhere
via WiFi streaming video (PacketVideo).
VLF (Very low frequency)
Very low frequency or VLF refers to radio
frequencies (RF) in the range of 3 kHz to
30 kHz. Since there is not much bandwidth in
thisband of the radio spectrum, only the very
simplest signals are used, such as for radio
navigation. Also known as the myriametre
bandor myriametre wave as the wavelengths
range from ten to one myriametres (an
obsolete metric unit equal to 10 kilometres).
VHF (Very high frequency)

VHF (Very high frequency) is the radio

frequency range from 30 MHz to
300 MHz. Frequencies immediately
below VHF are denotedHigh
frequency (HF), and the next higher
frequencies are known as Ultra high
frequency (UHF). The frequency
allocation is done by ITU.
These names referring to high-end
frequency usage originate from mid-20th
century, when regular radio service used
MF, Medium Frequencies, better known
as "AM" in USA, below the HF. Currently
VHF is at the low-end of practical
frequency usage, new systems tending to
use frequencies in SHF and EHF above
the UHF range. See Radio spectrum for
full picture.
Common uses for VHF are FM
radio broadcast, television broad
cast, land mobile stations
(emergency, business, and
military), long range data
communication with radio
modems, Amateur Radio, marine
communications, air traffic
control communications and air 
The VHF band is popular for mobile two-
way radio communication. A great deal
of satellite communication and
broadcasting is done at
VHF. Widebandmodulation is used by
some services; the most common
example is fast-scan television
broadcasting. Channels and subbands
within the VHF portion of the radio
spectrum are allocated by the
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU).
Ultra high frequency (UHF) 

designates a range
of electromagnetic waves with frequencies between
300 MHz and 3 GHz (3,000 MHz), also known as
the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the
wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres (10 cm
to 1 metre). Radio waves with frequencies above the
UHF band fall into the SHF (super high frequency) and
EHF (extremely high frequency) bands, all of which fall
into the microwave frequency range. Lower frequency
signals fall into the VHF (very high frequency) or lower
bands. SeeElectromagnetic spectrum and Radio
spectrum for a full listing of frequency bands.
Uses
•UHF and VHF are the most commonly used
frequency bands for transmission
of television signals. Modern mobile
phones also transmit and receive within the UHF
spectrum.
• UHF is widely used by public service agencies for
two-way radio communication, usually using
narrowband frequency modulation, but digital
services are on the rise.
•Narrowband radio modemsuse UHF
and VHF frequencies for long range data
communications e.g. for supervision and control of
power distribution networks and other SCADA and
automation applications.
•The Global Positioning System also uses UHF.One
uncommon use of UHF waves is for the detection
of partial discharges. Partial discharges occur because of
the sharp geometries created in high voltage insulated
equipment.
•The advantage of UHF detection is that this method can
be used to localize the source of the discharge. A
drawback to UHF detection is the extreme sensitivity to
external noise.
•UHF detection methods are used in the field, especially
for large distribution transformers.
2.45 GHz, now mainly used for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and
US cordless phones has been proposed for wireless
energy transfer. Some pilot experiments have been
performed, but it is not used on a large scale.
 AUTOMATIC FINE TUNING
In radio equipment, Automatic Frequency
Control (AFC) is a method (or device) to
automatically keep a resonant
circuit tuned to the frequency of an
incoming radio signal. It is primarily used
in radio receivers to keep the
receiver tuned to the frequency of the
desired station.
In radio communication AFC is needed
because, after the bandpass frequency of a
receiver is tuned to the frequency of
a transmitter, the two frequencies may drift
apart, interrupting the reception. This can
be caused by a poorly controlled transmitter
frequency, but the most common cause is
drift of the center bandpass frequency of
the receiver, due to thermal or mechanical
drift in the values of the electronic
components
Assuming that a receiver is nearly tuned
to the desired frequency, the
AFC circuit in the receiver develops an
error voltage proportional to the degree
to which the receiver is mistuned. This
error voltage is then fed back to the
tuning circuit in such a way that the
tuning error is reduced. In
most frequency modulation (FM)
detectors an error voltage of this type
is easily available. See Negative
feedback.
AFC is also called Automatic
Fine Tuning (AFT) in radio and
TV receivers. It became rare in
this application, late in the 20th
century, as the more
effective frequency
synthesizer method became
cheaper and more widespread.
Cable television channels
A cable channel is a television
channel available via cable television. Such
channels are usually also available
via satellite television, including direct
broadcast satellite providers such
as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB.
Alternative terms include non-broadcast
channel or programming service, the latter
being mainly used in legal contexts.
Another common label is cable network, though this
is something of a misnomer. While usually national in
scope, cable channels are not television networks in
the defined sense (as are, for
example, CBS or NBC in the United States, or
the BBC in the United Kingdom), because they provide
a full national schedule and do not need to act
through local stations in each media market.
However, individual cable and satellite providers that
carry them are sometimes called "affiliates", in
recognition of the agreements required for these
providers to carry each channel and that most
networks offer each system a block of one or two
minutes each hour to carry local advertising (or
promotions for the satellite companies).
Remote tuning
A remote control is a component of
an electronics device, most commonly a television set,
used for operating the device wirelessly from a
shortline-of-sight distance.
The remote control can be contracted
to remote or controller. It is known by many other
names as well, such as
converter clicker, didge, flipper,the tuner, the
changer, or the button. Commonly, remote controls
are Consumer IR devices used to issue commands from
a distance totelevisions or other consumer
electronics such as stereo systems DVD players
and dimmers.
Remote controls for these devices are usually small
wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons
for adjusting various settings such as television
channel, track number, and volume. In fact, for the
majority of modern devices with this kind of control,
the remote contains all the function controls while
the controlled device itself only has a handful of
essential primary controls. Most of these remotes
communicate to their respective devices
via infrared (IR) signals and a few viaradio signals.
Television IR signals can be mimicked by a universal
remote, which is able to emulate the functionality of
most major brand television remote controls. They
are usually powered by
small AAA or AA size batteries.