GTMedia HDTV Mate - ATSC 1.0/3.0 USB Device

[Hyper Casey]

I also am testing one of these GT Media HDTV Mate ATSC3.0 Dongles. Thank you to Tom at GT Media for the test sample. I am considering selling these at HyperMegasat.com, but nothing i will have to say in this thread will be affected by that Yes/No decision. I will only give the truth based on what i see. I have to say i am very impressed so far. Both with the product, the performance, and also the customer support and development. And for the price which is currently $59.99 retail, i am very impressed. I know of no other device that low cost that will work for ATSC 3.0 Next Gen OTA. The negative i see is that is is ONLY for android devices. So to watch on the TV, you need an Android TV, or Android TV STB. It will also work with Android Phones, Tablets, and even some Car systems. But honestly, who wants to watch TV on a phone or tablet hooked by coax to an antenna? Perhaps if you can cast from your phone/tablet to a TV that will work. Or also if you are camping or tailgating, this would be great too. Especially since the thing is just a dongle and can fit in your pocket. But to really enjoy this product without too much crazy effort you really need an Android TV, or STB that supports Android TV i think,.

I have no android devices these days except my cellphone. I sold the last android based STB i had last year, boy do i regret that now. So all my testing is done on my phone which is Samsung Galaxy A14 5G running Android 13. So far the HDTV Mate seems to work great. The scan brought in every channel i normally get which is 34 channels, but then also the 5 Next Gen channels in my area, that i have never seen before. What was really surprising to me is that it scanned in the ATSC 3.0 channels from Detroit. Signal was too low to play them, but it scanned them in. Did not scan in the ATSC 1.0 channels from Detroit at all, and my OTA antenna never has. So i assume the NextGen towers for the Detroit channels are closer to me than the regular 1.0 towers, but still impressive it would pull in enough signal to scan them in. So i am very happy with the tuner. Seems very strong and accurate. Channels play really well, epg info loads quite well after a short while. I did have the player crash once for no apparent reason but after 2 hours of watching various channels, changing channels, etc.., that only happened once, otherwise it worked great.

Here is a couple pics of the device, I will post some screen shots shortly.

[Hyper Casey]

Here are some screenshots from my testing

[eastof111]

Winsat Technology Limited is also currently selling them on Amazon. Same price as ebay.

[lme]

"So I am guessing there is a problem with Android version 9."
My tv is running on Android 11. Is this device compatible with my tv ?

[el bandido]

Currently,
Android 9 does not work as good as later Android versions. Android 11 should be OK or at least work better than Android 9.

[eastof111]

For those in the Toronto area, there is a channel transmitting 3.0 on an experimental license, from Humber college.
Broadband Convergence B2C Lab, Toronto, Ca.

[eastof111]

I recorded a short sample .ts file of PBS on my android 9 tv using the mate hdtv (v. 2.16) player program and a usb stick plugged into the tv port. The recording was playable on the tv using the mate hdtv player and playable on a win10 pc using the latest vlc player.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Hopefully support resolves all issues soon.

[el bandido]

New version(2.17) was released on 11-27-2023. You might check it and see if it fixes anything.

[eastof111]

v. 2.17 fixed quite a few issues on my android 9 tv. I haven't had a chance to try it on my phone yet or my android 10 tv.

Hope they keep improving their releases.

[lme]

I try it & scanned for the last couple of days and it can not open any atsc 3.0 channels: Buffering...!!!
The rest of the channels are a bad quality; worst then my tv... I think it needs more improvements...