j-j.co.za
Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyAs predicted, new DSTV Mobile Decoder released (USB Device)
Posted on July 14, 2011As predicted back on the 4th June (based on firmware contained in the last Windows 1.3 client released), DSTV Mobile have now come out and announced the availability of a brand new decoder, known as the “Dstv Mobile USB Drifta” decoder.
This uses the same DVB-H functionality as the wifi drifta, it just comes in a much smaller an convenient package for those who don’t need to use WiFi connectivity (to iPhones/iPads/Ipod’s) and just want to use it with their PC’s.
The device plugs straight into the USB port, doesn’t need charging, pairing or any of the complications. It is claimed to be available now at a price of R399. Good deal if you are only ever wanting to use it with a laptop. The device is available on Kalahari.net already, with an 8 day delivery time. It may be coincidence or could explain the half price Drifta special that was available yesterday. They are back to full price today 
In addition to the new decoder, DStv mobile also announced the launch of the M-Net Series channel to the DStv mobile lineup. Im not sure which channel is to be dropped (since they claim to be using up all channels allocated to them by ICASA), but we shall see. Hopefully it is the full channel and not a gimped version full of week old repeats as Cartoon Network is.
Sadly there is still no news on the Blackberry or Android client software for the existing Drifta. Just how serious are DSTV about sorting out the problems with the existing product if they are launching new ones? Your guess is as good as mine.
The press release is available here on the www.dstv.com website.
I have updated the Drifta FAQ to include the new USB Drifta. Find it here.
Pure Speculation : New DSTV Drifta decoder to be launched? #in
Posted on June 04, 2011Updates :
- The new version is released : As predicted, new DSTV Mobile Decoder released (USB Device)
- Unboxing of the new USB drifta
- Review to follow
A new version of the DSTV Drifta software was released recently (1.2.11). Doing some simple sleuthing around in the install reveals some potentially very interesting news. Is a Drifta2 about to be launched?
The following were the only files updated / added in the new installer:
1.2.11 vs 1.1.0
Existing files:
- Decoder.exe 2011/05/10 06:57 1 512KB
- infcopy.exe 2010/12/06 02:34 79KB
- tvnb.bin 2011/04/20 08:39 8 288KB
New files:
- IPSetup.exe 2011/03/18 06:21 58KB
- tvnb_usb.bin 2011/05/03 02:09 5 840KB
The really interesting bit is in the new tvnb_usb.bin file.
The tvnb_usb.bin has an interesting identification string “Drifta2(DVB-H) 2.1.277 2011/05/03-14:09:23 ” vs the older style tvnb.bin identification string “Tivit(DVB-H) 2.1.266 2011/04/20-17:03:51″.
Is this a hint at a new Drifta decoder to come?
Share your thoughts, on or off the record.
What people say
Close block