# Using a TV tuner as a high speed ADC

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-a-tv-tuner-as-a-high-speed-adc/201551>\
**Category:** GNU Radio\
**Created:** [January 10, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-a-tv-tuner-as-a-high-speed-adc/201551 "2011-01-10T17:09:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-a-tv-tuner-as-a-high-speed-adc/201551/1 "2011-01-10T17:09:04Z")

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FWIW

Analog to Digital Converter with 16 bits and 448000 Samples  
per second based in the Bt878A

> **[Using A TV Tuner As A High Speed ADC](https://hackaday.com/2005/11/08/using-a-tv-tuner-as-a-high-speed-adc/)**
>
> The Bt878 chipset is fairly common on TV tuner cards. The chip has a built in analog to digital converter with a sample rate of 119kHz to 448kHz, well above the standard audio rate of 44kHz. The ha…

—which takes you to

> **[Analog to Digital Converter with 16 bits and 448000 Samples per second based...](http://www.domenech.org/bt878a-adc/index-e.htm)**
>
> Convertidor Analógico Digital de 16 bits 448000 muestras por segundo de bajo coste basado en el Bt878A

—Also see  
btaudio.c module modification to get 896000 Samples  
per second with the Bt878A ADC

> **[ADC 896000 sps with the Bt878A btaudio.c module modification](http://www.domenech.org/bt878a-adc/index-decimator-e.htm)**
>
> ADC 896000 sps with the Bt878A btaudio.c module modification

```auto

My added comments: The above is a cool hardware hack that claims to 
take care of the baseband problem only- but I find it intriguing to 
wonder if it would be possible also to do two more ambitious things-
1) Using its TV tuner module (under software control of course), 
down-convert a swath of its output spectrum (prior to any detection) 
into the band covered by the extended range of the ADC
2) All of the above is based on the audio ADC. If some way could be 
found to hack into the video one also, MHz bandwidths could become 
theoretically possible...

Best Regards

Max
```