Using the Sasem OnAir USB interface with TSReader
Updated November 18, 2004

Sasem's OnAir USB interface is an 8VSB/QAM receiver along with an MPEG-2 encoder chip for moving SD video into the digital realm. There is currently no known SDK available for this product, however this device uses the same USB microcontroller as the DTVWorks series of USB interfaces. By switching the Windows driver to the DTVWorks driver and changing to the right TSReader source this interface works very well with TSReader.

Current limitations

• 8VSB and QAM256 are currently supported - there's no support for QAM64 at present.
• Scanning doesn't work on QAM - it'll report all channels locked.
• You must connect the antenna/cable to the TV(A+D) F-connector and not the TV(D) connector.
• The signal strength reported isn't very accurate.

Driver Installation

You must switch the driver for the Sasem OnAir USB interface to work with TSReader.

• Launch the Windows Device Manager. If you don't know what that is, please don't continue - ask someone for help.
• Open up the "Sound, video and game controllers" tree and locate the "On Air USB HDTV WDM Encoder" item.
• Right click and choose "Update Driver..."
• When asked to install the software Automatically (Recommended), check the other option - Advanced.
• Check the box "Don't search..." and hit Next.
• On the next dialog you'll see a list box with the standard Sasem driver (OnAir USB HDTV WDM Encoder). Ignore this and click the "Have disk" button.
• Point to the TSReader\DTVWorks folder.
• You'll now see a new driver called "Sasem OnAir USB HDTV (for TSReader)".
• Hit Next and you'll probably get a "Not signed" warning dialog - click Continue.

Running TSReader

Now the driver is installed launch TSReader with the Ctrl key held down and choose the SasemUSB_8VSB or SasemUSB_QAM source. You'll then see the normal TSReader ATSC or QAM tuner dialog and you can select or enter a channel number and the mux should pop into TSReader.

Scanning QAM will build a list of all channels at present. We haven't yet figured out how the interface tells the PC there is or isn't a lock. You might want to do a scan regardless - this will set all channels in the list. You can then go through and delete those that aren't lockable. Also keep in mind that only QAM-256 signals will currently lock.

Switching between applications

If you want to switch back to Sasem's software just follow the steps shown to install the driver only the second time around you'll see both the Sasem and TSReader device drivers listed ("On Air USB HDTV WDM Encoder" is Sasem and "Sasem OnAir USB HDTV (for TSReader)" is TSReader) - just select the one you want.