Raspberry Pi TV HAT Announced & Available now

Raspberry Pi TV HAT

If you haven’t already heard, the Raspberry Pi foundation has just launched a Raspberry Pi TV HAT (Hardware Attached on Top).

The TV HAT allows for the connection of an antenna to the Raspberry Pi. This allows for the Raspberry Pi to be able to receive DVB-T2 television broadcasts. Before this HAT you would typically need to use a USB TV tuner or a third party TV HAT.

GPIO Compatibility & HAT Size

The HAT is designed to fit onto the 40-pin GPIO header so it unusable on old versions of the Raspberry Pi that only has 26 pins. It is recommended that you run a Raspberry Pi 2, 3 or 3B+ anyway as you will likely need the extra processing power.

One of thing you will notice with this HAT is that it is smaller than they have been in the past. The smaller size matches zero boards perfectly so you will not have an oversized HAT on your Pi Zero.

Streaming & Uses

A cool thing with the Raspberry Pi is that you don’t need to view the TV HAT footage directly on the Pi itself. You can setup your Pi to stream the footage to any network connected device.

You can stream to devices such as other computers, Raspberry Pi’s, mobile phones and tablets. You can find the instructions on how to do this over at the official Raspberry Pi website linked at the bottom of this article.

Raspberry Pi Zero TV HAT

This HAT will be the perfect addition if you’re looking to set up the perfect media center on the Raspberry Pi. It could also be useful in a range of different other projects, if you have an idea for this cool HAT then be sure to leave a comment below.

Availability

Currently the HAT supports two TV standards, these are available throughout majority of the world with a few exceptions such as America, Canada, Mexico and more.

  • DVB-T2 (1.7MHz, 5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth)
  • DVB-T (5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth)
  • Reception frequency: VHF III, UHF IV, UHF V

Below is a map of the digital broadcast standards in each country. (Accurate as of 19/10/2018)

Digital Broadcast Standards Map

Unfortunately, initially, the TV HAT is only available for people in Europe due to compliance. Raspberry Pi foundation is looking to also launch it in other markets.

The TV HAT is currently available in Europe for $21.50, you can find out more over at the official Raspberry Pi website.

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