[geeks] Is there such thing as a really cheap HDTV USB tuner?

[gsm at mendelson.com]

I was thinking of asking a traveling relative to pick up for me a USB HDTV
tuner dongle. 

Here digital TV uses a modified to be incompatible with everyone else,
version of the DVB-T system, so locally available dongles work almost
everywhere except the US (and maybe Canada).

The dongles are really just tuners with the digital decoding being done in
software in the computer which compensates for the incompatibilities.

A friend of mine found one on eBay from a company in Hong Kong for $15,
and as of today the local knock-off brand names are being sold for $20.

I thought that if he could pick up a cheap one for me in the US, it would
be useful to have.

I looked around on the web and found that Radio Shack, Best Buy, WalMart
and several specialty on-line retailers sell them for $69 and up. Are
the ATSC (US) ones that much more expensive? Is it just that I'm looking
in the wrong places?

Would the "going out of business" type stores be a better place to look?

Anyone have one they don't want and would be willing to give me?

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM