What DVB-T capture card

[ukmgranger]

I'm soon to be moving into a new house, and as such I am planning on extending my SageTV setup and using it as my main TV source.

At the moment I have a cheap USB DVB-t dongle. I want to get 2 or 4 inputs (depending on price) to cater for the new place.

I have had a breif look at the HdHomeRun dual. Really like the idea of it being networked as I could place it in a separate location to the server. Any opinions on this? Would this receive freeview hd when it becomes available?

Anything else that I should consider?

Not sure that I want to go down The PCI-e route at the moment, as this would be additional outlay in terms of a new server machine.

Cheers people

[ukmgranger]

Looking further into the freeview hd thing - am I correct that to receive it the tuner needs to be DVB-t2 compatible?

If this is the case, the HDhomerun HDHR3-DT is a non starter in that respect. Not to mention that I can't find anywhere in the UK that sells them!

I guess I could use them for SD, then just add a DVB-t2 USB dongle when freeview hd is launched.

[fac13]

Yes, that's right, for Freeview HD you need a DVB-T2 tuner.

As far as I know there only two options at the moment. One is the Blackgold BGT3620 which is PCI-E, so probably not of interest to you. The other is the one I use, which is the Pinnacle PCTV NanoStick T2 290e and that works fine with Sage.

Neither tuner is cheap, but if you keep your existing DVB-T stick and set your tuner merits so Sage favours it then you may be able to manage with just one.

[Oddity]

I'd suggest the following

Buy a couple of pc-tv dual usb tuners ( dvb-t only ) - they are about £20 each as well as buying a pctv 290e for the HD channels

Scan for channels on all devices. Now edit the .frq file for the 290e tuner and disable all channels in video sources except for the HD ones.

This will guarantee that the HD tuner will be available for HD viewing and will not be used for SD channels

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Oddity

Buy a couple of pc-tv dual usb tuners ( dvb-t only ) - they are about £20 each

Any chance of a link to these? Thanks!

[jamesdisco]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

Any chance of a link to these? Thanks!

http://www.maplin.co.uk/dual-tuner-d...b-stick-221708

Ive just ordered one of these i'll report back if its any good.

[ukmgranger]

Originally Posted by Oddity

I'd suggest the following

Buy a couple of pc-tv dual usb tuners ( dvb-t only ) - they are about £20 each as well as buying a pctv 290e for the HD channels

That sounds like a plan!

Just one point though - I currently just use the OTA EPG data. I have two (different) Avermedia USB sticks but if I install them both, I get two lots of channels in the EPG?!? Do I have to start using XML for the EPG data with more than one card?

[fac13]

Originally Posted by Oddity

I'd suggest the following

Buy a couple of pc-tv dual usb tuners ( dvb-t only ) - they are about £20 each as well as buying a pctv 290e for the HD channels

Scan for channels on all devices. Now edit the .frq file for the 290e tuner and disable all channels in video sources except for the HD ones.

This will guarantee that the HD tuner will be available for HD viewing and will not be used for SD channels

True, that's another way of avoiding having the HD tuner tied up tuning an SD channel when somebody might later want an HD channel, but using tuner merits allows it to tune SD channels if needed.

If you have three tuners and two are watching SD, would you want to prevent a third one from watching SD, just to keep a tuner in reserve for a possible HD request? If so use Oddity's method.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by fac13

If you have three tuners and two are watching SD, would you want to prevent a third one from watching SD.

At 20 quid, just buy enough tuners so that you never run out.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by jamesdisco

http://www.maplin.co.uk/dual-tuner-d...b-stick-221708
Ive just ordered one of these i'll report back if its any good.

Installed one of these this morning. So far reliability is better than my Terratecs and quality/reception is better than my Hauppauge USB dual tuners. Thinking of dumping the others at this price...

[Oddity]

I have found these to be 100% reliable, not even one recoring missed.

So cheap you can buy enough to service the sd requirements, i have three whilst paying the extra for the hd model.

[fac13]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

So far reliability is better than my Terratecs and quality/reception is better than my Hauppauge USB dual tuners.

Sounds good, and the price is tempting, but how did you measure the quality/reception? Surely all digital tuners should produce a bit-for-bit identical stream for any given broadcast?

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by fac13

Sounds good, and the price is tempting, but how did you measure the quality/reception? Surely all digital tuners should produce a bit-for-bit identical stream for any given broadcast?

No. DVB-T is prone to reception problems like other receivers. I see blocky areas when the signal is poorer on the Hauppauges. Haven't seen it yet on the new one.

[fac13]

Ah yes I see, you have reception problems. I have the same Hauppauge DVB-T tuners but don't get any blocking, so there wouldn't be any point me dumping mine.

[rickgillyon]

Yes, but I don't see this at all from the Terratecs, which I guess speaks for the quality of the tuner in some way...

[fac13]

Perhaps the new ones are just more sensitive? The Hauppauge tuners have been around a while and newer chipsets maybe handle weaker signals better.

I used to see occasional blocking on the weaker Feeeview muxes prior to switchover (the ITV one particularly) but the power increased so much post- switchover that I get 100% signal reported all the time and no artefacts at all any more.

[rickgillyon]

Yeah, ITV and C5 are definitely the worst... I think our switchover is next year.

[jamesdisco]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

Installed one of these this morning. So far reliability is better than my Terratecs and quality/reception is better than my Hauppauge USB dual tuners. Thinking of dumping the others at this price...

Sadly im finding that they arent as good as my pinnacle tuners. I get picture breakup on channels like 5* and history but don't get that with the pinnacle ones.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by jamesdisco

Sadly im finding that they arent as good as my pinnacle tuners. I get picture breakup on channels like 5* and history but don't get that with the pinnacle ones.

I've got a couple of these Pinnacle tuners now, but I find that they aren't working with the drivers. Recordings don't work at all. Are you using 64-bit or 32-bit?

Edit: never mind, sorted with a rescan...