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oliversimpson1563

7 posts

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#318113 16-Dec-2024 16:23
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Hi everyone,

 

 

 

My parents have just finished renovating their new house, and we are in the process of tech-ing it all out. 

 

I took the opportunity that came with gutting the house to lay approximately 500 metres of cat6 and HDMI cables through the house. This is because the goal was to make the home a smart home, so all of the entertainment rooms are filled with Philips Hue lights, etc.

 

 

 

We have TVs in 7 rooms, with space to add them into another 3 rooms if needed later on. They are all Hisense 2023 or 2024 Q6NNZ 55 or 65 inch TVs. Only 3 of these TVs have UHF cables to them, as only my parents tend to watch freeview and whatnot, whereas most of the other TVs are just for Netflix or for Xboxes, so didn't need to run cables to them.

 

All, except for one, have an HDMI cable running to them.

 

 

 

Does such a software exist where I can use a TV tuner card of sorts to connect the sky satellite cable to a server and then unencrypt them (assumably illegally) and then use some sort of software to stream essentially only the sky sports channels, to different TVs in the house via HDMI?

 

Perhaps even to go as far as to display different things on each TV, e.g., Sky Sport 1 on TV 1, Sky Sport 2 on TV 2, etc.

 

 

 

Hopefully this makes sense but please feel free to ask me to elaborate or for anything further.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance


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Handsomedan
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  #3321367 16-Dec-2024 16:40
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That almost sounds like the sort of setup a commercial customer would have in an accommodation property like a hotel/motel etc. 

Not sure how you could split out the individual signals for the channels legally without that kind of subscription. 

I know that our splitter works only via analogue cable and it only shows the channel on the decoder in the lounge. We can't watch independent channels in different rooms without using SkyGo and casting. 





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richms
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  #3321379 16-Dec-2024 17:22
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I have not heard of anyone doing card sharing for a long time with sky. Not sure if that is because its not possible now or because the content is not worth bothering.





Richard rich.ms

Apsattv
2390 posts

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  #3321388 16-Dec-2024 17:50
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There are so many ways you can go about it

 

I run Librellec on an ewaste Intel NUC, that has an HDMI out. The nvme drive inside it was dead so i replaced it with a 16 GB usb flash drive plugged into the front. Add the Skygo addon and off you go. Use yatse for the remote control.

 

Use it for a source to feed some sets over hdmi?

 

 

 

 




oliversimpson1563

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  #3321392 16-Dec-2024 18:32
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This is somewhat what I am looking for.

 

 

 

You don't know of a way like this where the Satellite feed can be used as well?

 

 


SirHumphreyAppleby
2847 posts

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  #3321400 16-Dec-2024 19:03
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I was using Tvheadend on a FreeBSD server to provide both free to air (DVB-T) and the output from the Sky decoder to every TV in the house. We have Kodi (specifically, CoreELEC) running on low-cost boxes connected to each TV.

 

DVB-T is provided via HDHomeRun tuners, which are directly supported within Tvheadend, and the HDMI from the Sky decoder was connected to a network-connected h.264 encoder, which Tvheadend connected to as an HTTP-based IPTV device.

 

We haven't used the Sky box in months as we can directly stream using Sky Go within Kodi and the right add-on software.


hsvhel
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  #3321409 16-Dec-2024 19:51
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Without decoding each sport channel in your desired case and sending them individually, I don't believe a system exists.

 

 





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fe31nz
1232 posts

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  #3321436 17-Dec-2024 00:23
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I do recording of Sky using MythTV rather than streaming, but the same setup I use also works for SAT>IP streaming.  You have to have an old Sky box with the Videoguard card to make it work.  I use a Linux box using Ubuntu, where I have 8 x DVB-T2 and 8 x DVB-S2 tuners on two tuner cards.  You also need a card reader to put the Sky card in, and then the Oscam software for card access and decryption keys and minisatip to run the tuners and create decrypted SAT>IP streams on demand.  You only need as many DVB-S2 tuners as there will be Sky multiplexes in use at the same time.  There are multiple channels per multiplex, and often more than one channel will be used from the same multiplex, which minisatip handles by reusing an existing tuning to a multiplex if it is already running.

 

For my setup, I use 5 of the DVB-T2 tuners directly in MythTV to record from, as they do not need decryption.  So I have one tuner per multiplex and can never run out.  I have 2 DVB-T2 tuners available on minisatip for other users on my network.  The last DVB-T2 tuner is reserved for fetching EPG data using mhegepgsnoop and for manual channel scanning.  Minisatip runs 7 of the DVB-S2 tuners to do the decryption and produce decrypted SAT>IP streams from them on demand.  The remaining DVB-S2 tuner is used for gathering the OpenTV format EPG data with my updated version of tv_grab_dvb_plus, and for manual channel scanning.  The OpenTV EPG data is unencrypted, but you have to pay $$$$$$$$ for the documentation, so the tv_grab_dvb_plus code for it is reverse engineered rather than written from the specifications.

 

On my main Windows PC I run DVBViewer (payware) that can use SAT>IP tuners and can then play or record any DVB-T Freeview or DVB-S2 Sky channel from minisatip.  But I only use that for testing, as MythTV is a much better user experience.  My mother also has a MythTV box that has its own DVB-T2 tuners for Freeview, and uses the minisatip streams for Sky channels.

 

Of course, I can only use the Sky channels I am paying them for - I do not subscribe to the sports channels or movie channels.  But any channel that my Sky card is authorised for will play, and when they give me free access to the movie channels every so often they work then.  Unlike the Sky boxes, I can record from many Sky channels at once.  The limitations are the number of Sky multiplexes needed (only 7 multiplexes at once) and how many hard drives I have to write all the recordings to.  Since I have 8 hard drives for recordings, and can record up to 3 recordings per hard drive at the same time, it is usually the limited number of tuners that is the limit.  But it is very rare that I will have to record a later showing of a Sky programme due to too many tuners being used.  And a huge number of the Sky channels repeat everything at least three times in a week, if not a day, so having to occasionally record something on a later showing is not a problem.

 

My reading of Sky is that they are intending to eventually phase out all the old Sky boxes that use Videoguard encryption and shut Videoguard down.  But I believe it will be many years before they can do that, as they will have lots of customers who just want to keep on using their old familiar Sky boxes and do not want to upgrade ever.  So if you want a Videoguard card to do something like what I am doing, now is the time to subscribe to Sky and make sure they give you one of the old boxes.  They may stop allowing customers to get the old boxes fairly soon.

 

My setup is a bit different to what the OP is envisaging - the channels are available on the local Ethernet network, not via an aerial cable or HDMI.  So each TV needs a way to play from SAT>IP streams, and needs a network connection.  I believe Kodi can do this, so if Kodi can be installed on the TVs, that would work.  Otherwise they might need a device attached that can do SAT>IP or have Kodi or some other software installed on it (maybe a Firestick???).  Or you could have MythTV running on the network somewhere doing recording for everyone, and then use the Leanfront app on the TVs or attached devices to do playback or live TV.  Or use a mini-PC or laptop with MythFrontend on it for an even better user experience.  It is also possible to play from MythTV using its web server to stream from - just use an decent web browser, which TVs usually have these days.  But you do need a mouse on the TV for that to work.

 

You can also have TVHeadEnd running on the network instead of minisatip and it will stream in SAT>IP on demand also, and supports other streaming formats too.


 
 
 

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Apsattv
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  #3321660 17-Dec-2024 16:28
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A lot of investment , I would just go with distributing to the sets that want it, using a device at each tv. Nuc type pcs with HDMI out or low end Android boxes running a kodi version with the Sky go addon. Perhaps even one of the newer Chromecasts that support apps? for any non Android tv?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Brunzy
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  #3322000 18-Dec-2024 16:09
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fe31nz:

I do recording of Sky using MythTV rather than streaming, but the same setup I use also works for SAT>IP streaming. 

For my setup, I use 5 of the DVB-T2 tuners directly in MythTV to record from, as they do not need decryption.  So I have one tuner per multiplex



Excellent set up, but I’m amazed you can find anything worth recording on one channel, never mind five. 😀😀

FieldMouse
94 posts

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  #3327720 5-Jan-2025 11:40
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oliversimpson1563:

 

Hi everyone,

 

 

 

My parents have just finished renovating their new house, and we are in the process of tech-ing it all out. 

 

I took the opportunity that came with gutting the house to lay approximately 500 metres of cat6 and HDMI cables through the house. This is because the goal was to make the home a smart home, so all of the entertainment rooms are filled with Philips Hue lights, etc.

 

 

 

We have TVs in 7 rooms, with space to add them into another 3 rooms if needed later on. They are all Hisense 2023 or 2024 Q6NNZ 55 or 65 inch TVs. Only 3 of these TVs have UHF cables to them, as only my parents tend to watch freeview and whatnot, whereas most of the other TVs are just for Netflix or for Xboxes, so didn't need to run cables to them.

 

All, except for one, have an HDMI cable running to them.

 

 

 

Does such a software exist where I can use a TV tuner card of sorts to connect the sky satellite cable to a server and then unencrypt them (assumably illegally) and then use some sort of software to stream essentially only the sky sports channels, to different TVs in the house via HDMI?

 

Perhaps even to go as far as to display different things on each TV, e.g., Sky Sport 1 on TV 1, Sky Sport 2 on TV 2, etc.

 

 

 

Hopefully this makes sense but please feel free to ask me to elaborate or for anything further.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

 

I have a Sky box (old black box)  in the lounge and use an HDMI splitter on the Sky output. One goes to the lounge TV and the other connects to a HDMI Cat 6 Extender (Digitech AC1785). The feed then goes to our bedroom via Ethernet and converts back to HDMI to the TV. The AC1785 has the benefit of being able to change channels in the lounge. Note that both lounge and bedroom will always have the same channel on. This suits us as there are only two of us.

However with the upcoming changes from Sky next month, Sport and On Demand will only be available on their new box and the remotes for that box is Bluetooth, not IF. Not sure what I will do then


oliversimpson1563

7 posts

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  #3330637 12-Jan-2025 16:24
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fe31nz:

 

I do recording of Sky using MythTV rather than streaming, but the same setup I use also works for SAT>IP streaming.  You have to have an old Sky box with the Videoguard card to make it work.  I use a Linux box using Ubuntu, where I have 8 x DVB-T2 and 8 x DVB-S2 tuners on two tuner cards.  You also need a card reader to put the Sky card in, and then the Oscam software for card access and decryption keys and minisatip to run the tuners and create decrypted SAT>IP streams on demand.  You only need as many DVB-S2 tuners as there will be Sky multiplexes in use at the same time.  There are multiple channels per multiplex, and often more than one channel will be used from the same multiplex, which minisatip handles by reusing an existing tuning to a multiplex if it is already running.

 

For my setup, I use 5 of the DVB-T2 tuners directly in MythTV to record from, as they do not need decryption.  So I have one tuner per multiplex and can never run out.  I have 2 DVB-T2 tuners available on minisatip for other users on my network.  The last DVB-T2 tuner is reserved for fetching EPG data using mhegepgsnoop and for manual channel scanning.  Minisatip runs 7 of the DVB-S2 tuners to do the decryption and produce decrypted SAT>IP streams from them on demand.  The remaining DVB-S2 tuner is used for gathering the OpenTV format EPG data with my updated version of tv_grab_dvb_plus, and for manual channel scanning.  The OpenTV EPG data is unencrypted, but you have to pay $$$$$$$$ for the documentation, so the tv_grab_dvb_plus code for it is reverse engineered rather than written from the specifications.

 

On my main Windows PC I run DVBViewer (payware) that can use SAT>IP tuners and can then play or record any DVB-T Freeview or DVB-S2 Sky channel from minisatip.  But I only use that for testing, as MythTV is a much better user experience.  My mother also has a MythTV box that has its own DVB-T2 tuners for Freeview, and uses the minisatip streams for Sky channels.

 

Of course, I can only use the Sky channels I am paying them for - I do not subscribe to the sports channels or movie channels.  But any channel that my Sky card is authorised for will play, and when they give me free access to the movie channels every so often they work then.  Unlike the Sky boxes, I can record from many Sky channels at once.  The limitations are the number of Sky multiplexes needed (only 7 multiplexes at once) and how many hard drives I have to write all the recordings to.  Since I have 8 hard drives for recordings, and can record up to 3 recordings per hard drive at the same time, it is usually the limited number of tuners that is the limit.  But it is very rare that I will have to record a later showing of a Sky programme due to too many tuners being used.  And a huge number of the Sky channels repeat everything at least three times in a week, if not a day, so having to occasionally record something on a later showing is not a problem.

 

My reading of Sky is that they are intending to eventually phase out all the old Sky boxes that use Videoguard encryption and shut Videoguard down.  But I believe it will be many years before they can do that, as they will have lots of customers who just want to keep on using their old familiar Sky boxes and do not want to upgrade ever.  So if you want a Videoguard card to do something like what I am doing, now is the time to subscribe to Sky and make sure they give you one of the old boxes.  They may stop allowing customers to get the old boxes fairly soon.

 

My setup is a bit different to what the OP is envisaging - the channels are available on the local Ethernet network, not via an aerial cable or HDMI.  So each TV needs a way to play from SAT>IP streams, and needs a network connection.  I believe Kodi can do this, so if Kodi can be installed on the TVs, that would work.  Otherwise they might need a device attached that can do SAT>IP or have Kodi or some other software installed on it (maybe a Firestick???).  Or you could have MythTV running on the network somewhere doing recording for everyone, and then use the Leanfront app on the TVs or attached devices to do playback or live TV.  Or use a mini-PC or laptop with MythFrontend on it for an even better user experience.  It is also possible to play from MythTV using its web server to stream from - just use an decent web browser, which TVs usually have these days.  But you do need a mouse on the TV for that to work.

 

You can also have TVHeadEnd running on the network instead of minisatip and it will stream in SAT>IP on demand also, and supports other streaming formats too.

 

 

 

 

This is somewhat along the lines of what I am hoping to do.

 

 

 

However, I do actually want to use HDMI cables to each TV rather than SAT>IP streams.

 

 

 

So I have got myself a new Sky Box as well as an old sky box, and will use the new Sky box in an HDMI matrix switch to each TV (going to use CEC to control them) and then do what fe31nz has done with MythTV using the second (older) sky box.

 

 

 

In your case, you've got the majority of the inputs recording, however, if I wanted to have them playing through HDMI outputs (e.g. channel 1 to TV1, channel 2 to TV 2 ...) would this be possible using MythTV?

 

My thinking is that day-to-day, we will only be watching one channel at a time, so can use the new Sky Box with the TV controls. The matrix switch (controlled on iPad) will allow this to play on multiple TVs simultaneously as required. However, when we have guests around or there are multiple sports games on at once, then hopefully I could (via remote desktop) assign the desired channel to each output on the computer I plan to use with MythTV, the card reader and a couple of DVB-S2 cards. HP Z440 with 4x Displayport capable of doing 4x4K@60 simultaneously. This way I can also capture the video as it leaves and sync it with the Philips Hue Lights we have in the different rooms.

 

 

 

What is the brand of card reader, DVB-S2 and DVT-S2 cards that you use or would recommend?

 

 

 

I assume that I will not even approach the multiplex limit, however, I'm curious, as in my case, we have two cables from the dish, which I would split and then input into the new box and then however many DVB-S2 cards. Does the multiplex limit apply to the number of simultaneous recordings from the cable from the dish itself or to each DVB-S2 tuner?

 

 

 

Is there a limit on how many times I should split the feed as well? For example, if I had 4 recievers connected to each cable (8 in total) is that too many for the dish? At what point would you add a second dish?

 

 

 

Lastly, does MythTV allow for the outputs to be 4K? I know the old boxes can't, but I am assuming that since the new one can, as long as everything in my system can support it there would be no issue.

 

 

 

Thanks for your recommendations and I look forward to your reply.

 

Cheers.


mailmarshall
349 posts

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  #3330691 12-Jan-2025 17:42
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FieldMouse, can you expand on the Sky changes mentioned above?

Maybe I havent got the email yet so am unaware of Sport and On Demand. Will the nornal Satellite service drop these?

FieldMouse
94 posts

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  #3330730 12-Jan-2025 21:13
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mailmarshall: FieldMouse, can you expand on the Sky changes mentioned above?

Maybe I havent got the email yet so am unaware of Sport and On Demand. Will the nornal Satellite service drop these?

 

 

 

This is the email I received

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kia ora, 

We’re getting in touch about On Demand changes coming to your black Sky Box.

What’s happening?
For now, you can continue to make use of the On Demand feature on your black Sky Box to pick and watch what you enjoy, at your leisure.

From 27 February 2025, On Demand entertainment and sport will no longer be accessible using the Sky Box you currently have.

We’re discontinuing this feature to make way for a new experience that brings you access to On Demand entertainment like never before.

Keep watching On Demand on the new Sky Box
You'll find the entertainment you love quicker and easier than ever before on the new Sky Box. In addition to live TV, enjoy our full On Demand library with hundreds of movies and shows available to watch whenever you want.

To keep watching On Demand, you’ll need to upgrade to the new Sky Box. The box is on us – get your order in today!

Remember, you can also watch your Sky package favourites anytime, anywhere in Aotearoa with our Sky Go companion app.

Questions?
We’ve got some handy FAQs if you need to know more about these changes.


Ngā mihi,
The Sky Crew

 

 

 

 


fe31nz
1232 posts

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  #3330751 13-Jan-2025 00:20
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oliversimpson1563:

 

This is somewhat along the lines of what I am hoping to do.

 

However, I do actually want to use HDMI cables to each TV rather than SAT>IP streams.

 

So I have got myself a new Sky Box as well as an old sky box, and will use the new Sky box in an HDMI matrix switch to each TV (going to use CEC to control them) and then do what fe31nz has done with MythTV using the second (older) sky box.

 

In your case, you've got the majority of the inputs recording, however, if I wanted to have them playing through HDMI outputs (e.g. channel 1 to TV1, channel 2 to TV 2 ...) would this be possible using MythTV?

 

My thinking is that day-to-day, we will only be watching one channel at a time, so can use the new Sky Box with the TV controls. The matrix switch (controlled on iPad) will allow this to play on multiple TVs simultaneously as required. However, when we have guests around or there are multiple sports games on at once, then hopefully I could (via remote desktop) assign the desired channel to each output on the computer I plan to use with MythTV, the card reader and a couple of DVB-S2 cards. HP Z440 with 4x Displayport capable of doing 4x4K@60 simultaneously. This way I can also capture the video as it leaves and sync it with the Philips Hue Lights we have in the different rooms.

 

What is the brand of card reader, DVB-S2 and DVT-S2 cards that you use or would recommend?

 

I assume that I will not even approach the multiplex limit, however, I'm curious, as in my case, we have two cables from the dish, which I would split and then input into the new box and then however many DVB-S2 cards. Does the multiplex limit apply to the number of simultaneous recordings from the cable from the dish itself or to each DVB-S2 tuner?

 

Is there a limit on how many times I should split the feed as well? For example, if I had 4 recievers connected to each cable (8 in total) is that too many for the dish? At what point would you add a second dish?

 

Lastly, does MythTV allow for the outputs to be 4K? I know the old boxes can't, but I am assuming that since the new one can, as long as everything in my system can support it there would be no issue.

 

Thanks for your recommendations and I look forward to your reply.

 

Cheers.

 

 

It looks like you want to be doing 2160p (4K) over HDMI cables.  If you really only want to do a maximum of 4K @ 60 Hz, you can get away with using HDMI 2.0 cables, but it would be better to use HDMI 2.1 as that goes up to 8K and can do 4K at the higher frequencies supported by modern TVs.  HDMI can be problematic if the cables are long.  Once you get up to 10 metres or more, you need active optical cables to guarantee it will work, unless you are using HDMI < 2.0.  And HDMI 1.4, which will do copper cables > 10 m OK as long as you use good cables, will only do up to 4K @ 30 Hz and does not do HDR, so it is not quite good enough.  I have an optical HDMI 2.1 cable for a 10 m run and it works well, but optical cables are only unidirectional so you can not do some of the bidirectional things copper HDMI cables will do, like CEC back from the TV to the HDMI source.  And optical cables have a limited bend radius, so you have to be very careful with them - one bend around a corner somewhere that you pull too tight and the cable is dead.

 

MythTV is all about recording.  Even when you have it doing live TV, it actually records the signal and plays it back, so it is delayed by several seconds.  And if you have it playing TV for a day, you need hard disk space for it to record a day long recording at up to about 5 Gigabytes per hour.  For sports, the extra delay can be a problem too, if you are also using another source for the game - an Internet based scoreboard, for example, will be ahead of the TV picture.  The upside of recording everything though is that you can just pause, get your coffee and unpause when you get back.   Or go back and replay something.  Or if you hate ads, just record it now and watch later and skip over all the ads.  I have not actually watched any TV ads except voluntarily since I started using MythTV.

 

Each output from MythTV requires that you be running a copy of the mythfrontend program, or some compatible third party frontend program (Kodi for example).  You can run multiple copies of mythfrontend on the same PC at the same time and have their outputs go to different displays, but it is not straightforward to set that up and each mythfrontend would need a separate way of controlling it.  Usually you use an infrared remote control with mythfrontend, and a keyboard for more complicated things.  I have written some Python code that works with the LIRC software that runs IR remotes on Linux so that I can have multiple different programs using the same remote - the one that has the display focus is the one that gets the remote inputs.  I use the keyboard to do Alt-Tab to switch the focus between programs, but I think it would be possible to reprogram a remote button to do Alt-Tab switching.  So it is not at all straightforward to do what you want - it is not how MythTV is expected to be used.  The normal way MythTV works is that every display has a copy of mythfrontend running locally and a remote to control just for that frontend.  So you have a network connection from a frontend box back to the MythTV backend box, rather than using HDMI.  This does require a frontend box per TV, but it is much more flexible to do that than to try and use HDMI cables.

 

For my card reader I got an Omnikey 3121, and that model still appears to be available now over 10 years later.  It has been completely reliable, so I recommend it.  But any card reader that supports Linux will do the job.

 

For my DVB-T and DVB-S2 cards I have used a variety of tuners over the years, and eventually decided to get 8 tuner cards for both, so I would never run out of tuners.  USB tuners are cheap, but you generally have to expect that they will occasionally stop working and have to be restarted, due to USB cables being unreliable - the cat walking by can move the cable a bit and the tuner stops working!  Network tuners can be very reliable, but only if you put them on a separate Ethernet port from the normal Ethernet used for the local network and Internet.  If you have the local network and Internet combined with the tuners, and you copy a big file (such as a downloaded video file) over that connection, the traffic for the copy operation can swamp the bandwidth and the tuner traffic fails for a while.  This is only a recent problem since hard drives and SSDs now run faster than gigabit Ethernet.  When they were only half as fast, it was not a problem.  And 2.5 gigabit Ethernet does not fix that, as good hard drives are now about that fast anyway and NVMe SSDs are much faster.  The best and most reliable option for tuners is PCIe cards, especially if you want larger numbers of tuners.  The ones I am using are a TBS 6909 for DVB-S2 and a TBS 6209 for DVB-T2.  These both take one aerial input and amplify and split the signal on the card to run 8 tuners at once, and they are not cheap.  With dual and quad tuner cards, you often find that you have to do the amplify and split externally and feed one aerial connection per tuner to the card, which is a pain.

 

https://www.tbsdtv.com/products

 

Hauppauge tuners are also good and can be available in NZ.  With all tuners, it is imperative that they have Linux drivers - MythTV is Linux only software.  The cheap USB ones that turn up on TradeMe often only have Windows drivers, or it is impossible to tell if they have Linux drivers.

 

Also a pain is making sure your motherboard has two available PCIe slots for the two tuner cards - often the latest motherboards are very short of PCIe slots.  You only need a PCIe x1 slot, and wider ones will work fine but are overkill.  But due to the huge bandwidth for modern PCIe versions, motherboards go for only a few very fast PCIe slots.  So older motherboards are actually better for this, as TV recording and playback does not require huge amounts of data or CPU - the recording is just copying data, and the playback normally offloads the complicated bits onto the video card GPU.  So you do need a GPU that can do the offloading, such as Nvidia with VDPAU or NVDEC capabilities.  You do want at least 8 Gibibytes of RAM for a MythTV box doing multiple simultaneous recordings.  I have 16 Gibibytes in mine, and do up to 12 recordings at once with no problems.

 

With your two cables from the dish, you would normally have one going to a Sky box, and one to the MythTV tuners.  Each tuner can record from one DVB-S2 or DVB-T multiplex, and each multiplex can have multiple channels.  If you are lucky and have two channels you want to watch being on the same multiplex (such as TVNZ 1 and TVNZ 2 on DVB-T or HBO and Living on Sky), then you only need one tuner as MythTV (and all good TV recording software) can extract any or all of the channels on that multiplex at once from the output of the one tuner.  So for DVB-T you only need a maximum of 5 tuners as there are only 5 multiplexes being broadcast in NZ.  For Sky, there are quite a number of multiplexes, but I have found that I rarely need 5 tuners at once, so if you add the sports and movie channels (which I do not pay Sky for) 8 tuners will almost certainly be enough.  There is unlikely to be any need for a second dish, as you just use a quality amplifier/splitter to re-use the same signal from the dish with as many tuners as you like.  The way splitters work, a two way splitter sends a little less than half the energy of the incoming signal to each of its outputs.  A four way splitter sends out a bit less than a quarter of the signal to each output.  So in an amplifier splitter with say four outputs, the ampliflier part amplifies the signal to a bit more than four times the input level, then the splitter part splits it to four outputs that each get about the same signal level as the input.  Each splitter or amplifier/splitter will output a lower quality signal than it receives on its input, so it is best not to daisy chain them if possible - just get one amplifier/splitter with as many outputs as you need.  And get a good one - cheap and nasty ones produce much lower quality output signals.  Bigger amplifier/splitters get a bit expensive though, so having those circuits built into my TBS 6809 and TBS 6209 cards is great.

 

MythTV certainly supports 4K outputs - it can do pretty much anything up to 4K, as long as the video card supports it.  Of course, we have no 4K broadcasts in NZ yet, but I do play downloaded 4K files and they are fine, including HDR.


nztim
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  #3330813 13-Jan-2025 09:12
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I am far Simpler I have one Sky box and distributed the HDMI to each TV over Ethernet, on the rare case that two of us want to watch two different sky channels one of us resorts to SkyGo

 

 





Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer. 


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