In New Zealand: external tuner which can get EPG?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › In New Zealand: external tuner which can get EPG?

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freitasm

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#1251891 5-Mar-2015 18:51

Jaxson: And the home run won't give you an epg off the satellite service either.

Hence my comment about being a DVB-T solution.

SepticSceptic

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#1252167 6-Mar-2015 10:44

I'm using the Avermedia3D USB DVB-S tuner, from Ascent. Looks like I got the last one as they don't have any in stock
http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=398398

Just going down the HTPC / Freeview recording saga myself, using Windows Media Centre. Had issues getting the AverMedia tuner to properly lock in the satellite.

Off loading recorded TV to a Windows Home server, and within WMC, these recordings are visble as "Recorded TV"

A bit of trial and error, one being that with a single tuner, WMC needs to be stopped before the EPG Collector will work.

Still working thru, but so far looking good. Just need to get a decent WMC remote. All has to meet the WAF criteria :-)

SJB

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#1252190 6-Mar-2015 11:19

Run EPG Collector as a scheduled task maybe overnight when WMC isn't active or on boot up.

EPG Collector will work if WMC is loaded but not playing/recording.

Killerkiwi2005

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#1252192 6-Mar-2015 11:21

http://epg.org.nz/freeview.xml.gz is a reliable freeview epg guide, It seems to be using dvb-t grabber and is updated hourly?

SepticSceptic

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#1252238 6-Mar-2015 12:14

SJB: Run EPG Collector as a scheduled task maybe overnight when WMC isn't active or on boot up.

EPG Collector will work if WMC is loaded but not playing/recording.

Agreed, but the WMC runs all the time on Live TV - it's a dedicated HTPC Media Centre .

SJB

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#1252239 6-Mar-2015 12:15

I think that just uses EPG Collector. You might as well run it yourself.

Jaxson

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#1252258 6-Mar-2015 13:07

freitasm: The original question was WHICH TURNER?

I don't think there is an official freeview approved external tuner, either USB or network based, only standalone component devices.

To the OP, I'd suggest following the advice of others and opting to obtain the EPG data via the internet, or as mentioned earlier, obtain it from the satellite service which holds the full EIT data.

You're then free to use whatever external tuner you want.

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freitasm

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#1252303 6-Mar-2015 14:10

You can obtain the EPG from the terrestrial service as well. It's not limited to satellite. You need to run something like the EPG Collector to get it, that's all.

Jaxson

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#1252306 6-Mar-2015 14:17

freitasm: You can obtain the EPG from the terrestrial service as well. It's not limited to satellite. You need to run something like the EPG Collector to get it, that's all.

Thanks, good point there

SJB

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#1252334 6-Mar-2015 15:16

According to the OP he's using a NUC so if it's not networked he needs to use a USB DVB-T tuner such as this

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=TVNAVM2622&name=AverMedia-H830-AVerTV-Hybrid-Volar-HD-DVB-TAnalogF

and either EPG Collector from here

http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/

or the internet provided guide here

http://epg.org.nz/freeview.xml.gz

It's as simple as that.

He can't use satellite in a standalone NUC as there don't seem to be any USB DVB-S tuners available anymore.

freitasm

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#1252336 6-Mar-2015 15:20

Sure but if it's networked (it would be, to use the Internet-sourced guide), the HDHomerun, in my experience, has a much better signal than the USB devices, and it's a dual tuner.

You get what you pay for.

SepticSceptic

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#1252389 6-Mar-2015 17:41

Here's one that supports DVB-S/S2, DVB-T, and in a PCIe format as requested by the OP:

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=TVNHGR1165470&name=Hauppauge-WinTV-HVR-4400-PCIe-DVB-TDVB-SAnalogue-l

mm1352000

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#1252515 6-Mar-2015 20:51

There are lots of USB satellite tuners available if you're willing to buy from overseas.
TBS (5922[SE], 5980 CI, 5990), Anysee (E7 S2), TeVii (S660), DVBSky (S860, S960[C]), PCTV Systems (461e), TechnoTrend (connect S2-4600, S2-3650)... the list goes on.
DigitalNow also sell a USB tuner - TeVii H800 - that does both DVB-T and DVB-S/S2:
http://digitalnow.com.au/dvbscards.html

kingdragonfly

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#1253715 9-Mar-2015 09:33

Thanks for all the replies. Just to be clear, a card won't work in a NUC. Intel NUC is very similar to a laptop, except there's no screen.

It does *not* have a PCIe, unfortunately.

Frankly I made a mistake purchasing a NUC; I should have purchase a HTPC with at least one slot.

I ordered a DVB-S USB box from TradeMe, from "TaiwanTech". I'll let you know how it compares.

As mentioned, I only use Freeview for news and comedy shows, so HD is not that important to me.

I use streaming for most videos, not Freeview.

Cheers

kingdragonfly

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#1256776 12-Mar-2015 08:08

Just a final update. I did get EPG collector to work with a DVB-T tuner, after some tinkering.

As I mentioned it wasn't a high priority as I stream most video.

While EPG collector is a fine product, and I appreciate the efforts of the programmers, set up was complex.

For me the challenges were finding the correct antenna frequency and getting channels into Microsoft's Windows Media Center, WMC.

I didn't mention it, but I had been using a Hauppauge USB DVB-T tuner to record.

I have always hated the supplied WinTV 7 software supplied. The scheduler couldn't handle New Zealand's MHEG5 so I would record by manual selecting hour and channel, ala recording like a VCR.

As an aside Hauppauge's WinTV7 software is the worst PVR / DVR software ever written.

I had to call the US because the license key printed on the CD wouldn't work.

The horrible scheduler uses an Access database and looks like it was written in VB6. The font size is too tiny to read even on largest screen TV. Lastly you simply cannot edit fixed schedules due to bugs in form validation.

Thanks for all who responded.

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