TV tuner card suggestions?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › TV tuner card suggestions?

Sinn

103 posts

Master Geek

#14697 16-Jul-2007 16:28

Hi all,

I'm just looking at getting a TV Tuner card for my desktop/laptop and was hoping you guys would have some suggestions. I'm wanting:

- Comes with an antenna or aerial.
- Preferably USB so I can use it on my desktop at home or on my laptop.
- Digital now that we have freeview (was it DVB-H or DVB-T?)
- EPG and ability to record onto the computer.

Anyone have any good suggestions? pricewise I suppose I'd spend up to $150-$200 but obviously the cheaper the better.

Cheers,

Regs

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Snowflake

#78329 16-Jul-2007 17:04

Sinn: Hi all,

I'm just looking at getting a TV Tuner card for my desktop/laptop and was hoping you guys would have some suggestions. I'm wanting:

- Comes with an antenna or aerial.
- Preferably USB so I can use it on my desktop at home or on my laptop.
- Digital now that we have freeview (was it DVB-H or DVB-T?)
- EPG and ability to record onto the computer.

Anyone have any good suggestions? pricewise I suppose I'd spend up to $150-$200 but obviously the cheaper the better.

Cheers,

There are currently no Digital Tuner Cards available for use with terrestrial Freeview in NZ. There isnt even terrestrial Freeview in NZ (yet... next year). Your only current options are analog or dvb-s. If you want a portable tuner for your desktop and laptop then your only option is Analog. If you go with a device that has a built in aerial then your reception is likely to be crap. Ensure you get a device that can attach to an external aerial too!

If you go with Analog then you can forget the EPG - you will need to hack something together using xmltvnz and use a media center application that can use the xmltvna data.

If you go with DVB-S then there are a few apps around that can display the MHEG guide data from the DVBS stream. Some of them can also use it for a scheduling EPG.

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Snowflake
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Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#78416 17-Jul-2007 10:17

Regs:
If you go with DVB-S then there are a few apps around that can display the MHEG guide data from the DVBS stream. Some of them can also use it for a scheduling EPG.

Do tell? I've been looking for something to do this instead of using the likes of Bladerunner and XMLTV.

Oh, and on topic, I use a Hauppauge Nova S DVBS card for freeview that is good (had a few driver issues have been ironing out tho , but prob more the whole "new HTPC" issues more than anything). It is internal, but they do a USB vesion too. You will need to connect to a satellite dish tho.

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Regs

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Snowflake

#78421 17-Jul-2007 10:33

Rollux:
Regs:
If you go with DVB-S then there are a few apps around that can display the MHEG guide data from the DVBS stream. Some of them can also use it for a scheduling EPG.

Do tell? I've been looking for something to do this instead of using the likes of Bladerunner and XMLTV.

Oh, and on topic, I use a Hauppauge Nova S DVBS card for freeview that is good (had a few driver issues have been ironing out tho , but prob more the whole "new HTPC" issues more than anything). It is internal, but they do a USB vesion too. You will need to connect to a satellite dish tho.

The Hauppuge WinTV application displays the guide data with my Nova-S-Plus.

I also believe that Mediaportal, an open source windows app, also supports the guide data for EPG: http://www.team-mediaportal.com/features.html

Perhaps others too like gbpvr?, sagetv?

There is also some linux source code floating around the net that can be used to extract the guide data from the dbvs stream. I didnt have time to play so I left it where i found it :)

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#78423 17-Jul-2007 11:03

Thanks! I assumed since i had hacked it to work in MCE that side wouldn't work. I'll have a look tonight and see.
Regards
Dan

execute22

66 posts

Master Geek

#78434 17-Jul-2007 11:44

Regs:
Rollux:
Regs:
If you go with DVB-S then there are a few apps around that can display the MHEG guide data from the DVBS stream. Some of them can also use it for a scheduling EPG.

Do tell? I've been looking for something to do this instead of using the likes of Bladerunner and XMLTV.

Oh, and on topic, I use a Hauppauge Nova S DVBS card for freeview that is good (had a few driver issues have been ironing out tho , but prob more the whole "new HTPC" issues more than anything). It is internal, but they do a USB vesion too. You will need to connect to a satellite dish tho.

The Hauppuge WinTV application displays the guide data with my Nova-S-Plus.

I also believe that Mediaportal, an open source windows app, also supports the guide data for EPG: http://www.team-mediaportal.com/features.html

Perhaps others too like gbpvr?, sagetv?

There is also some linux source code floating around the net that can be used to extract the guide data from the dbvs stream. I didnt have time to play so I left it where i found it :)

Yes but none of this is to do with the MHEG5 stuff; what you're talking about is just standard DVB EPG data. yes any half decent PVR will make use of the DVB EPG data however MHEG5 is different I think it could be considered an advanced teletext; more interactive type content. I think the official Freeview STBs support MHEG5 whereas most DVB-S STBs you'd get off trademe would only support standard DVB EPG. I've only heard of MHEG5 being used in UK and NZ freeview. As far as I know Myth TV is the only PC based PVR that supports MHEG5 content and development is under way for support in MediaPortal.

Don't confuse MPEG eg MPEG4 with MHEG5 very different things :)

And I doubt that any analogue tv tuner with a portable aerial e.g. bunny ears will ever get you an acceptable picture unless you're sitting right below the transmission tower! :-(
Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Regs

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Snowflake

#78445 17-Jul-2007 13:34

There is also some linux source code floating around the net that can be used to extract the guide data from the dbvs stream. I didnt have time to play so I left it where i found it :)

I found it after another search:

"RedButton MHEG Engine"
http://redbutton.sourceforge.net/

execute22:
Yes but none of this is to do with the MHEG5 stuff; what you're talking about is just standard DVB EPG data. yes any half decent PVR will make use of the DVB EPG data however MHEG5 is different I think it could be considered an advanced teletext; more interactive type content. I think the official Freeview STBs support MHEG5 whereas most DVB-S STBs you'd get off trademe would only support standard DVB EPG. I've only heard of MHEG5 being used in UK and NZ freeview. As far as I know Myth TV is the only PC based PVR that supports MHEG5 content and development is under way for support in MediaPortal.

Don't confuse MPEG eg MPEG4 with MHEG5 very different things :)

I wasn't confusing MPEG with MHEG, but i believe I read MHW-EPG as MHEG-EPG (features on mediaportal). On second view I see there is a difference. I thought someone I knew who was using mediaportal had the MHEG EPG data, but i they may have in fact been using the SKY TV EPG stream...

And I doubt that any analogue tv tuner with a portable aerial e.g. bunny ears will ever get you an acceptable picture unless you're sitting right below the transmission tower! :-(
Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

I've actually had good results from bunny ears, just typically not across all channels without having to move them. I can't imagine how much of a pain using them in a mobile situation might be though.

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Snowflake
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about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

openmedia

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#78488 17-Jul-2007 15:50

Regs:
There is also some linux source code floating around the net that can be used to extract the guide data from the dbvs stream. I didnt have time to play so I left it where i found it :)

I found it after another search:

"RedButton MHEG Engine"
http://redbutton.sourceforge.net/

We worked on both the RedButton support for NZ and the MythTV support for NZ.

RedButton works quite well for basic interactive use, but the integrated approach in MythTV works a lot better. What is a shame is there ar currently no hooks to integrate the MHEG EPG into the PVRs recording features. Hence on myPVR (which uses MythTV) we use a standard DVB EIT based EPG for programming.

Steve

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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#78489 17-Jul-2007 16:00

I have an Hvr-900. It is a very nice usb tuner. It is a dvb-t and analogue hybrid, so you can watch analogue and digital tv. I used it with the mpeg-2 dvb-t trial in auckland and it fully worked. It will also be able to be used with the mpeg-4 dvb-t starting late this year/2008.

It cost me $145 and that was late November 2006.