Terrestrial TV Tuner Card PCI-vs PCI-E and Recommendations

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Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#88774 23-Aug-2011 16:42

I'm trying to plan ahead and ration my PCI-E slots, and I was wondering whether there is any issue with using a PCI tuner - ie. will any modern DVB-T hardware actually saturate the PCI BUS? Or maybe there is a PCI-E card that fits my requirements better than any available PCI solution? Which brings me to my next question: What are your recommendations based on the following requirements?

- At least dual tuners, quad if possible.
- Not interested in Satellite, but I don't care if it's included.
- Recording to a real format, not some obscure rubbish that only their in-house software can decipher. Hopefully something that can be easily converted, and includes multi channel sound etc.

Also, what's the driver/software situation like with these cards? Do I expect an invasive software suite with a bunch of extra services running, or can it be simple drivers and Windows Media Centre for viewing?

Thanks.

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#510781 23-Aug-2011 17:08

Not sure on the PCI side of things but I'm using:

http://digitalnow.com.au/product_pages/Quad.html works great, but needs a good signal though as it just uses the 1 aerial input and splits it internally.

I've also had a

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_hvr2200mc.html too with no issues.

I use windows 7 media center, so just install the drivers, scan for channels in media center and thats it really. You will need a couple other things for an epg beyond a couple of shows ahead.

The recorded file is a .wtv which as far as I know is only playable in windows 7 and on an xbox setup as an extender. Converting it from that to something else is abit tricky because NZ uses H.264 for video encoding. However, I have used windows live movie maker and mcebuddy to convert the .wtv files to wmv and mp4 respectively. There are probably other paid options for converting too.

berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#510783 23-Aug-2011 17:11

Oh as far as I'm aware for your multichannel requirement, media center will capture the entire stream. So if the broadcaster is broadcasting in 5.1 as well as stereo, both will be captured and either can be selected when you play back.

davidcole

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Uber Geek
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Trusted

#510846 23-Aug-2011 20:37

berrys: Oh as far as I'm aware for your multichannel requirement, media center will capture the entire stream. So if the broadcaster is broadcasting in 5.1 as well as stereo, both will be captured and either can be selected when you play back.

Um, Windows media center is the only one that WONT do multichannel (all channels on a transponder). Both Media Portal and NextPVR will. I think MythTV (linux) may also.

They also record in .ts format, with is a dump of the broadcast stream. W7 media center uses a wtv container format, that video can be extracted from, but it's an extra step.

I can't see the rest of the OP, but I'll remember some of it.

Most of these programs (mediaportal and nextpvr) are pretty unobtrusive, a service for recording and most likely a web server. Then they both include a GUI for playback. Probably not quite as pretty as W7 Media Center, but I think the multichannel more than makes up for that.

I think I saw something about PCI and dual tuners? I run a dual hauppauge nova t 500 on PCI and have no issues, I also run two hvr3000's and so can record every transpoders at once, and have never notices any PCI bus issues.

If doing it again, I may look at HDHomeRun network based tuners, only because it reduces the need for PCI slots.

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berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#510853 23-Aug-2011 20:56

davidcole:
berrys: Oh as far as I'm aware for your multichannel requirement, media center will capture the entire stream. So if the broadcaster is broadcasting in 5.1 as well as stereo, both will be captured and either can be selected when you play back.

Um, Windows media center is the only one that WONT do multichannel (all channels on a transponder). Both Media Portal and NextPVR will. I think MythTV (linux) may also.

Sorry, I meant multichannel audio, not multichannel off mux/transponders captured off the stream.

Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#510908 23-Aug-2011 23:04

berrys: Not sure on the PCI side of things but I'm using:

http://digitalnow.com.au/product_pages/Quad.html works great, but needs a good signal though as it just uses the 1 aerial input and splits it internally.

How much did that set you back shipped?

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 125

#510919 24-Aug-2011 00:17

Oubadah: I'm trying to plan ahead and ration my PCI-E slots, and I was wondering whether there is any issue with using a PCI tuner - ie. will any modern DVB-T hardware actually saturate the PCI BUS? Or maybe there is a PCI-E card that fits my requirements better than any available PCI solution? Which brings me to my next question: What are your recommendations based on the following requirements?

- At least dual tuners, quad if possible.
- Not interested in Satellite, but I don't care if it's included.
- Recording to a real format, not some obscure rubbish that only their in-house software can decipher. Hopefully something that can be easily converted, and includes multi channel sound etc.

I really do recommend the HDHomeRun (http://www.hdhomerun.co.nz/products/hdhomerun/dvbt/), NZ$199 haven't had a single issue with it, runs over your local network (so Gigabit Ethernet recommended - but if you aren't going for a PCI/PCI-e tuner you can always get a cheap PCI Gigabit NIC and a crossover cable!).

Setup with MythTV I get .mpg files (which are really MPEG2TS) with contain (normally) a h264 video stream, and 1 or more audio streams of either: AAC-LATM or AC3 (Dolby Digital).

Setup with WMC produced re-playable recordings, but I didn't examine them with too much detail. You can also access the tuner without much of an issue directly from the likes of VLC.

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berrys

225 posts

Master Geek

#510933 24-Aug-2011 07:49

Oubadah:
berrys: Not sure on the PCI side of things but I'm using:

http://digitalnow.com.au/product_pages/Quad.html works great, but needs a good signal though as it just uses the 1 aerial input and splits it internally.

How much did that set you back shipped?

It was another $25AUD to post. I can't remember what the exchange rate was at the time - it think it may have worked out to be around $275NZD all up.

Oubadah

676 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#511190 24-Aug-2011 13:05

Thanks for all the responses so far.

The HDHomeRun is very interesting. I imagine it would be great for laptops with fast wireless, and I'm tempted to get one just to try it. But I think for them to be really useful they should have put 4-8 tuners and a gigabit LAN port in it. Then one unit could service a household.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#511421 24-Aug-2011 18:45

I'm using two Hauppauge dual tuner cards, a Nova T 500 PCI card and a HVR-2200 a PCI-e card. As far as their usability for DVB-T recording goes there's nothing to choose between them in my experience.

With a total of four tuners I can record everything I want to from Freeview|HD and have one tuner spare for wathing live TV.