On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 8:05 PM, Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote: [snip]
So is anyone aware of a tuner card they can recommend that meet my requirements?
i've had very good results with DVICO Dual Digital 4 and Hauppage Nova-T-500 PCI cards. entirely trouble-free and reliable (however, I would check that the current revisions of the cards are still supported before buying).
Both are dual-tuner DVB cards...dual-tuners are useful as they allow you to record + watch at the same time, or record two programs on different channels (transponders actually...with one tuner you can record multiple programs on the same transponder e.g. you can simultaneously record programs on all of the ABC channels with just one tuner).
NOTE: They both require non-free firmware. I don't know of any that don't.
These are PCI cards, not PCI-e. Most new motherboards have only one or two (or possibly even none) PCI slots these days.
craig
-- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
Please excuse the necromancy. I've just finished remotely resolving the final issues with the MythTV media computer I built. I ended up going with the Hauppage Nova-T-500 you recommended Craig and it was easily the most straight forward card I've worked with. As this gift is 2800KM away it's been a real relief being able to assume the card was not the cause of any problems. It was also handy that the card worked out of the box with Ubuntu 12.04 and the firmware was easy to obtain. For others interested the card is PCI and most small motherboards that take CPUs that include graphics cards ship with PCIe so I had to get a converter board. Luckily the Nova seems to only ship in a half-height PCI version. To do the conversion I strongly recommend paying extra for a Startech PCIe to PCI adapter card[1] as the HK knock-offs can be unreliable which nullifies any saving. If you search around eBay you can pick up an unbadged Startech from the UK for a reasonable discount by matching the chips in the pictures. One thing I found really interesting about this card is that the tuners are just USB devices on a PCB that are wired into a local USB bridge[2]. It's a little odd looking for a PCI card using 'lsusb'! Thanks again to everyone who made a comments regarding reliable TV Tuners under Linux. It is appreciated. Regards, Edward [1] http://intrl.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Slot-Extension/PCI-Express-to-PCI-A... [2] http://www.hauppauge.com/site/press/presspictures/NOVA-TD-500_board.png