Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

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puterboy
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Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by puterboy »

I know this question comes up every once in a while... but hardware models, Linux support and MythTv are constantly evolving.

So with that said, what do people recommend as the best, reasonably priced card to support OTA ASTC in the US?
I don't necessarily need more than dual tuners.

That being said, the "HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609" for $99 at Amazon seems like a good deal for a quad tuner that appears to be MythTv compatible.

Any user experience with that card?
Are there better options in that type of price range?

Thanks!
kommiisar6
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by kommiisar6 »

How about a wintv-hvr-1250? You can get one used on ebay for less than $20. It is a single tuner but sometimes that is all you need. Make sure you get a used ones as new ones are often rebadged hvr-1265s which do not have support in linux. If you are using windows that doesn't matter.
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

The quad tuner is probably your best bet. If I didn't already have 3 dual tuners that's what I'd get. It should be ok with the latest kernel distros. Mythtv will use any thats linux compatible. It never hurts to have more than enough. I routinely use more than 2 at a time and have used all 6 at once on occasion. I buying today, I'd get 2 quads,
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
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heyted
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by heyted »

puterboy wrote:
Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:46 am
Are there better options in that type of price range?
Have you considered an external tuner such as an HDHomeRun instead of a tuner card?
Ted | My blog
busbee
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by busbee »

I'm using a wintv-dualhd 1595 model. USB turner.
I picks ups nicely for one tuner since kernel 4.11. I can't wait for 4.17 where (in theory) both turners should work.
Ubuntu 18.10 has 4.18 kernel but I am on ubuntu 18.04 LTS (kerel 4.15). Really tempted to upgrade... but I like LTS.
I think they have it on amazon for $65, but check the model... I don't know if the 1657 model will work.
I found
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ ... nformation
very helpful.
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

I'm running kernel 4.19.11 on 18.04lts. Just install ukuu and you can update your kernel as they become available. My hardware wasn't supported well until kernel 4.19. Ryzen 2200G and AM4 mb.
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
puterboy
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by puterboy »

I ended up purchasing the "HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609"
Works great under kernel 4.20

Only issue is that the IR remote doesn't seem to be supported by LIRC yet.

Also, playback on PIP is very jerky/sputter even though I have a brand new Linux box - a Dell PowerEdge T30 with an Intel Xeon E3-1225 v5 3.3GHz processor with integrated Intel HD Graphics P530.
Is the integrated graphics just that slow?
BillK
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by BillK »

I'm currently using a Hauppauge 2255 dual tuner card. I'm interested in the quad card, but I'm concerned that having 4 tuners instead of 2 will halve the signal strength to each tuner. Being 70 miles from the nearest transmitters, I don't have really strong signals. I'm curious if anyone's found this to be the case.
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

the more you split the cable the more signal strength you lose. I've got 10 tuners. 6 in my mythbox and 4 to TV's. So I needed a distribution amp to increase signal strength once i got past 6 tuners. A lot will depend on how many times you split the cable. Also depends on the quality of the tuners. If your going to replace the dual with a new quad tuner, it may be ok, even if you add the quad for 6 tuners. You won't know until you try it.
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
BillK
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by BillK »

Before I go spending a Benjamin, I was hoping someone who's used both the dual and quad tuners could report on how the quad performs compared to the dual vis-a-vis signal strength. I'd really prefer using two dual tuners (I have two antennas) but that doesn't seem to be an option.
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

$100 for a quad tuner is cheap cheap cheap. I paid more than that for a single tuner years back, and gave them away because they didn't work that great and replaced them with 3 dual tuners that also cost over $100 each at the time. Dual or quad will probably only have one input for a cable. Any newer vintage tuner should work well. The ones I use now are probably close to 10 years old and still work fine.
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ ... al_Express
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
BillK
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by BillK »

Is that Divco dual tuner available in the U.S.?
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

BillK wrote:
Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:54 pm
Is that Divco dual tuner available in the U.S.?
It was when I bought mine ~10 years ago. Good luck finding them now.
https://www.google.com/search?client=ub ... al+express
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
nocturnalcodehack
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by nocturnalcodehack »

I am a new User of MythTV and really enjoy it. I also have the Win-quadHD 1609 card, but MythTV only 'sees' one tuner. I'm assuming;I don't have the appropriate driver or I don't know how to configure MythTV. I am on Ubuntu 18.04 using an Intel i3 with 16GB RAM and on-board HDMI. Sounds like others have 4 tuners working. Thanks for your help !
wesnewell
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Re: Recommend OTA ASTC tuner card

Post by wesnewell »

Does your system see the tuners? ls/dev/dvb should show 4 adapters 0-3. Does it? exp.
wes@mythfe0:~$ ls /dev/dvb
adapter0 adapter1 adapter2 adapter3 adapter4 adapter5
If so then you just need to add the other tuners in mythtv-setup.
If not, you may want to upgrade the kernel using ukuu. I'm running:
wes@mythfe0:~$ uname -a
Linux mythfe0 5.1.1-050101-generic #201905110631 SMP Sat May 11 06:33:50 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Newer kernels would likely have newer drivers for your tuner.
If you can't get ity working, I'd gladly trade one of my dual tuners cards for yours.:-)
Last edited by wesnewell on Wed May 22, 2019 1:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
BE/FE-Asrock AB350 Pro Ryzen 3 3200G, 6 atsc tuners. FE's-GF8200's Athlon II, Ryzen 3 2200G. Mythtv user since 2005.
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