[mythtv-users] Nova-T USB2 or equivilant

[Toby Smith]

R. G. Newbury Wrote
> Matt Collins wrote:
> > I have an EPIA II system (so virtually no CPU) with a  PVR350 already 
> > in it. I'd like to get some more tuners on the box but  sadly it only 
> > has one PCI slot and thats taken.
[snip]
> Via make a 2 slot PCI riser/extender card (intended for small 
> desktop cases). This PCI extender is made to handle 2 PCI 
> cards both physically and electronically. Most PCI riser 
> cards have a small daughter card which fits into a second PCI 
> slot and a cable to transfer that slot's IRQ etc. to the 
> riser card. The VIA card gets around that, internally.

There are, seemingly, two types of dual PCI risers around for EPIA boards; a
"plain" dual riser made by VIA themselves, and an "Active" dual riser from
Tranquil, makers of adorable but pricey cases, which claims to have better
switching logic. Another poster indicated UK based sites that both of these
are available from.

Personally I started with the active riser, which seemed recommended when
using two tuner cards. 

Initially I had a pair of identical Twinhan cards in place, and found that
it couldn't sufficiently identify what the lower (second) card was enough to
spot it as a full DVB card, so that went back to the drawing board. That
behaviour was the same regardless of which physical card was the lower.

I then tried with one of the Twinhans and a Hauppauge PCI card, which did
identify both cards, but always aborted recordings on the Hauppauge, usually
with the card failing to report that it had locked the signal (as opposed to
failing to lock the signal) and usually spewing errors into the kernel logs
at such a high rate per second that you could "hear" the error happening
courtesy of the disc thrashing. Not entirely workable.

Hence the USB tuner, which has worked quite happily. 

It may turn out that the plain VIA twin adapter is better - judging by his
post I'd guess that is what our contemporary Mr Newbury has. You might want
to try that first in case my experiences with the active card aren't just
random. (or they may just be random, your mileage may vary etc).

If you are successful with the via riser, drop me a line as I'm beginning to
hanker after a third tuner. There's a spare aerial feed behind my TV,
currently going into this odd oversized legacy device called a "video" that
I use as a clock. That feed needs a better home...

--
Toby Smith -=- at Home -=- toby*oikade.co.uk
Me? I said nothing. you just interpreted it.