[mythtv-users] PCI-E ATSC (US) Card Recommendation

[Jarod Wilson]

On Dec 1, 2009, at 12:44 PM, Alan Young wrote:

> James Crow wrote:
>> John Freer wrote:
>>> Thanks in advance...
>>> 
>>> Could someone suggest a recent-model PCI-E x1 (the short slot) ATSC card that will work well on my FC12 box?
>>> 
>>> My mobo is an Asus m4n78 pro
>>> 
>>> Much appreciated!
>>>  
>> I have a Hauppauge HVR-2250 PCIe x1 card. Dual ATSC/QAM tuners. The card has hardware NTSC encoders, but the Linux drivers do not support them. The digital side is supported with drivers built into the kernel from 2.6.32. Previous kernels require a driver compile, but it is pretty easy. I do not use FC12, but I think I have read that FC12 requires the driver be compiled. Search the list archives for details.
>> Cheers,
>> James
> 
> I have the single tuner version of this card - the HVR 1250 - and it works just great for receiving OTA ATSC.

The HVR-1250 is NOT the single-tuner version of the 2250. The 2250 has hardware encoders for the analog side, the 1250 doesn't. The HVR-1800 is more akin to the single-tuner version of the 2250 than the 1250.

FWIW, my master backend runs Fedora 12, and has both a 1250 and 1800 in it, both of which Just Work (after dropping the required firmware files into /lib/firmware) without having to compile anything. They also Just Worked in the Fedora 11 days.

> I'm not sure about the dual, but the single uses the cx23885 driver which has been in the kernel for quite some time.

TV cards use several drivers for the various chips on them. The cx23885 driver is just one of them. The issue with the 2250 is that the pcie bridge driver for the card hasn't until very recently been in the upstream linux kernel.

> If I were in the position to buy a ATSC card again, I would definitely get the dual tuner version.  The networks keep rearranging the schedules and sometimes you just need a dual tuner to get everything the significant other wants. :-)

Or get an HDHomeRun. And use multirec.

> The only hitch that I ran into is I had to get a external antenna.  I'm a ways  out of town, so I needed that with the built in power amp to get any kind of signal.  If you're in a city, you might not need that.

But that really has nothing at all to do with the choice of capture card, unless the driver is bonged in such a way that it only works with a really strong signal.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com