[mythtv-users] hdhomerun vs. capture cards: is it even a contest?

[Andrew Gallatin]

> Whether or not I've understood properly the way these devices work, I'd
> be interested in hearing what other users see as the pro's and cons of
> the hdhomerun vs. capture cards.

Cons:
- Relatively poor ATSC reception as compared to even cheap USB tuners
	and 6 year old PCI tuners (*1*)
Pros:
- Fantastic support from the vendor
- No drivers to worry about
- Very low power consumption
- Trivial QAM setup possible on some configurations (*2*)
- Doesn't use up a PCI / PCIe slot or USB port

(1) The HDHR is fairly poor in terms of multipath.  It uses a
tuner/demod that is does not seem popular in the consumer PCI/USB
tuner market, and I suspect that it was chosen primarily for its
low-power, rather than for good reception.

I have one of the current generation HDHRs and I'm unable to use it
reliably for ATSC. I live in a pretty much worst-case scenario for TV
tuners:

1) I live on the far side of a hill, 15 miles from the towers
2) I live 4 miles from a major airport.
3) I have attic mounted antennas (old-school CM4228, not the newer
    "CM4228HD" )
4) I live in a heavily wooded neighborhood
5) There are trees right outside my house. There is one within 10' of
    the house whose canopy is between me & the near towers.

The HDHR I have fails to lock reliably on all locals, while I have
perfect reception with my Samsung and LG based PCI & USB tuners (Dvico
Fusion HDTV5 Gold, AirStar-HD5000-PCI, Pinnacle 800i, Kworld UB435-Q).
The only time I've had a problem with my non-HDHR tuners is with a
single episode of tropo-induced co-channel interference I observed
late one evening.  The older LG based PCI tuners & the HDHR failed to
lock on the affected channel, but the 800i was perfect.

(2) SageTV for Windows has this amazing feature where you run a
QAM channel scan using the HDHR software and import the results
into SageTV.  Setting up a QAM lineup takes about 90 seconds.
I think it somehow compares the results with what Silicon Dust
has on-line for your area, and it figures out the channel
numbers/names based on that.  This was the fastest/easiest QAM
setup I've ever seen.  I wish they had it for MythTV (or even
SageTV for Linux), but I think it uses some features that is
only in their Windows software.

Drew