[mythtv-users] Tuner HW Advice?

Patrick Oglesby octoberblu3 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 24 13:44:29 UTC 2011


On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Craig Huff <huffcslists at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been asked about setting up another MythTV system for a family member.
> Unlike mine, theirs will be capturing shows from OTA ATSC (North America)
> sources. To start with, they want to be able to record two shows at the same
> time, hence I'm looking at dual-tuner options.
>
> My question is whether there are other options I should consider besides the
> SiliconDust dual-tuner ethernet-attached unit (HDhomerun) and the Hauppauge
> HVR-2250 internal card.
>
> For that matter, is there any particular reason to go with one of these two
> over the other?
>
> TIA for any advice.
>
> Craig.
>
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>

Well, since everyone else is chiming in on how great the HDHR is, I
thought I would offer my opinions on the HVR-2250.

Like the HDHR, it has an internal splitter, so you only hook up a
single coax cable to get your OTA channels.  It works great and is
easy to set up as a DVB device.  I haven't had any trouble with tuner
sensitivity, and it works better than the cableco supplied set top
box.  Drivers have been in the mainline kernel tree since 2.6.32, I
think, with full analog (NTSC) support included since 2.6.37.  You may
need to download some firmware to get everything working.  The driver
was developed by Stephen Toth at kernelabs.org  (
http://www.kernellabs.com/blog/?cat=3 )  The card will use a tuner as
digital OR analog, but you can setup 2 digital and 2 analog tuners and
use input groups to keep Myth from trying to access a single tuner as
both at the same time.  You can even have one tuner recording digital
while the second records analog.  If you only need digital, I would
not even bother to set up the analog tuners.

The HVR-2250 takes up a single PCIe 1x slot and is low profile if that
matters.  I am using the card for ClearQAM.  The only time I have ever
had bad recordings is when Comcast has moved the channels around, in
which case I just use Myth's channel scanner to find them again.

Basically, either HDHR or the 2250 is a solid choice for your OTA ATSC needs.

Now my choice coming up is whether to get an HDHR3 for cablecard
support, or hold out for a Ceton card to sit next to my 2250 to get
ClearQAM with multirec for broadcast TV while the Ceton picks up the
other channels.

- Patrick


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