[mythtv-users] UK Freeview with HD: terrestrial versus satellite

[Andre Newman]

On 5 Aug 2013, at 21:11, Keith Edmunds <kae at midnighthax.com> wrote:

> Hi, I'm looking for some guidance from UK users as to whether
> terrestrial or satellite has greater reliability.

I have both, there seems no difference in reliability between them, for me and since analog switchoff and getting a decent communal Terrestrial/Satellite system installed.

I used to have a problem with Terrestrial with a T290e tuner, failed recordings and regular glitches in those that worked but upgrading to Kernel 3.5.X rather than 3.2.X resolved that, Ubuntu 12.04.2 rather than 12.04.1

If you live in a fringe or overlap area for Terrestrial then MythTV won't be very reliable (no digital recorder will be) so if this is the case Satellite may be more reliable.

If you have a problem getting clear sight of the satellites, trees, adjacent high buildings, mountains, satellite may not be reliable. In some of these circumstances Terrestrial may not be reliable either, I used to be in this situation and found that DVD & Bluray was more reliable. ;-)

In other ways there are +&- for both; 
Terrestrial has all HD channels in one Mux so one tuner covers everything for main channels in HD.
Due to freeview lite considerations a few tuners gets you all the main channels.
One Terrestrial feed can be split to several tuners, suitable amplifier and/or signal strength permitting.

Satellite seems to have better picture quality (for HD), Channel 4 HD especially.
Satellite needs separate feeds for each tuner.
Channels are spread around multiple muxes so you need more tuners to get all the main channels.


> 
> At the moment, I'm receiving a terrestrial signal. I have two SD USB
> tuners, and one HD USB tuner. If I scan, I get the same channels on
> multiple multiplexers, and it isn't clear to me how Myth chooses which

So you are in an overlap area.


> mux to use for recording. Some don't seem to work so well, so I get zero
> byte recordings. I'm trying - slowly - to establish which channels on which
> muxes result in these problems so that I can remove them.
> 
> I'm wondering if satellite may be more reliable.

If it's still unreliable once you have eliminated the extra poor signal muxes then satellite may be a better option.

> I'd be interested in
> hearing the experiences of UK users who use, or have used, both
> terrestrial and satellite.

Good luck

Andre