[mythtv-users] DVB-S2 tuner cards for the UK

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:51:23 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi folks
>
>I'm planning to upgrade my Mythtv backend to have four DVB-S2 tuners.
>
>The TBS6904 DVB-S2 Quad Tuner comes in at about £230, whereas two TBS6902 DVB-S2 Dual Tuners are £90 each, which would work out cheaper.
>
>Which is likely to be the better buy?  The cards will go into a bog-standard PC running Linux.
>
>Or is there a better approach?
>
>Cheers
>
>Chris

That price for a TBS6904 sounds rather high.  This one is cheaper:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TBS6904-DVB-S2-Quad-HD-Tuner-PCIe-Card-Satellite-TV-Receiver-for-IPTV-Streaming-/232038106255?hash=item36068c848f:g:PMQAAOSwIgNXovAP

The problem with all the older multi-tuner DVB-S2 cards is that you
have to provide them with individual aerial inputs, which can involve
using splitters and that can give problems with signal levels (4 way
splitter = 1/4 signal level to each tuner).  If you really want to
spend £230, then you could probably get a TBS6909 instead:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TBS6909-DVB-S2-8-Tuner-PCIe-Card-TV-Receiver-IPTV-stream-With-Windows-Linux-OS-/232270498537?epid=1874269362&hash=item3614668ae9:g:DrkAAOSwsE5ZlT-s

That has four aerial inputs for its 8 tuners, but they go through a
multiswitch frontend on the card, so you can use just one aerial input
for all 8 tuners if you want to, which is the way I run mine here in
New Zealand where we only have one satellite to receive from.  In
multiswitch mode, there are two tuners attached to each of the inputs,
but I have not played with that.

So it depends on how many dishes and LNBs you are connecting to as to
what is the best option.

If you really only need four tuners, and you have two PCIe slots to
spare, the two TBS6902 tuners should be fine.  But if you are running
out of PCIe slots, then more tuners on one card is much better.

In Linux, with most TBS cards you have to compile their drivers each
time the kernel is updated, which is a significant pain.  And if you
have other older non-mainstream tuner cards, it is possible that their
drivers will not be compatible with them.  My old Hauppauge PVR-500
card had driver crashes at boot time with the TBS open source drivers.
Fortunately, I no longer need to use it, so I just removed it.