[mythtv-users] MythTV in the UK

[Andre Newman]

On 18 Mar 2010, at 11:08, Simon Hobson wrote:

> Another Sillyname wrote:
> 
>> Errr....Just a few of us.
> 
> Me too !
> 
>> You'd be better going for a DVB-S2 card to give you protection as some
>> of the broadcasts could change to S2 in the near future.
>> 
>> The Hauppauge DVB-S2 works pretty well for a PCI card, however the TBS
>> 6890 seems to be close to having a working Linux driver and as well as
>> being PCI-E also has dual tuners.
> 
> It's things like "close to having a working Linux driver" that puts people off !

I've just been catching up on this card too, posts like this one don't inspire confidence:
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-media@vger.kernel.org/msg16355.html



> > BTW, the TBS dual seems to be fine on m$, but there are some mysterious
> > lockups without any trace, if used in conjunction with some prior
> > S2/HDTV cards. I can't tell yet, if that it is evenly distributed over
> > amd/ati and nvidia stuff or whatever on win7 ... , but people do spend
> > lifetime in vain on it.

And I was planning to put one with a couple of Hauppauge DVBS+ cards!

> What's the "plug and play" situation with S2 cards ? Eg, how many of them would work on a plain install from (eg) MythBuntu ?

My Nova HD-S2 and HVR-4000's work with standard Ubuntu 9.10, just add firmware, MythTV since 0.22-fixes scans and tunes DVBS2 with no problems.

> 
> I'd be tempted to stick with an older card for the moment, and add an S2 card later - I can't see too many muxes going S2 too soon.

A month ago I would have disagreed, I was anticipating a Freesat BBC/ITV/CH4/CH5 DVBS2 transponder. Yesterday Ch5 HD signed a deal with Sky (and pulled out of their Freeview HD slot!) and ITVHD just fired up their new permanent channel and it's shared with some ITV SD regions so they will be stuck on DVBS for the foreseeable future. If the original Freesat founders (BBC & ITV) can't get their act together and use the supposedly limited UK footprint satellite space efficiently no-one can, finding space for Channel 4 HD now looks difficult.

Scheduling wise I found that a dual DVBT card with multirec and two DVBS cards (multirec isn't so useful due to the way the transponders are (mis)used) covered pretty much everything I ever might want to watch, that seems to be a pretty common configuration for UK MythTV, search the list archives for a whole load of setup guides and advice.

For the usual UK satellite, the only DVBS2 is encrypted Sky HD, the BBC hint at a change to DVBS2 for their HD but who knows unless they get together with CH4HD. If all you want is SD, DVBS cards are really cheap and nearly all of them work with Linux & MythTV.

Andre