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

[Simon Hobson]

Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> 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.

That doesn't work here - you NEED 4 separate inputs or you hit severe limitations on what combinations of channels you can record. I don't know about your sat services there, but here you get four different "groups" of channels - high and low band, horizontal and vertical - which are selected at the LNB according to voltages/signals sent up the cable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_downconverter#Universal_LNB_.28.22Astra.22_LNB.29

As a result, over here you need a separate cable per tuner - until you get above 4 when it's possible to use a multiswitch and quatro LNB.

The alternative is to use a Unicable LNB & system - but I don't think support for them is very common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_downconverter#Multi-output_LNBs


So for us, you need up to 4 cables.
On one cable, you can select one of the 4 combinations of H/L & H/V - with the other three combinations (and the channels carried on them) aren't available to the tuner(s). That's "very restricting" !