Arch Linux

zanny

Member

From: Baltimore

Registered: 2012-10-05

Posts: 84

Website

Digital-only tuner cards

Last year I set up my grandparents with a hauppage 1250 and tvheadend on Suse (though whenever I ssh into their machine now I wish there was a way to keep a stable Arch install on it remotely). Works fine, they can add programs to record anywhere in the house with the web ui.

Now I'm in the market for another tuner, but I'd rather save some bucks here. the hauppage cards are all ntsc / atsc / qam tuners, usually single tuners, and the ones that aren't get pricey fast. It is 2013 though, and this new card is for terrestrial OTA cable + an antenna, I just need atsc-t support on a digital tuner, but I would like a dual tuner. No need for hardware decode on mpeg2 like with a cable card. Problem is, most Arch-forums threads about tuners or general HTPC card searches are from 2008-2010 and don't account for digital-only being the future.

I have spent a couple hours ducking around for a reasonably priced pci or pcie (or even usb) dual tuner card for my htpc to get some free ota channels, but I'm having a hard time finding digital-only tuners (if the hybrid ones are still the cheapest I'll concede, but it seems dumb to run analog hardware when there are literally no analog stations anymore), preferrably with foss drivers and good Arch support (I got lucky on the Hauppage part). Anyone know of any?

teckk

Member

Registered: 2013-02-21

Posts: 519

Re: Digital-only tuner cards

You don't say where you are. There are low power analog stations in U.S cities. They didn't have to change if their power output was under a certain kW. Most tuners I see are NTSC/ATSC/QAM. You can get a USB version for $30-$40 or so online. The USB devices I have used get quite hot though. Whenever I use mine to view/record a 1 hour program, I direct a fan on it. I don't want it heat damaged. They seem to work fine, and they're portable. If there is firmware support in the kernel for the device, then it'll work. The manufacturer should know I would think.

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_PCI_Cards
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_PCIe_Cards
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T … 94_Devices
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_PCMCIA_Cards
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Digital_Tuner_Cards

zanny

Member

From: Baltimore

Registered: 2012-10-05

Posts: 84

Website

Re: Digital-only tuner cards

That is the point, I'm setting the tuner up in a rural environment and having used my hauppage tuner I can find there are no analog stations anymore, so I don't need the redundant analog hardware. I was just probing if anyone knew of a digital-only tuner addon that cost less due to the cost savings of not adding in analog tuning.

I'm also using http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_PCI_Cards and http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_PCIe_Cards since I'm in the (rural) US and all. You'd think the US would learn from the metric system and start adopting international standards eventually...

The AVerMedia A188 looks perfect though. Dual digital tuners, $50, supported since the A180 driver. I'll (try) to post back in this thread if it works =P

Last edited by zanny (2013-08-17 14:20:43)