dvb-t2 tuners pci v usb (1 Viewer)

[eetaylog]

Am I right in thinking that to avoid a common issue of failed initialisation of tuners after waking from s3, its best to go for a usb hardware option rather than pci? It seems like some tuners (such as the hauppauge nova t500 that i currently have) have driver limitations and so wont wake properly.

Are there any recommendations for a usb stick (dual preferably) that wont have these problems. Dvb-t2 is a priority for hd channels here in the uk.

TIA

 

[aspik]

Are there any recommendations for a usb stick (dual preferably) that wont have these problems. Dvb-t2 is a priority for hd channels here in the uk.

I can recommend the WinTV-dualHD from Hauppauge. I'm using this one since few weeks now and didn't experienced any issues with it.

 

[eetaylog]

Thanks for the reply. Can anyone else confirm that there are no issues with the above as i was going to avoid Hauppauge again given my problems with their T-500 pci card. I would prefer a pci option so that i dont have a clumsy piece of hardware poking out the back of my server, but if the initialisation/waking from s3 issue is inherent to pci architecture then i guess i have no choice?

Thanks again.

 

[Owlsroost]

If you want a cheap option, these USB DVB-T2 sticks - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-D...uner-Dongle-HDTV-Stick-Receiver-/291645151197 - are available from numerous Ebay sellers for about 15 to 20 GBP. I use two of them on my HTPC (running Win 10) and they have behaved perfectly - no sleep/resume/reception problems at all. The latest drivers can be found here - http://www.astrometa.com.tw/integrated_en.html

The only downside I've found is that the DVB-T2 tuning can be a bit slow, so I had to increase the tuning timeout value in TV server a bit - otherwise they have been 'fit and forget' hardware.

(,,,and this is what's inside them - http://blog.palosaari.fi/2014/09/naked-hardware-18-astrometa-amdvb-t2-v2.html )

 

[HTPCSourcer]

The resume issue is definitely not inherent to PCIe. One can have problems of this kind or fight with USB devices not alwaysvworking after waking up. It is much more a driver issue than a question of using PCI or USB.

If you want PCIe I can always recommend DigitalDevices. No resume problems but not cheap either.

 

[CyberSimian]

i was going to avoid Hauppauge again given my problems with their T-500 pci card.

The very first tuner card that I purchased was a Hauppauge Nova DT-500. That was a DVB-T dual-tuner PCI card. When only one was installed in the HTPC, all worked well. The problems started when I installed a second DT-500 card, which had the habit of vanishing on wake from sleep (this was with WMC). After much gnashing of teeth, I eventually found a post from a Hauppauge support person on their website saying that more than one Nova DT-500 in a system was not a supported configuration, and they were not going to fix it. The Nova DT-500 is a slightly weird card, as it is actually a USB dual tuner fitted to a PCI card (with an appropriate interface chip). I admitted defeat and resolved not to buy Hauppauge again.

The next tuner cards that I purchased were three Pinnacle 2000i dual-tuner DVB-T PCI cards. They worked beautifully, but I eventually retired them when DVB-T2 finally reached my area.

To enable reception of DVB-T2. I purchased two TBS 6284 cards, and the gnashing of teeth returned. The TBS 6284 is a quad-tuner PCI-Express DVB-T2 card. The card in the 4x slot worked fine, but the one in the 1x slot disappeared on wake from sleep. I even tried it in the 16x slot (the slot usually used for the graphics card), but it still disappeared on wake from sleep. From posts on the TBS forum, it transpired that the TBS card used an obscure extension to the PCI Express standard that most motherboard manufacturers had forgotten to implement (version 1.0a). A solution for some TBS users was to contact the motherboard manufacturer and ask them to issue an updated BIOS with the necessary support added. That was not a solution for me, as my motherboard was a Dell, and out of warranty.

I still use the TBS cards, but with hibernation instead of sleep. Luckily, both tuner cards are present on wake from hibernation. However, using hibernation presents its own problems. It is achievable, but only if you are really determined.

I have never used a USB tuner, so cannot comment on reliability. But USB tuners result in extra clutter and cabling around the rear of the HTPC. Also, if you were thinking of getting more than one (e.g. two USB dual-tuner units, for a total of four tuners), I begin to wonder whether the data rate would be too high. In the UK, a DVB-T2 MUX has a data rate of 35 Mbits/sec. Since MP can perform the trick of recording multiple channels from a single MUX using only one tuner, the tuner must be sending the entire MUX data stream down the USB cable. A USB dual tuner would therefore have a data rate of 70 Mbits/sec. Two USB dual tuners plugged into the same USB hub (external, or internal to the HTPC) would have a data rate of 140 Mbits/sec. My experience with USB 2 (admittedly with disks, not tuners) is that useful sustained throughput is about one third of the rated maximum, so one third of 480 Mbit/sec = 160 Mbits/sec, which is worryingly close to 140 Mbits/sec. But then, what do I know?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[eetaylog]

Wow, some great posts, thanks!

Cybersimian, I think I read one of your similar replies in another thread on the same subject and you make some interesting comments. As far as I understand it the t500 card I have actually has a usb bridge built into it so isnt truly a pci piece of kit and hence the problems due to unstable drivers.

Also, as above, I'm glad the issue isn't just related to pci hardware because I don't particularly want to use a usb option as it's a bit clumsy poking out the back of the server. I just now need to find a dvb-t2 pci/pcie card that is reliable, doesn't cost the earth and most importantly doesn't have any wake from s3 problems. From the sounds of it the TBS stuff is not an option which is a shame as it seems pretty readily available.

 

[Owlsroost]

Don't forget that as there are (at present) only two dvb-t2 Freeview muxes used in mainland UK, you don't need more than two dvb-t2 tuners to be able to view/record every Freeview HD channel in MP.

 

[mm1352000]

A small addendum...

From posts on the TBS forum, it transpired that the TBS card used an obscure extension to the PCI Express standard that most motherboard manufacturers had forgotten to implement (version 1.0a).

PCIe 1.0/1.0a is not obscure, or an extension. It was the PCIe standard back in the day, and it's still very adequate - even to the point of overkill - in terms of bandwidth and features for TV tuner cards. Since PCIe is backwards compatible, theoretically PCIe 1.0/1.0a chips should continue to be suitable for tuner designs for the foreseeable future.

The issue CyberSimian and other people have run into seems to be caused by certain motherboard vendors taking short-cuts and no longer including v1.0 in their testing regimes. Depending on your point of view, you may or may not be inclined to forgive the affected mobo vendors for not testing against a 10 year old standard/version. Either way, it's certainly not TBS's fault as seemed to be implied.

Actually, TBS have gone to the [IMHO extreme] length of switching to a new PCIe bridge (or rather, PCIe bridge implemented via FPGA) with their latest products. I'm not sure whether that's a direct result of the compatibility issues reported with 6284, 6285 and other SAA7160-based cards, or whether SAA7160 is no longer readily available. Compared to 6284, 6205 (the equivalent/replacement) has completely different tuner, demodulator and [as previously mentioned] PCIe bridge chips. Therefore comments about 6284 have limited applicability for 6205.

[disclaimer: I'm not a TBS shill/apologist. Just trying to ensure that both sides of the story are available. ]

 

[eetaylog]

For the record, i have an Asrock B75M-GL R2.0 motherboard running my tv server. Not sure which version of PCIe it uses but any idea which tuners are likely to work?