Moving to DVB-t Wellington (1 Viewer)

diecastblue

Portal Member
January 30, 2008
15
0
I currently am using a PVR500 dual analogue tuner with mediaportal. Freeview just released DVB-T here so a couple of questions on making the move:
1) I need at least two channels at the same time, watching one, recording another/both etc to keep both me and my girlfriend happy, I have heard that with digital I can get multiple channels from the one tuner? Does this applie to DVB-T as well, and I assume I will need TV3 engine.
2) If not, what is a good PCI dual tuner DVB-t card (what is a good single tuner DVB-T card if I can get multiple channels?:)
3) My reception is not the best at the moment, I assume that a channel I get now over analogue that is very snowy, etc, when viewed over DVB-T will be unwatchable?

Thanks
 

mruane

Portal Pro
June 4, 2006
182
5
Wellington
Home Country
New Zealand New Zealand
Hi Diecastblue

From my location in Wellington, I cannot see KauKau at all and the analog signals from Fitzherbert and Thorndon are pretty poor also. However with DVB-T I get the Fitzherbert signals just great. So, as long as you can get a signal the quality will be significantly better. You will either get a signal or not - no significant middle ground. I also use a small Kingray signal amp which helps for the one analog signal I need i.e. Prime.

I use an HVR4000 card and it will enable you to record all of the channels on a single transmitter using TVEnginev3. The built Media Portal built in tuner will not do that. So use the separate TVEngine for sure.

To get all of the DVB-T channels at the same time, you will need three HVR4000 or equivalents. For DVB-S though two are sufficient because only two DVB-S transponders are used. Two DVB-T tuners should cover most of your needs though - but not all. I have not seen any dual tuner DVB-T cards available at the local suppliers here yet. I like the HVR4000 because it has separate DVB-S and DVB-T tuners on board. So two of them covers all that I need - plus a PVR150 for the single remaining analog station (i.e as I said Prime). The HVR4000 does have an analog tuner but its useless for Media Portal because the card does not have an MPEG encoder - hence the need for the PVR150.

Cheers Mike
 

Kiwi

Portal Pro
September 21, 2006
73
1
Pukerua Bay
Home Country
New Zealand New Zealand
Hi Diecastblue

I have snowy analogue reception off Kaukau (watchable though) and have movd to DVB-T with no problems, using a Hauppauge 2200 card which has dual DVB-T tuners. Be aware that its a PCI-e card. With TVE3, two tuners covers an awfull lot of possibilities. If your stuck with PCI, the Nova-T 500 has dual DVB-T although there are reports of issues with sleep / resume with this card - search the forums.

The 2200 also has analogue tuners , though I have not configured them as I kept one Hauppauge 150 to cover Prime (why dont they move onto Freeview!!!!)

The improvment in quality moving from analogue to digital HD is amazing - even if its not HD source material!

Cheers
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom