Recomendations for a good DVB-T2 HD cards in the UK (1 Viewer)

[Vic Thornley]

HI all.

Can anyone recommend some DVB-T2 cards (internal or USB) for use in the UK for Freeview HD. Have had a look at the black gold cards which seem expensive but have a good reputation.

Many thanks.
Vic

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PCI-E-DVB-T2-Definition-Digital-Receiver/dp/B005JTA7TG

Seems to be the best on the market, also do a quad version, but think that's overkill

 

[Owlsroost]

I use a Hauppauge PCTV-290e USB stick which works fine - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004C1176E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE - and since all of the Freeview HD channels are on the same mux you don't need more than a single DVB-T2 tuner with MP (at least for a single-seat system). Windows update has the drivers so it's literally plug-and-play on Vista/Win7.

Managed to buy mine second-hand on Ebay (when they were more expensive new than they are now)

Tony

 

[porky996t]

Hi Vic,

I'm with Ray (above) on TBS. I fitted the TBS 6284 Quad DVB-T/T2 card last week. About as an uneventful installation as you can get. Fitted the card, installed the drivers and away it went. The picture quality is superb (even the GF who only bothers about shoes and handbags said the picture looks better) The change time are about 4 secs, and I'm running three clients from a central server and not as a "single seat" set up, so there will be a delay there.

I did look at BlackGold, but I seemed to come across a lot of posts on here, and across the 'net of people having difficult installs and as I had a TBS DVB-S/S2 dual tuner from three years ago which had been rock solid, I went with TBS again.

The TBS6280 DVB-T/T2 dual tuner card details can be found >>here<< but as Ray said, a quad card is probably overkill. The quad card is two 6280's on a single board. I also fitted the TBS 6284 quad DVB-S/S2 card at the same time, so I am a bit of a TBS fan. The cards work without problems and seem very stable indeed, I cannot recommend them enough.

 

[Vic Thornley]

HI all.
Many thanks, I opted for the PCTV 290e (with a little help from my employee discount scheme), indeedy Win 7 plug and played it, but TV configuration didnt see it, no card in the list except 1 IPTV and 1 WebRadio. Uninstalled and reinstalled driver/MPtv config still no card. Off the cuff I increased the number of IPTV to 2, which caused a restart of the TV service and lo and behold, there was my card !!, put number of IPTV down to default one and all was set.

Scanned all channels, had all the channels in the list including HD. SD channels work flawlessly (picture/sound) but HD was stuttery picture and no sound. Tested signal on front room aerial box, which kept dropping out (have a TV engineer coming thursday to sort that, dont fancy ladders and going over roof). Took PC into back room where signal is good and fixed, using same tunings as front room, HD picture is great - but still no sound !. Have sound with hauppauge's TV center and with 'preview' in MP Tv configuration. But not in Media Portal. Any ideas.

As you can see, am in the early designs stage. Hopefully I may get a dual tuner card, or DVB-S2 (TBS as suggested) as I still have a sky dish.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Vic

Install the LAV filters available in the MP extensions installer found on the desktop (update when told too so get latest), then under the MP configuration\codecs and renderer settings chose LAV for all audio formats for TV\Video\DVD

Hope you get sound now, if not post back

 

[porky996t]

@ray

I use LAV for all audio codecs. I didn't realise that DVB-T2 uses different audio to the DVB-S2 broadcasts and just resorted to my usual setup when I did the server. The audio was very poor on the DVB-T2 channels and LAV solved it quite simply. Just one thing, they audio from the T2 streams seems very quiet compared to the S2 stream.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Mike

i change setting in the default directsound device, which for me is "High definition Audio device" (hdmi) properties\enhancements "Loudness Equalization", that seems to sort out volume differences, might be worth a try.

 

[porky996t]

Thanks Ray, I'll give that a go, although I do go through to an amp via optical out, and not to the TV via HDMI.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Then Amp controls audio