Which dual tuner USB stick? (1 Viewer)

[megsum]

Hi,

I'm currently using a Terratec Cinergy 2400i in my HTPC which gives me dual tuners from a single aerial cable. It works very well with no problems whatsoever.

I'm looking at building a new HTPC which will hopefully be mini-itx sized. That's all fine until I come to the TV card as a full height card won't fit in a nice small mini-itx case. I know that there are mini-itx cases which will support it, but I'd like a nice slim one ideally. So I thought I'd go to a USB tuner instead.

Immediate thoughts are that the Hauppauge Nova-TD would be perfect but I'm sure I read somewhere that the dual tuner stuff only works with the Hauppauge software. Does anyone know if that's true?

I've seen others that look to need two inputs. I only have one aerial cable and I'd rather not have to split it or run another. I could if need be, but it would be easier not to. Any suggestions for a dual tuner USB stick which only requires one aerial cable? Failing that, any recommendations for a dual tuner stick at all would be great. Or alternatively a low profile dual tuner PCI-E card?

Cheers,

Adam

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Google Peak Dual tuner, cheap and do both pci and usb.

 

[megsum]

Hi,

they'd be great but they only have PCI cards (the mini-itx boards I'm looking at only have PCI-E slots) and the dual tuner USB stick looks to be discontinued. That's not to say I can't find one anywhere of course. I'll have a look round so thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers,

Adam

 

[spiral]

I bought a kworld "plusTV" dual tuner stick recently. It was cheap (around $70 here) but it's working fine so far. Only problem is that I can't quite tune in to one channel that I used to be able to with a single tuner. The signal on this channel was always pretty weak, so it wasn't a great suprise. If you get good signal strength, you should be fine.

KW-399U Kworld DVB-T 399U USB Dual TV Tuner Stick Watch two digital channels at the same time on your PC or laptop via this handy USB 2.0 dongle. Includes HyperMedia Center software. : novatech.co.uk

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[tompa]

Hi!

I'm running two Hauppauge Nova TD, set up as four receivers. This soulution has been working 100% for me all the time!
Just put a 3dB splitter in front of it if u have one antenna feed (that should be Ok if u have a good signal, otherwise u might have to ad a amplifier).

/tompa

 

[megsum]

thanks for the suggestion Spiral. I found a KWorld dual tuner low profile PCI-E card too, but I'm not sure about Windows 7 support. I remember reading somewhere about the Kworld cards not working properly on Windows 7, and the website doesn't seem to have Windows 7 drivers. The UK site actually sends you to the global site which doesn't even list the cards. Can anyone confirm whether these cards do work on Windows 7?

Kworld Product Deatials: PCI Express Dual Digital TV Card | PE3552T

I'd prefer an internal card ideally as it just keeps things nice and compact. At least I know that the Nova-TD will work though; I must have misread that bit about the dual tuners only working with the Hauppauge software. I could split the cable if I needed to. Thanks tompa.

aha! Just found a link to Windows 7 drivers for the kworld card so that's all good. Looks like that may be a good option, with the Hauppauge to give me extra channels should I need it.

Cheers,

Adam

 

[MLH01]

I have a Nova-T 500 PCI and a kworld 399U USB (4 DVB-T tuners in all), running on Win 7 32 bit. To test the system I had 9 programs (a mixture of SD and HD) recording simultaneously by taking advantage of multiple channels per transponder - only for a few minutes in fear of the hard drive catching fire

The kworld seems to take a while to respond, but once it is 'awake' it seems to work fine. For this reason I have set the Nova-T 500 tuners at a higher priority than the kworld to make sure I don't miss any recordings. I am using the latest Win 7 drivers from the kworld web site. Not sure what else I can try to make the kworld wake sooner...

I've also been keeping an eye on other tuners, including the Peak dual tuner that Paranoid Delusion has mentioned in a few posts but I can't find any distributors in Australia (yet) I am looking forward to the day when I can watch TV within 10-15 seconds of resuming.

MLH01.