Which TV Card for UK Freesat HD? (1 Viewer)

[wjw]

I am using the Hauppage WinTV 4000 quad card. A bit expensive if you only want a single satellite input, but it's giving me BBC HD on Freesat with no problems. It means you also get the Cyberlink Powercinema software which gets you the h.264 codec (or it did when I bought mine). Powercinema is useless - but the codec is good!

 

[juk]

Hi, just a question on the WinTV 4000 quad card
does it allow you to use more than one input/tuner at the same time?

Thanks

 

[iancalderban]

I have had a pace freeview pvr since the early days, I didn't want to get a separate freesat pvr, so I decided to build myself a htpc pvr to do both at the same time.

So, I'm using the blackgold 6-in-1 3450 card for a my uk htpc freesat/freeview pvr box. It has two DVB-T tuners and two DVB-S (not S2) tuners. I have recorded 4 things at once (or recorded 3 and watched one). you need one aerial (DTT) feed and two satellite LNB feeds.

low profile card as well so if you go for a small form factor htpc case like me (antec micro-fusion) it fits.

only thing to be aware of is there is a separate power connector on the card quite low down close to the slot insert - so if there is a heatsink from the mobo sticking up, you may have to be careful about which slot it will fit in (it doesn't fit in the PCIEx1 slot on my mobo due to the northbridge heatsink, which is a bit annoying )

it also works with windows fiji if you want to experiment with that. I did, and ended up with mediaportal
ta
Ian

 

[juk]

I had the Blackgold 6in1 but had several issues and returned it:
- diseqc in MP didn't work
- TV card disappeared after S3 - looked like a driver issue but there seems to be also some issue with the PCI-e slot on my motherboard type (Gigabyte - can't remember the number at the moment)
- couldn't get the Analog part working properly (installed encoder but missing sound on some channels)

so I am still looking for a card that allows me to do Diseqc in MP and second analog channel ...
I might start testing with external USB tuners ...

 

[jameson_uk]

As a matter of interest, whats the channel change times like if using dvb-t.

normally about a second or two. Not instant but not enough to really annoy me.

I replaced the Pinnacle drivers with the Black & Gold ones last night (same chipset on card) to see if they provides any better results. First impressions did seem to make me think that the thing was slightly more responsive now. I left it last night to record and when I get home I will see if it is any better. Will let you know

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

I replaced the Pinnacle drivers with the Black & Gold ones last night

Yep, a lot of forums report the blackgold drivers work better with the pinnacle card, let us know how you get on.

Thanks.

TV card disappeared after S3 - looked like a driver issue

That should be fixed in the latest drivers.

 

[gingertom]

As a matter of interest, whats the channel change times like if using dvb-t.

normally about a second or two. Not instant but not enough to really annoy me.

I replaced the Pinnacle drivers with the Black & Gold ones last night (same chipset on card) to see if they provides any better results. First impressions did seem to make me think that the thing was slightly more responsive now. I left it last night to record and when I get home I will see if it is any better. Will let you know

I would also be interested if the black and gold driver was better, with the pinnacle, as am thinking of getting a pinnacle to play around with....

 

[jameson_uk]

Yep, a lot of forums report the blackgold drivers work better with the pinnacle card, let us know how you get on.

Everything seemed to work brilliantly last night and recorded all programs (diferent muxes, simultaneous recordings and lot of going into standby)

Going to try again tonight but this does seem a little more stable than the Pinnacle drivers.

As for changing channel it is actually a little slower than I thought. It takes a good 4-5 seconds to have sound and picture after pressing the channel change button. Still this is just about acceptable.

I have not tried DVB-S yet but £30 + P&P for a dual DVB-T tuner is still a bargain. Would get one now as Pinnacle no longer make TV cards (here).

Even without DVB-S it is good value and seems to work pretty well

 

[Mew]

Hi juk

Hi, just a question on the WinTV 4000 quad card
does it allow you to use more than one input/tuner at the same time?

The HVR-4000 is a hybrid card so you can only use one of the tuners at a time. You need to define it to TV Server as hybrid so that TV Server knows that it can only use one tuner at a time because TV Server sees it as 3 tuners (Analogue, DVB-T and DVB-S/S2).

I have used a pair of HVR-4000s for nearly 2 years in TV Server although I have only used one of the tuners on each card and disabled the others. I used DVB-S for the first 6 months which picked up all the UK FTA satellite channels including BBC HD. When I moved house I did not have a dish at the new house and switched to DVB-T which has also worked OK (there are occasionally glitches but these are due to weak reception).

While these work well in TV server it is an expensive way to go unless you are going to use the hybrid card feature.

Mew

 

[iancalderban]

I had the Blackgold 6in1 but had several issues and returned it:
- TV card disappeared after S3 - looked like a driver issue but there seems to be also some issue with the PCI-e slot on my motherboard type (Gigabyte - can't remember the number at the moment)
-

never used diseqc or analogue

S3 standby is working fine with this card for me (touches desk).
Ian