Which TV tuners?

elsmandino · 27. September 2017

Hello,

I am still trying to work out what the best way is for adding four HD TV tuners to my server (for use with TVHeadend).

I am in the UK, so have the option for DVB-T or DVB-S for my TV. I have sought of come to the conclusion that DVB-S is probably the way to go as there are more channels and they are (supposedly better quality).

I therefore need four DVB-S2 tuners for maximum flexibility.

Whilst I have looked at SAT>IP servers, I am still not ruling out DVB-S2 tuner cards.

The only quad DVB-S2 card is made by TBS but lots of people have complained that whilst there are Linux drivers available, the firmware needs compiling after kernel updates.

In practice, how problematic is this?

1. What does compiling actually involve - is it difficult, lengthy to do?
2. How often would I actually need to be doing it?

Thanks

davidh2k · 28. September 2017

Zitat von elsmandino

DVB-S is probably the way to go as there are more channels and they are (supposedly better quality).

Yes, surely DVB-S2 is the better Quality, despite DVB-T2 now offering 1080p instead of 1080i...

Zitat von elsmandino

Whilst I have looked at SAT>IP servers

If you look at them you should've noticed that you still need SAT/IP Receivers and need to decrypt encrypted Channels on the Client, while with with DVB-S2 tuners you can decode drecrypted channels with the help of oscam and tvheadend - if you have the needed smart card.

Zitat von elsmandino

1. What does compiling actually involve - is it difficult, lengthy to do?

That depends, it will usually include installing linux kernel headers and starting the compiling, it can however a bit annoying to get every depency set up thats needed for compiling.

Zitat von elsmandino

2. How often would I actually need to be doing it?

If you would need to do it on kernel change, then around every two months or so.

My suggestion for a proper tuner: http://sundtek.com/shop/Digita…ate-6-DVB-S/S2.html?cur=1

Greetings
David

elsmandino · 29. September 2017

Thank you - really helpful/interesting response.

Zitat von davidh2k

If you look at them you should've noticed that you still need SAT/IP Receivers and need to decrypt encrypted Channels on the Client, while with with DVB-S2 tuners you can decode drecrypted channels with the help of oscam and tvheadend - if you have the needed smart card.

If I went down the route of a SAT>IP Server, is it impossible to decrypt any scrambled channels, even if I use a USB Smart Card reader?

macguru42 · 29. September 2017

it was many moons ago. but I had DVBSky S952 Dual DVB-S Tuner working well... via VNSI / Kodi etc ( check my rambling posts) .. I did have to compile it 'then'.. not sure if thats still the case.. not sure if you could run two of these cards, with OTA Freeview HD via my TV tuner, then dual HD Freesat via Kodi, its 3 channel..

Compiling isn't that hard if required.. but I did take a while to find a card that was stable and supported in linux..

davidh2k · 9. Oktober 2017

Zitat von elsmandino

Thank you - really helpful/interesting response.

You're welcome

Zitat von elsmandino

If I went down the route of a SAT>IP Server, is it impossible to decrypt any scrambled channels, even if I use a USB Smart Card reader?

From my knowledge, real SAT>IP requires dedicated SAT>IP Set Top Boxes that have a Smart Card Reader onboard, but you have to a have a smart card for every STB.
I mean, I'm just running a single Tuner on my NAS right now, but accessing it from two Media Players, which I couldn't do with SAT>IP, at least thats what I gathered back then when I first heard about it.

PS: I'm still waiting on Sundtekt to bring out a new Tuner out that is similiar to the FBC Tuner that is used in the VU+ Uno 4k. That will allow to tune in to 4 or 8 Transponders simultaniously, if you have a unicable Satelite Dish.

Greetings
David

elsmandino · 10. Oktober 2017

This is the first time that I have come across FCB and, having a bit of initial research, I could not see how it differed to regular unicable.

However, am I correct in thinking that the crucial difference is that unicable is four/eight tuners connected via a single input, whereas FCB is a single tuner that is able to tune to four/eight tuners at the same time?

What have you heard about the Sundtekt tuner, supporting this? Do you know what type of tuner it will be?

elsmandino · 25. Oktober 2017

I have been doing a lot more research on this and realise now that FCB tuners are not going to be an option for me - I did look into Enigma 2 boxes but have discounted them.

I have also decided that I want to add two satellite dishes to my server - one static dish, pointed at 28.2e, and a second motorised dish.

TBS aside, where does that leave me?

DVBSky tv tuners have been mentioned and these appear to work well with Linux (and support USALS, for the motorised dish).

Has anyone had any experience with Digital Devices tuners?

http://www.digital-devices.eu/shop/en/tv-cards/

They are pricey but also seem to have good Linux support.

hoppel118 · 25. Oktober 2017

I use the digital devices max s8 since a half year:

http://www.digital-devices.eu/…-max-s8-4/8-tv-card?c=156

It is great! I stopped testing after 12 recordings at the same time.

I don’t use a ci, only free to air channels. Instead of tvheadend, I use vdr and vnsi with kodi.

Before the max s8, I used a digital devices cine s2 v6.5 for two years without any problem. Before the cine s2 v6.5, I used a cine s2 v5.x for 3 years without any problems.

digital devices develops really good products.

Greetings Hoppel

elsmandino · 26. Oktober 2017

Thanks Hoppel118 - it is great to hear from someone who has actually used DD products. I have not come across many!

That particular card is quite expensive but you do get a lot of tuners for that.

How does the S8 work with Linux - is it literally plug and play or do you have to do anything to keep it working?

If I went with the tuner, do you know whether I might be able to use it with a unicable LNB and motorised rotor at the same time?

Here is what I would like to have if it were possible:

A fixed dish, pointed at 28.2e, with an octo-unicable LNB and a motorised USALS dish with a single LNB.

The unicable would be plugged into one of the inputs, to utilise seven of the eight tuners.

The single LNB woudl be plugged into one of the remaining inputs to use the last tuner.

Is this particular card flexible enough to do this?

hoppel118 · 26. Oktober 2017

Zitat von elsmandino

it is great to hear from someone who has actually used DD products. I have not come across many!

OK, I am from Germany and here are a lot of users which use dd products, especially with a vdr backend and in the past with windows media center. That doesn‘t mean, that it would not work with tvheadend, but I can’t tell you how it works with tvheadend.

I used the products the following way without any problems:

dd cine s2 v5.x for 3 years with windows 7 media center
dd cine s2 v6.5 for 2 years with vdr (openmediavault, debian8), vnsi and kodi (windows7)
dd max s8 for half a year with vdr, (openmediavault, debian8), vnsi and kodi (windows10, AndroidTV, LibreElec)

Zitat von elsmandino

How does the S8 work with Linux - is it literally plug and play or do you have to do anything to keep it working?

For me it works absolutely flawless. I had some problems with the combination of my supermicro mainboard, but the dd support (linux4media) gave me another card with a new hardware revision (v1.2). Since that point the card runs without any problem. The hardware revision (v1.1) I had before, worked fine in combination with my asus mainboard. So there was a problem between the max s8 hardware revision v1.1 and my supermicro mainboard x11ssh-ctf.

At the moment it's not plug and play. This was the case for the cine s2 v6.5, because the kernel modules are integrated in Kernel 4.x (maybe earlier). All newer dd products (also max s8, cine s2 v7, duo flex v4) are in mainline kernel since kernel 4.14rc1. Big thanks to @nst from the german vdr portal. You can read it here in german: https://www.vdr-portal.de/foru…ostID=1295659#post1295659

I installed the deb-package from here, because I don't use kernel 4.14rc1 in my productive system at the moment: https://www.vdr-portal.de/foru…ostID=1291289#post1291289

But it's also possible to install it the way described by digital devices: http://support.digital-devices…ledgebase.php?article=151

Zitat von elsmandino

If I went with the tuner, do you know whether I might be able to use it with a unicable LNB and motorised rotor at the same time?

Yes, it's possible to use it with unicable. I can't give you an answer for the motorised rotor, because I don't know.

Zitat von elsmandino

Here is what I would like to have if it were possible:

A fixed dish, pointed at 28.2e, with an octo-unicable LNB and a motorised USALS dish with a single LNB.

The unicable would be plugged into one of the inputs, to utilise seven of the eight tuners.

The single LNB woudl be plugged into one of the remaining inputs to use the last tuner.

Is this particular card flexible enough to do this?

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No, I don't think that the card is that flexible. You have to choose between one of the four modes:

Zitat von digital devices

Betriebsarten für die Max S8:
fmode=04-Tuner-Modus(Interner Multischalter deaktiviert)
fmode=1Quad-LNB / normale Ausgänge des Multiswitches
fmode=2Quattro-LNB / Kaskaden Ausgänge des Multiswitches
fmode=3Unicable oder JESS LNB / Unicabel Ausgang des Multiswitch

I am using „fmode=1“.

Greetings Hoppel

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