[GLLUG] TV tuner for Linux

[John Edwards]

Hi

On Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 06:39:33PM +0000, Lucian via GLLUG wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a DVB-t2 (Freeview HD) tuner that works out of the box
> with Linux?

That does depend on the kernel version and firmware availablity.

A good starting point could be the MythTV wiki, although it's a little
out of date (Oct 2015):
	https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Digital_Tuner_Cards

I use a PCTV 290e (aka Pinnacle PCTV nanoStick T2) with MythTV. It was
one of the first DVB-T2 tuners available and generally works well
unless you have a poor/low signal reception:
	http://www.pctvsystems.com/Products/ProductsEuropeAsia/DVBTT2products/PCTVnanoStickT2/tabid/248/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Looks like they are now part of Hauppauge:
	http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_290e.html

I've also used some older Hauppauge cards and USB sticks for non-HD,
but beware of some newer versions of the tunes that end in a "5" (eg
"HVR-2255"):
	https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge
Although that page has not been edited in about a year.

I've been meaning to try a Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD to record multiple
HD programs, so if anyone has good (or bad) things to say about that I
would be interested:
	http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_dualhd.html

PCI cards also exist, which might make the cabling easier and tidier
but I've found that they tend to be harder to diagnose problems on
(you can't easily unplug from one machine and plug into another).

The Windows software from both companies is pretty bad, but I hope you
won't ever need to use it (except maybe to help diagnose problems).



-- 
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|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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