need help with tv card pick:)

[compaqpresario]

ok guys, here's the deal,

I have 5 bedrooms, a loft, and a family room that currently have cable with HD programming.  At times I have family over and 5 people watch 5 different shows.  I sought info from the wiki and forum posts and have read many different things, conflicting many times.  What i want to do is build my MD's with cards that will enable me to use the cable i currently use, until i get HD satellite without having to change or add additional cards. I want to be able to hook both the cable and satellite up and use them interchangeably.  I looked at the hdhomerun, but it does not support satellite. Can someone please tell what i need to purchase??

[compaqpresario]

Read 17 times, and 0 replies, Thanks guys. Is this the way the forum users for linuxmce treat possible users?  Just wanted some advice from those who would know, but not even a response. Thanks

[chipppy]

hey man that last comment was a little rude.
I am also a newbie and I have asked a couple of question and been fortunate that those people have donated there time to help me.  I think this is a community of people that dont get paid to answer questions but volunteer thier time to help other.  I think you should just appreciate it when someone does take the time to help you out and just accept it if they dont help you out.

A little bit of curtisy and respect goes a long way. 

Cheers
chipppy

[patmankn]

compaqpresario ,

remember we are no sales guys eager to attract "new customers" / users insisting on support.
Sometimes your lucky, and someone picks up your request, sometimes you're not.
Get over it... and search the wiki / forum.

For Hardware Support, anything runs, that is supported by v4l-dvb or the kernel directly + the right firmware. Most cool Windows-Features like, multiple tuners etc are quite tricky with linux, and usually it takes a little while, before an ambitious hacker codes some stuff.
So, ebay is your friend to pick up older stable hardware ;O)

Try the wiki for hardware, check if there's some info available.

http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Category:TV_Cards

http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Hardware

For your setup, i wonder why you don't want to plug the TV-Cards into the core, where they "belong". Remember that the Core/Hybrid/MD architecture is set up to deliver streams to the cores. There are some interesting setups on the user wikis, read and try...
You won't succeed with LMCE without spending some evil amount of money, as it's quite picky with the hardware.

Hope that helps...

Cheers Patrick

[hari]

Read 17 times, and 0 replies, Thanks guys. Is this the way the forum users for linuxmce treat possible users?  Just wanted some advice from those who would know, but not even a response. Thanks

lol :-)

[skeptic]

In short, basically nothing will work like you want.  For satellite you are pretty much limited to s-video capture, or if you are really lucky, firewire (no card needed).  For the short term, you can pick up a PVR-150/250/500, but after Feb 2009 it's only use will be for s-video capture.  For grabbing stuff off cable, the HD Homerun is your best option, depending on what the cable company encrypts, but you already said you don't want it.

Hopefully in the future the HD PVR will be supported, but that's just HD component capture (requires HD component output from a cable/sat box) and is currently $250.

Encryption, conversion to digital cable, and lack of drivers has Linux a bit lacking for options.  Your best bet is to hope for a "good" cable provider in your area and HD Homerun.

BTW, next time wait more than 4 hours before complaining about lack of a response.  You're topic likely had a bunch of people curious, thinking perhaps you provided useful info on a few different options, hence the 17 views.

[compaqpresario]

Guys, don't pay my rude post any attention, i thought was the only on way to get attention  , because i saw many unanswered posts when i was going through posts.  I was just trying to stir things up    I knew i would of gotten a reply, lol.  I meant no disrespect.  anyway, thanks for the replies.  What do you guys think about the HVR-2250?

[tschak909]

We need people to make more device templates made in the web admin for more cards. Until then, I would recommend getting an HDHomeRun, as we have a template for that, and it will work right out of the box.

-Thom

[chipppy]

Good Evening

I noticed that a lot of comments on this thread relate to pay tv.
What would be a good TV card for free-2-air digital tv in Australia.  Allowing for both SD and HD feed.  I am not overly interested in the pay TV because it is way to expensive for the crap that foxtel provides.

Cheers
Chipppy

[indulis]

Hi- the Dvico Fusion 4 dual tuner PCI card is working well now, BUT only once you have updated your Linux OS kernel.  Before then it is flakey with the standard LinuxMCE 7.10.  With the kernel updated it hasnt missed a beat for 3-4 days now, before I was luicky to get a day out of it before having to reboot to recover the tuners.

So, either you can update your kernel, and install the latest DVB drivers, or wait until LMCE 8.04 comes out to use this card.

I have put some scrappy instructions into the "installation issues" section in this forum.  The instructions in the Wiki on rebuilding your kernel are OK if you are Linux experienced.

Basically:
1) Rebuild kernel
2) Download and install latest DVB drivers from linuxtv.org
3) Download and install latest NVIDIA drivers (177.80 is required for kernel 2.6.27 and up)

I also have a pinnacle USB stick dual tuner (2001e) which seems a bit flakey even with the new kernel, but this may be either low signal level and the USB tuner is not v sensitive, or something else.  So am running on the PC dual tuner only at the moment.

By the way, the Jaycar Kworld DVB-100 Vstream cards which say they are HD aren't HD (ie 720 or 1080), I read the specs on the chipset when I usedd them in my previous mythtv system, and wondered why they wouldn't pick up the HD channels.  By the letter fo the law they are HD as they do 576p.  Hah!

[hari]

Guys, don't pay my rude post any attention, i thought was the only on way to get attention  , because i saw many unanswered posts when i was going through posts.  I was just trying to stir things up    I knew i would of gotten a reply, lol. 

great idea!! Let's tell that everybody!!!! When you don't have a response within minutes start flaming to stir things up!!!

I meant no disrespect.

what else?