[VTCop]

Hi! I have used WMC for a long, and now I'm starting to use XBMC. TV scheduled recordings are important for me.

Now I'm testing under windows, because my TV card doesn't have support under linux, but I want to buy a new one and move to linux.

My question is: What must I bear in mind to buy a new TV card? One thing is that would linux-comtabile, but, What about this that I have read?

• Channel change speed
  
• Hardware MPEG decoder, Wha is this for? what is the advantage?
  
• Number of tuners
  
• What about DVB-T and DVB-T2? My actual card is DVB-T and I can see HD TV channels with it.
  
• What about image quality? Is tv card dependent?
  

Lot of thanks

[bibi]

Hi,

There are a lot af tv card which work with linux, go see at http://linuxtv.org/.
For example i have an avermedia super 007 which works great, excpet for the long time of initialisation (25 sec from boot).

[teeedubb]

Welcome to the forums.

I highly recommend the sony playtv. Its dvb-t, dual tuner and works out of the box in linux, flawlessly for me. I think channel change speed depends on the software used. As for a hardware encoder, these are from the analog days, where tv signals had to be encoded to digital data, not necessary anymore, unless you want analog tv. I wouldnt think image quality would differ as the tuner is just capturing a digital signal and passes it onto the player.

[VTCop]

For example i have an avermedia super 007 which works great, excpet for the long time of initialisation (25 sec from boot).

Thinks like that is what I want to know before buy a new tv card. Thanks very much, Avermedia Super 007 discarted.
I'm very interested in zapping speed.

I highly recommend the sony playtv. Its dvb-t, dual tuner and works out of the box in linux, flawlessly for me.

I have read lot of good reviews about this Sony. One point more. Thanks.

I think channel change speed depends on the software used.

This is my principal research now. I have read that different softwares have different zapping speed, but I want to know if tv tuner on card also influences.
In my actual configuration, xbmc+MediaportalServer, tv zapping is about 7 secs, impermissible.
I will try with other tv backends, but I want know how important is the tv card here.

As for a hardware encoder, these are from the analog days, where tv signals had to be encoded to digital data, not necessary anymore, unless you want analog tv.

Thank you very much for clarifyng.

I wouldnt think image quality would differ as the tuner is just capturing a digital signal and passes it onto the player.

I was afraid it. Ok, then picture quality is only playback-codec dependent (MPEG2, MPEG4...)

[teeedubb]

I just tested a myth 0.26 backend with a xbmc frontend over wifi and i was getting about 6-9 seconds to change. Have a look at tvheadend, I remember that backend having quick channel changes.

[VTCop]

I just tested a myth 0.26 backend with a xbmc frontend over wifi and i was getting about 6-9 seconds to change. Have a look at tvheadend, I remember that backend having quick channel changes.

I can't test tvheadend because I'm on Windows 7.

When I will move to linux I will use tvheadend, but before I must buy a good TV card with the fastest tuner.

I will use the backend and frontend in the same computer.

[ant_thomas]

I've used a number of TBS DVB-S2 cards and can't fault them.

[Prof Yaffle]

The downside of TBS seems to be driver support - you need to compile the kernel modules and install them, and then keep doing this for each new kernel update or driver update. You can use dkms (which I never got working), and drivers are in the yaVDR PPA, but it's a nuisance all in all.

That said, my QBox does me proud - but there may be other DVB-S2 units that are better supported out of the box.

[FernetMenta]

I have tried 2 Tevii DVB-S2 cards in the past. Both did not work properly. Tevii: never again. There are not that many options, so i stick with TBS, too.

[raptorjr]

I kind of like these cards: http://www.digitaldevices.de/english/DD-...enten.html Haven't bought one yet, but probably will soon, because I need more tuners for my system. And it seems to have good support for Linux.

[charlie0440]

I have tried 2 Tevii DVB-S2 cards in the past. Both did not work properly. Tevii: never again. There are not that many options, so i stick with TBS, too.

+1 my tevii sucked.

Ended up replacing it with a PCIe L4M-Twin S2 ver 6.2 from here http://www.l4m-shop.de/

[ant_thomas]

The downside of TBS seems to be driver support - you need to compile the kernel modules and install them, and then keep doing this for each new kernel update or driver update. You can use dkms (which I never got working), and drivers are in the yaVDR PPA, but it's a nuisance all in all.

That said, my QBox does me proud - but there may be other DVB-S2 units that are better supported out of the box.

Yeah I agree, having to recompile when there's a kernel update is a bit annoying and not very user friendly.

I've got used to doing it but I assume it might be a leap for some people who haven't touched linux other than to use XBMC (which is how I used to be).

[VTCop]

I have tried 2 Tevii DVB-S2 cards in the past. Both did not work properly. Tevii: never again. There are not that many options, so i stick with TBS, too.

Thank you, I will discard Tevii

[VTCop]

Ended up replacing it with a PCIe L4M-Twin S2 ver 6.2 from here http://www.l4m-shop.de/

What about these cards? Have you tested? Some problem?

---

I see that you use DVB-S2, but what about DVB-T? For now I'm more interested in terrestrial

[thatguy7669]

if you want to get a dvb-t card, i'd suggest finding the ones that interest you most via google/bing (depending on wether tech. specs or price are the bigger factor for you) and then checking for support of the card on the coresponding forum for your desired distro (ubuntu/fedora/gentoo/arch/....). there more likely than not is a geek out there that has gotten whichever card you eventually wind up choosing to work with linux (not because he/she had to, but because he/she could).
once you know you have a supported card give it a quick test in linux with a programme like kaffeine or me-tv. if it works there without any problems switch to vdr/tvheadend + xbmc. both backends have channel switch times of about 3-5 seconds from my experience with them. cards from technisat usually have support out of the box (hd cards might also require you to compile/recompile the kernel drivers, but there is good support for that stuff on the linux based forums).