How many dvb-t tuners can i run (UK)

[sorethumbs]

We have a rather dodgy freeview signal where we are, it seems the aerials in our street either point one way or the other and our aerial looks rather rusty and old. Thinking of getting an aerial chap in to replace it and put in a point in daughters bedroom as she's getting old enough to have her own tv and we have a tv with freeview built in that she can have, so that seems easiest option.

Anyway i waffle

Already got an octo lnb dish with 6 out of the 8 satellite feeds running around the house - i'm going to ask the aerial man if he can run a cable from the 2 remaining sockets up to the pc in the loft (i have a dvb-s dual tuner) and also put in a freeview socket.

How many DVB-T tuners can be run off a single aerial cable?
Whats the limit for the amount of tuners in windows 7 media center?

I've seen products like the Pinnacle 7010ix which has 2 connectors for dvb-t but (i think) all i have to do is to plug the tv aerial into one of the connectors on the card and it acts as 2 tuners (ie record something, watch something else)
So if 1 cable can feed a dual dvb-t tuner can it be split to run into another tuner - does anyone have multiple dvb-t set up in their pc?
I tend to know whats what with satellite but bit unclear about whats possible with dvb-t/freeview

[asm495]

In theory there is no limit on the number of DVB-T tuners that can be run off a single aerial cable. However, if you keep splitting it then you may need a booster. The aerial guys should be able to help and advise on that.

Media Center itself by default limits you to 4 of any one particular type but you can combine more than one. So you could have 4x DVB-T and 4x DVB-S in one PC. However there is a piece of software called TunerSalad which will raise this limit to 12. So in theory you could have up to 12x DVB-T and 12x DVB-S in one box.

I used to have a Pinnacle 7010ix and for me to get bother tuners to work I needed to connect an aerial feed to both connectors. In fact I used to have two of these cards and I took one aerial feed, split it with a booster and had 4 individual feeds going into two sets of two inputs on the 7010ix.

Personally I now just use 4 DVB-S2 tuners as there is more channel choice and quality seems to be a bit better.

[holidayboy]

By default, 7MC will allow 4 tuners per type - dvb-s, dvb-t, etc....

You can use TunerSalad to enable more tuners to be used though. It will give you 12 of each type

http://www.mychannellogos.com/Pages/TunserSalad.aspx

If you're using DVBLink software then there is an 8 tuner version.

You can buy a quad DVB-T(2) tuner card that uses a single aerial connection.

As far as splitting an aerial drop to feed multiple tuners, you can look at using a cheap splitter but you may need to use an amplifier if you see signal issues. You can end up amplifying noise / end up with a signal that is too strong if you're not careful though!

The best thing might be to ask the aerial guy when he comes as he will have proper equipment to measure levels etc and can fit a masthead amp if you need one.

[holidayboy]

Missed asm495's post whilst tapatalking!

[sorethumbs]

Thanks chaps so a 'quad' tuner would only need 1 aerial feed and i could watch/record 4 different channels - the Pinnacle 7010ix that i'm looking at has a dual dvb-t that might need 2 aerial inputs (though i read here http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-ent ... -help.html i may only need to plug 1 aerial in?)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hauppauge-WinTV ... B000I1RHWA - is that able to record one and watch another?? - has only 1 connector, i just wonder why some cards have 2 and this only 1

8 tuners would be plenty for me - i'll only have 2 sat feeds and whatever i can get from the aerial depending on the hardware. I know the 7010ix is old but would seem to accommodate my modest needs in one piece of kit

[holidayboy]

The only problem with the 7010ix is that it's dvb-t only. Newer dvb-t2 cards support Freeview HD.

Blackgold make one and I think TBS do - although that one may have two aerial connectors, I can't remember.

My 7010ix gave me two tuners with a single feed ok.

[asm495]

BlackGold quad DVB-T/T2: http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159. ... ts/BGT3650 (note the price is without delivery and VAT)

TBS quad DVB-T/T2: http://www.buydvb.net/tbs6284-pcie-dvbt ... d_p57.html

The BlackGold needs only one aerial feed (it still splits it but does so itself on the card) and I suspect the TBS needs more than one. The only reason for cards needing more than one connection is if they don't split the signal themselves on the card.

What I would say is that I started off by mixing DVB-S2 and DVB-T2. However, the pain and effort of combining channels together from the different sources was too much. I just wanted something simple and just having DVB-S2 worked the best for me. I suspect you may find it is the same for you. Therefore if at all possible I would either use 4 DVB-T2 or 4 DVB-S2 but not both. Up to you though!

[sorethumbs]

Good stuff chaps.
Not too bothered about the HD to be honest and can't really go overboard (31st July = redundancy) - i was just thinking how i could utilise dvb-t when i get this aerial chap in to do aerial. I did have a black gold 3540 (i think it was) a while back but our aerial wasn't up to it so i sold it on - coming to think of it now i seem to remember that it was dual dvb-t from 1 feed but it kept breaking up due to the poor signal.
Anyway i shall try and get a bargain somewhere, i also need to try and get hold of one of those linksys extenders

[CyberSimian]

so a 'quad' tuner would only need 1 aerial feed and i could watch/record 4 different channels

I have two TBS 6284 quad-tuner cards in my Media Center PC, for a total of 8 DVB-T2 tuners.

Each 6284 card contains two dual-tuner boxes, and each tuner box has one co-axial input, and one co-axial output. Photographs of the card show 4 sockets, but only two of those are input sockets. TBS provide a short (circa 4 inch) patch cable to connect the co-axial output of one tuner box to the co-axial input of the other tuner box, so that they are daisy-chained together. However, I never tried that configuration, as I have my doubts that the second tuner box would receive the same strength signal as the first tuner box (but I might be wrong).

In my previous setup I used multiple Pinnacle dual-tuner DVB-T cards that did not have feed-through for the co-axial signal, so I already had a one-input/four-output combined amplifier/splitter for the aerial signal, and so I use that to feed the four co-axial input sockets on the two quad-tuner cards. The amplifier/splitter is adjacent to the PC.

But in principle you could use a single aerial feed for a TBS quad-tuner card.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[milli260876]

My aerial was through a mast head amp into an 8 way splitter. But, you need power for the mast head amp. Since switch over i have taken the mast head amp out... If switch over has happened in your area get a log periodic 40 element aerial and you should be set... You could buy a digital tv meter and do it yourself save some £££, its pretty easy...

[milli260876]

Oh and I would try stick with the same tuner type, I have had some nightmares mixing and matching !!

[sorethumbs]

I would do it myself but i got dizzy putting an extra feed into the satellite dish halfway up the house - let alone getting on the roof

[tommo]

so a 'quad' tuner would only need 1 aerial feed and i could watch/record 4 different channels

I have two TBS 6284 quad-tuner cards in my Media Center PC, for a total of 8 DVB-T2 tuners.

How do you find that card? last time i checked the quad tuner blackgold had loads of issues and I think this one did as well.

Cheers

[sorethumbs]

Whats the deal with DVB-T in as much as how much you can record at one time. Does 1 tuner mean strictly watch or record 1 channel and thats it - dual tuner watch 1 channel/record another - quad tuner watch 1/record another 3 etc etc. Or can you do more

[mark1234]

That's how Media Centre treats DVB-T, yes. It would be possible to record every channel broadcast in a mux using one tuner, which could be 8 channels. But Media Centre doesn't work like this.

[CyberSimian]

I have two TBS 6284 quad-tuner cards in my Media Center PC, for a total of 8 DVB-T2 tuners.

How do you find that card? last time i checked the quad tuner blackgold had loads of issues and I think this one did as well.

I currently use Vista (so no DVB-T2 support), but I will soon be migrating to Windows 7.

On Vista there is a really weird problem that occurs only in a specific set of circumstances, which I have been able to pin-point exactly. Unfortunately there is still a random element, namely the order in which Media Center allocates the tuners for recording. Consequently, the test case that I have devised still does not guarantee that the problem will occur (which is why I have not yet raised it on the TBS forum). I never had this problem with my previous setup that used multiple Pinnacle DVB-T cards, so I do not think that it is a problem with my system (but it might be).

I have a test version of Windows 7 in another partition on my Media Center PC, and I tried my test case on that. Using the "Edit Sources" panel, it ought to be possible to eliminate the random element, and guarantee that the problem occurs. But in fact the problem did not occur at all. Either Windows 7 does not suffer from this weird problem, or I did not hit the correct combination of circumstances to cause the problem to occur.

The only way to tell whether this problem is absent from Windows 7 is to use MC7 as my main recording/viewing system for several weeks. If the problem has not occurred during that time, then the problem is specific to Vista.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[sorethumbs]

What is the problem not knowing which tuner will do the recording. Do you have that 6284 quad tuner? If you have 4 tuners all dvb-t i can't see why its necessary to know the priority in which they would record.

I expect yourself or someone will tell me there is a reason for it

When i messed with the Black Gold dvb-s/dvb-t card i had i could see to a point why you might need to prioritise them. There were a lot more satellite than freeview channels so i tried to set my card to record any channels that were merged (ie same channels received in dvb-s and dvb-t) to use the dvb-t tuner allowing me to still be able to view the satellite ones if needed.

[CyberSimian]

What is the problem not knowing which tuner will do the recording. Do you have that 6284 quad tuner? If you have 4 tuners all dvb-t i can't see why its necessary to know the priority in which they would record.

Yes, I have two TBS 6284 quad-tuner cards.

In normal use, you do not have to worry about which tuner will be used for any particular recording. But if you have identified a problem with a hardware or software product, it helps the service personnel greatly if you can provide them with a test case that reproduces the problem on demand; that gives them a fighting chance of being able to identify the problem and then fix it. If I were to say to TBS, "It sometimes does xxx which is not correct behaviour", I suspect that they would not bother to waste any time trying to identify the problem. Basically, the problem that I have found is this:

If tuner B starts while tuner A is already recording, all is well.

If tuner A starts while tuner B is already recording, tuner A corrupts the output of tuner B for 2-3 seconds.

So to reproduce the problem on demand, it is necessary to be able to force the tuners to start in a particular order. I should add that there are other necessary conditions that mean that I am more likely to notice this problem than other people (because I use hibernation, whereas most people use sleep; with sleep, you would only ever notice this problem after a fresh boot, and only then if you had overlapping recordings and the tuners were started in the order that generates the error).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[sorethumbs]

Right now another question along the same lines....

The TBS6280 is a dual tuner DVB-T2 that requires just 1 single feed to operate its 'dual tuners' - the 'out' socket means a loop cable can feed another separate tuner (i guess)

Is there anything to stop that 'out' being used to plug a cable straight into the aerial socket of the tv to use its built in freeview?? So turn it into a dual tuner dvb-t2 for media center AND be able to use the TV's own tuner

[milli260876]

my old nebula card used to have pass-through, so i'd say it will work. depends on your signal strength tho I guess...
if you email tbs tech support they will tell you they are very helpful...