2020-07-27, 01:38 AM
All the TV station towers are clumped together in a 5-mile zone about 15 miles in one direction from me. Makes pointing antennas pretty easy. One less popular channel the tuner cards pick up is channel 33 or so. The same TV tower broadcasts an NBC affiliate signal. Even if the two channels are broadcast at different power levels, you'd think the NBC signal would be stronger. But it's channel 14(15?) and the Twinhan cards don't tune it in. These cards + Linux simply don't like the lower channels for some reason.
Removed the one cable splitter. Tried an electric antenna amplifier signal booster I didn't know I had sitting in a box. Even connected a second 6-foot-span antenna to the 7-foot one. The best I could do is get one more channel. 17 instead of 16. Supposed to have about 30.
Pretty weird. Remember, the tuners tune great with v4 and v5 in Windows 7.
Plugged a USB tuner in that was collecting dust. The Twinhan PCI cards had better reception when I tested them in the past. Of course the USB tuner tuned in all the channels. I let NextPVR copy the channels to the PCI tuners. Disabled the USB tuner in settings, and unplugged its antenna. The Twinhan PCI could now tune in the previously missing channels, except one. I can watch the second lowest channel of 14 (15?), but it still can't tune in the lowest channel 12. Today has clear weather, so reception would be even worse on other days.
Even if I can get both PCI tuners to work at the same time, like I'm 99% sure they did yesterday with Linux, they still don't tune lower channels well with Linux. Disappointing.
The PC is just basically used for recording TV, transferring media files on the home network, and for streaming Plex to a Roku.
This whole time, I wasn't sure which OS to root for for the cards to work on. Switching to Linux means an updated OS but with a bit of how to use Linux learning to do, while sticking with Windows 7 means an end-of-life 32-bit product with some probably irrelevant but maybe not irrelevant security issues. Though now I wonder if the PCI tuner cards' Windows 7 32-bit driver might maybe work in Windows 10 32-bit.
Maybe I should worry more about what OS to use than what tuners to use. haha
Thanks for trying.
Removed the one cable splitter. Tried an electric antenna amplifier signal booster I didn't know I had sitting in a box. Even connected a second 6-foot-span antenna to the 7-foot one. The best I could do is get one more channel. 17 instead of 16. Supposed to have about 30.
Pretty weird. Remember, the tuners tune great with v4 and v5 in Windows 7.
Plugged a USB tuner in that was collecting dust. The Twinhan PCI cards had better reception when I tested them in the past. Of course the USB tuner tuned in all the channels. I let NextPVR copy the channels to the PCI tuners. Disabled the USB tuner in settings, and unplugged its antenna. The Twinhan PCI could now tune in the previously missing channels, except one. I can watch the second lowest channel of 14 (15?), but it still can't tune in the lowest channel 12. Today has clear weather, so reception would be even worse on other days.
Even if I can get both PCI tuners to work at the same time, like I'm 99% sure they did yesterday with Linux, they still don't tune lower channels well with Linux. Disappointing.
The PC is just basically used for recording TV, transferring media files on the home network, and for streaming Plex to a Roku.
This whole time, I wasn't sure which OS to root for for the cards to work on. Switching to Linux means an updated OS but with a bit of how to use Linux learning to do, while sticking with Windows 7 means an end-of-life 32-bit product with some probably irrelevant but maybe not irrelevant security issues. Though now I wonder if the PCI tuner cards' Windows 7 32-bit driver might maybe work in Windows 10 32-bit.
Maybe I should worry more about what OS to use than what tuners to use. haha
Thanks for trying.
