atsc tuners

[johnsonx42]

There isn't too much in the wiki about ATSC tuners for GBPVR (and it looks a little out of date as well). Is there a better list of supported ATSC tuners that 'just work' with the current release?

Also, does anyone here have a recommendation for an ATSC tuner? I'll be wanting 2 tuners, but I have no special preference that they are or aren't on 1 card (well, 2 on 1 card would be great if there were no other trade-offs, but there almost always are). I was sort-of against USB tuners, thinking they somehow aren't as good as PCI or PCIe tuners, but I haven't seen anyone actually say so.

Thanks for any input,

Dave

[sub]

Most ATSC devices with BDA drivers should work fine, but I'd probably recommend sticking to Hauppauge devices since these are common and well supported. If you have some more obscure brand you may find you're the only person with a specific problem and no one is interested in fixing it.

The Hauppauge HVR2200 or HVR1800 or HVR1600 are probably decent choices.

[ilovejedd]

If you just want ATSC and no analog, there's the networked HDHomeRun. One advantage to it is you can place it closer to the antenna and thus have shorter RG6 runs minimizing signal loss. I have mine connected to an indoor antenna (opposite side of the apartment from the "HTPC") via a 6' RG6 run. I've got a 25' cat5e cable from the HDHomeRun to a gigabit switch.

I've seen the HDHomeRun on both Amazon and Newegg on sale for $130. It's back to regular street price right now ($170) so you might want to wait for another sale.

Oh, and I do believe it's HVR-2250 for the US. I think the HVR-2200 is DVB-T or something.

[johnsonx42]

Thanks for the info. It occurred to me after posting my question that I could look through the bda.ini file for supported ATSC tuners. I had been giving the Hauppauge HVR1250 a look since it's cheap and PCIe (gotta find some use for them little slots!), but I wasn't sure it was supported; now I see it is in the bda.ini file.

I had pondered the HDHomeRun, but thought it was kind of pricey. But if it can be had for $130, that's a little more reasonable.

[sub]

The only downside with the HVR1250 is that it cant be used for analog with GB-PVR due to the lack of hardware MPEG2 encoder. Other than that it should be fine.

[johnsonx42]

I just discovered I can get a true dual-tuner Hauppauge HVR-2250 for $111 from my distributor (they're supposed to get some in on the 22nd). That would be perfect... except it's not in the bda.ini.

Sub, do you know the lines to add to the bda.ini for the 2250? Or will I need to get it sorted myself with graphedit?

[sub]

There is another post somewhere here on the forums with the bda.ini entry for the HVR2250.

[Satori]

I have the 1250 and it works very well. I didn't care that it doesn't support analog given analog OTA is ending.

[sub]

Yep, should be fine for ATSC/QAM.

[johnsonx42]

Yep, found the bda.ini entries for the HVR-2250. Here they are for anyone who ends up in this thread looking for them:

Code:

[Hauppauge HVR-2250]
TUNING_TYPE=ATSC
FILTER_TUNER=Hauppauge WinTV-7164 BDA ATSC/QAM Tuner
FILTER_CAPTURE=Hauppauge WinTV-7164 BDA Digital Capture
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport

[Hauppauge HVR-2250 (QAM)]
TUNING_TYPE=ATSC
TUNING_SPECIAL=2
FILTER_TUNER=Hauppauge WinTV-7164 BDA ATSC/QAM Tuner
FILTER_CAPTURE=Hauppauge WinTV-7164 BDA Digital Capture
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport

Among other things, I rather like that the HVR-2250 has a single antenna input - no need for an external splitter.