PCIe or USB ASTC Tuner?

[eastavin]

Here is a hardware question that I need help with:

Assuming Windows 10 PC, a 2016 issue lower power drain Intel CPU (ex J3710 , Low end I3 or similar). Does anyone have any experience with the comparision of a Hauppauge USB Digital ATSC tuner versus say the Hauppauge Quad tuner while recording just 1 or 2 channels at a time? My interest is in the level of CPU loading and overall efficiency.

something in mind suggests that the Quad tuner being onboard in a pcie expansion slot will result in lower CPU usage versus the USB tuner approach that requires shuttling data into the PC over USB.

[p37307]

I have the Hauppauge Quad tuner and I find it an excellent device. I find my machine is more responsive with it then when it was using the Hauppauge USB tuner. I also like that I can record channels not in the same Transport Stream.

For example, with the USB tuner I had, I could record, for example, channel 5.1,5.2,5.3 all at the same time but not channel 5.1 and 9.1. With the quad tuner I can record up to for different channel streams at the same time. 5.1, 9.1, 12.1 etc. and all their sub channels at the same time. 5.1,5.2,9.1,9.2,12.1,12.3. Of course the more you record at the same time the greater resources are used.

I think the PCIe is much better for me in performance with more recording, at the same time, options.

My machine is an AMD II x2 B26 processor, 3.21GHz with 6 GB ram, running Windows 10 Pro.

Also, I transcode/convert with MCEBuddy 2 and run SERVIIO DLNA Media Server on a separate machine via local network and connect to the main NPVR server on that machine as a client.

[Graham]

something in mind suggests that the Quad tuner being onboard in a pcie expansion slot will result in lower CPU usage versus the USB tuner approach that requires shuttling data into the PC over USB.

For a digital tuner, NextPVR is, simply stated, "copying" the broadcast stream. For example, to create a recording NextPVR "copies" (part of) the broadcast stream from the tuner to the hard drive to create the recording file. This process places very little load on the processor. I have had NextPVR record twenty channels simultaneously without affecting the playback of a recording on the same machine.

It is not likely that there is a significant generic difference between PCIe and USB tuners ... any difference is likely to be more or less undetectable.

You can test all this with your current tuners by recording as many simultaneous shows as your current tuners allow and using Task Manager to monitor CPU usage.

[p37307]

I have had NextPVR record twenty channels simultaneously without affecting the playback of a recording on the same machine.

I probably didn't use my example correct. With my single USB Tuner, I could only record channels of one set group at a time. Like any sub channel of 5. With a quad, I can record 4 channels and their subsets at the same time.

I've only recorded about 7 at a time but I'm OTA and interest is weak. Many series I have completed already and steadily recording more. With QAM on a cable package where the variety is larger I can see doing that.