Opinions - Where are the DVB-T2 PC tuners?

[baius]

I have checked my posts in this thread to see if I've said this already - don't think I have; (but sorry if so).

BlackGold have PCIe cards numbered 3595 and 3620:

• 3595 does dual DVB-T and dual DVB-S2.
• 3620 does dual DVB-T2.

Am I the only one that thinks it'd be sensible to have dual S2 and dual T2 in/on one card?

I only have one PCIe slot on my ITX mobo, and don't want to have to resort to USB tuners. (Want everything inside the box where possible.)

DVB-T should fall into dis-use now it's been superseded.

In short, neither the 3595 nor the 3620 does it for me, but there needs to be an amalgamation of the two cards for BlackGold to get my money.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Hi, i have installed mu new hd tuner last weekend and all was well. no issues so far. can pause record and play live HD content. i tried it with f1 on sunday and recorded and all went well. even paused it for a while during the race as well.

works well so far, great piece of kit it is.

[Steve]

Drumroll...

PCTV nanoStick T2 290e now has experimental Linux support. As we speak I'm watching BBC One HD in MythTV.

Thanks go out to Devin Heitmuller, Andrew de Quincey and Robert Schlabbach for input, and in particular Antti Palosaari who put a driver for the Sony demodulator together.

If we're lucky then support might make its way into the 2.6.40 kernel.

[chrisw]

Many thanks, Steve.

If you've not already found it there have been some good results reported on the MythTV users mailing list: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...v/users/479572

I've now ordered a PCTV 290e, I'll let you know how I get on (so far the media_build script has compiled the modules successfully on my Mythbuntu 10.4/kernel 2.6.32 backend...) but I suspect I will need to get a new aerial installed on the roof before the HD will work.

[Steve]

Thanks ChrisW.

Where do you live? Where I am the HD mux is one of the strongest, so I knew I wouldn't need any antenna improvements because I could already get SD muxes of the same power.

[chrisw]

South Manchester, Winter Hill & probably a strong HD mux
...but its complicated as currently the TV is running off an ancient roof aerial while the MythTV box sits in a different room and runs off a cheap aerial pointed thru a window (which gets a dodgy signal on the SD muxes) and cat5 cables trails thru the house to connect the two. Soon to be changed to a new log periodic aerial on the roof with outlets in both rooms and hidden network cabling between.

[chrisw]

Gave the PCTV290e a quick try with MythTV v0.24.1 (and the dodgy aerial!) - all appeared (only limited testing) to work well including HD & SD recording & live TV. MythTV even picked up the EPG info for the HD channels automatically. Playback was via a separate frontend running on an Acer Revo.

Only one problem so far - I've only managed to get one tuner working:
choosing card type DVB, the first cxd2820r tuner showed as a DVB-T device but the second cxd2820r tuner showed as a DVB-C device and was not usable. This might be me doing something stupid.

[Steve]

It's only a single-tuner device

However, the demod is capable of DVB-T/T2 and DVB-C demodulation, hence the presence of two frontends - you can only use one at once, however. And the DVB-C isn't much use in this country anyway.

Still, glad it's working. I'm having trouble with audio on some channels. Looks like libavcodec from ffmpeg has some trouble with it, and mythtv doesn't like it when the broadcaster switches audio format mid-stream (I'm looking at you, channel 4!)

[chrisw]

It's only a single-tuner device

I knew there had to be a reason

[baius]

So we have:

• PCTV 290e USB - with two sets of Linux drivers in development
• Blackgold BGT3600 PCI-E - Linux drivers "late Q1 2011"
• Possible dual DVB-T2 PCI-E card with Linux driver from "unknown"

Further to chrisw's post, I've just learned that BlackGold will very shortly be releasing their BGT3600.

Release date: 18/07/2011 - but experience informs me that this can mean anything at BlackGold.

Spec's are mighty tantalising:

Hardware receiver support – world standard analogue terrestrial (PAL, NTSC, CECAM), dual digital terrestrial including both DVB-T and DVB-T2, dual digital satellite DVB-S and DVB-S2, digital cable DVB-C.

Source: http://shop.blackgold.tv/BGT3600

[Steve]

Yeah, looks interesting.

Shame nobody has the means/is willing to implement a Linux driver for the controller chip on it - I image the rest of the chips are probably supported now.

[leatherbag9]

PCTV nanoStick T2 is the world's first DVB-T2 receiver and turns your PC and laptop into an HDTV PVR. The included TVCenter application lets you time shift and record TV shows and even stream Live-TV and TV recordings to your iPhone, iPad or other PCs and Macs.

[Steve]

That's true. Well done.

However, you are trying to spam us. So f'cough.

[Steve]

Well, one is DVB-T/T2 and on is DVB-S/S2 - so my answer is... yes!

edit: Sorry! Google auto-suggested the 6980 and I didn't notice. Let me see what I can learn about this new device!

[baius]

However, you are trying to spam us. So f'cough.

Didn't really like that post, eh, Steve?

edit: Sorry! Google auto-suggested the 6980 and I didn't notice. Let me see what I can learn about this new device!

Whch device, the 6980 or Google (Chrome?)? If the latter, don't worry: it learns from its users - which is making it more and more stupid (read: simple) all the time. Alternative: FireFox.

(Disclaimer: I don't hate Chrome as much as I infer, but it's not power-user friendly imho.)