HTPC - pci card recommendations for Saorview/FreeSat

I use two twin tuner TBS cards ..... DTT & SAT ..... with tvheadend backend and Openelec/Kodi as the user interface.

I had 6280 and 6981 ...... now have newer cards (previous HTPC passed on) 6281 & 6982.

Same functionality, just newer versions.

Original set up was a full HTPC box under the main TV feeding that TV from HDMI, with other client devices on bedroom & kitchen TVs etc.
All of the devices, including the HTPC running Openelec/Kodi.
Client devices included R-Pi and NUC.
Also all PCs, tablets etc in the house could use the system.
VLC with HTSP plugin is an easy-to-use player on a device without Kodi installed.

The change I have made now is to run the cards in a low powered (P4) server/backend box .... again with Openelec. This has 8MB graphics on board so is good for set up etc. Actually it will also display Live SD TV but breaks up on HD Live TV.

All TVs now get a client device .... new R-Pi 2 ordered for one TV so will see how that goes.

The main reason for the change is that no matter what I did about the HTPC, it still needed some cooling and it could be heard (although low).
The two dual cards do generate heat and need an airflow over them. The HTPC case did not provide it without too much noise.
Now the 'server' box can be put out of the way, have as much (and more) cooling as it needs without noise interference.

I, foolishly IMO, spent heavily on the HTPC whereas I could easily have set up separate devices for about half the price, using a discarded P4 for the backend.

Of course if you want to run Windows on the thing then your hardware requirements are likely to jump somewhat ..... no idea about that as I do not use MS software.

Hope that explains the previous and present set ups.
I like that all recordings are saved on the one device and can be viewed from any device connected to it.

The TVheadend set up takes some time .... I am still getting used to it, TBH.

The only problem I have had is with my router ..... it gets itself in a knot at times and has to be restarted.

I paid just €121.80 and €115.80 for the cards from Dabs.
They are more likely available elsewhere for much less.

Yes I have EPG for both Saorview and for Sat channels ..... up to 14 days .... but I have never checked how well it does the 14 days ahead EPG.

EDIT:

Just checked. Kodi allows selection of 14 days EPG but when I checked the channel EPGs were only populated for 7 days.

I have no idea if they will go to 14 days when they update next or not ..... but 7 days is definitely available for all channels I have set.

captain_boycott wrote: »

thanks for the info Johnboy1951. Taking encouragement from your setup, I procured a BGT3602 card (dual dvb-S2 and dual dvb-t2 tuners on one) that happened to be on adverts.

After a weekend of messing about, including almost giving up altogether halfway thru Satuday, I finally have a working setup! Tried WMP, Argus, and NextPVR before finally settling on Mediaportal. Have all the Saorview and Freeset channels i want nicely arranged into groups, EPG works perfectly for both, and have scheduled recurring recordings. All running in upstairs office, and then the front end is just a NUC connected to the TV running Kodi.

Now just need to let it run for a week or two to test reliability and the all important spouse acceptance factor! If that's successful, then i can finally get back to a single remote control in the front room and get rid of all those STBs and cables, plus not worry about series links and missed recording anymore! here's hoping!

Hope it all works well for you

surpy wrote: »

captain_boycott / johnboy1951 i'm thinking of going down the same route at the moment. except using xbmc as a front end

xbmc is now called Kodi

have a pc in the attic that could easily act as a tv server so am considering putting a blackgold in there

Good card I reckon, but I have no personal experience using one.

I would point out that if you intend to put Openelec on the backend then get TBS cards and not Blackgold. There are images available which support TBS cards, but none to support Blackgold cards that I am aware of.
Of course you could build your own image.

have xbmc (openelec) running on an arctic mc001 in the front room and am hoping to ditch UPC altogether and just get eircom broadband in with saorview/freesat

i was wondering could you share your experience with this type of setup (epg reliability & setup, transponder rescans, series linking, channel changes, black screens, reboots, etc)

Every once in a while, when I become aware of channels changing transponder, I log into the backend PC using a browser and have a look for channels listed which I have not 'mapped' in Tvheadend. A couple of mouse clicks and all is well.

No problems with EPG
Transponders are automatically scanned in the background so new channels get listed as well as those moving transponder ... they are reasonably obvious because they are not 'mapped' to the channel list.
No problem with channel changes .... would depend on the client device I reckon, and the Pi will be a bit slower than something more powerful, but hardly noticeable.

Black screens .... never seen one

Reboots: Pi2 once in 12 days; router once in 12 days; Backend P4 never in 12 days.

in the past i used dvblink as a server for saorview/freesat and windows media center as the tv front end but had to give it up as the EPG was regualrly resetting itself and transponder rescans meant a manual edit of channel list, epg data etc

I have no experience of using Windows, so cannot comment.

there was also no way to figure out whcih channel was moved without flicking through and noting which ones were gone black!

im hoping to get to a more appliance like state now if i can!

All I can really ad to my previous post is that the backend I am using now (P4 dual core 3Ghz) is coping admirably.
It is showing some 12 days up time ..... since I last was messing with it
So it has not been off nor rebooted in that time.
It has regularly been serving two TVs with HD video/LiveTV during that period.

I have a R-Pi2 at one of the TVs as client device and that has 'locked up' once I believe, during that time. Also the router I am using for the media LAN had to be rebooted once.

So it seems the P4 is more stable than the router or the Pi

TVheadend takes care of all the tuner and EPG stuff, so I never had to go near it after the initial set up except to map a channel change.

The other night I was watching a TV channel on my PC while SWMBO was watching a different channel on a TV.
I hit 'record' on Kodi on the PC and then shut down the PC.
I went to watch the TV with SWMBO and set another channel to record while watching there.

Both client systems were shut down before the two recordings were ended ..... but as they were being recorded 'by' and 'on' the backend that was not a concern.

There were no problems with the P4 recording two channels and streaming a third channel to the R-Pi2.
The following day both the recorded programmes were available for me to watch on the PC or the TV, as the recordings were placed on the backend storage drive.

I have no experience with series recordings .... never had a need for such so never investigated.

Again TVheadend handles that and also Timeshift if enabled.
It also supports Conditional Access (CA) cards for 'softcam descrambling'.


Note: there is probably duplication in the above as I went back and added stuff ... so apologies fro that

A general IMO comment:
Because a lot of the setups for HTPC seem to have a preference for Linux these days, it is a good idea to ensure that hardware purchased has Linux drivers available and easily used ..... even if the present intention is to use Windows and not Linux.
One never knows ..... and it is good to have options.

captain_boycott wrote: »

Johnboy1951 what model router are you using?

Cisco E1000 V2 with DDWRT installed.

I had changed it to DDWRT because of the multicasting features which I wanted to play with some time ago.