One for the developers - what live TV setups do you use and recommend?

[e-charge 6]

Morning all

I'm just curious as to what configurations the people who know best, use for live TV.

There's an array of options and brands for TV cards, USB tuners, HD HomeRun and so on as well as plugins etc, and I wondered which you're using and/or which you would recommend as being the most friendly, hassle-free and reliable experience to use.

I'm currently reconsidering my tuner setup so your input on this subject would be welcome. (FYI: I'm in the UK and use FreeView and FreeSat via a Windows 10 PC.)

Thanks in advance.
L

[ebr 14910]

Hi.  We recommend the HD Homerun if that is an option for your sources.

[e-charge 6]

46 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  We recommend the HD Homerun if that is an option for your sources.

Thanks ebr.

L

[emveepee 112]

I wouldn't say there is a definitive answer to this because Emby still doesn't support recording from multiple muxes.  Also for dvb outside the UK (not your case) it doesn't support OTA EPG either.  So until Emby gives a clear roadmap for this development I am not sure the HDHR, is the clearest answer.

Martin.

[e-charge 6]

1 hour ago, emveepee said:

I wouldn't say there is a definitive answer to this because Emby still doesn't support recording from multiple muxes.  Also for dvb outside the UK (not your case) it doesn't support OTA EPG either.  So until Emby gives a clear roadmap for this development I am not sure the HDHR, is the clearest answer.

Martin.

Hi Martin.

Thanks for your input.

Would you mind elaborating on "Emby still doesn't support recording from multiple muxes" please? Does this mean that it cannot record from multiple channels at the same time?
I've come from Windows Media Center and via my dual DVB-T and dual DVB-S tuner card, I was able to record items on other channels whilst watching another channels.

Thanks,

L

[emveepee 112]

Emby can only record one channel per tuner.  Most mainstream PVR backend supports multiple recordings per digital tuner if they are on the same frequency.  If you still want both DVB-T and DVB-S I don't know if a quad HDHR gives you that.

Martin

[e-charge 6]

2 hours ago, emveepee said:

Emby can only record one channel per tuner.  Most mainstream PVR backend supports multiple recordings per digital tuner if they are on the same frequency.  If you still want both DVB-T and DVB-S I don't know if a quad HDHR gives you that.

Martin

Thanks Martin.

That's exactly what I'm after - one recording/feed per tuner is fine. I also appreciate that I will need a separate DVB-S tuner in addition to the HDHR.

L

[Spaceboy 2493]

theres no HDHR device that supports DVBS. Options would be a USB DVBS tuner or a PCIE card

[RobDenny 5]

@Spaceboy can you recommend a USB or PCIE DVBS card? I might get one myself

[Spaceboy 2493]

39 minutes ago, RobDenny said:

@Spaceboy can you recommend a USB or PCIE DVBS card? I might get one myself

personally i exclusively use TBS devices. i currently have 2 PCIE cards in my server, a TBS6984 and a 6909. The first is a quad tuner and the second is an octo tuner and they are both fantastic in terms of what they do. the main issue is emby does not yet support BDA tuner cards and so you would need to use some back end software with them. my personal preference is dvbviewer which then provides a m3u which i combine with an iptv m3u in some software called xteve and then provide an m3u onto emby for recording / live tv management there. other free software can do exactly the same - mediaportal, nextpvr for example. and you can also use any of these softwares as the recording engine themselves and let emby leverage them. but i understand that emby has severely deprecated the ability to do this in the current version.

the m3u method continues to work brilliantly but as indicated there are a couple more steps to configure. also i prefer to pay for epg data separately from emby and combine that with the m3u in xteve so that everything is provided to emby fully configured as i still really do not like emby's channel to epg matching if you have a decent number of channels (100+)

TBS also does USB dvbs tuners https://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs-dvb-s2-tv-turner-usb.html i have a couple but i've never used them as i have been happy with the internal cards, but given how well the cards work i wouldnt hesitate to recommend them still.

it all depends on how complex you want to get. i don't have access to an aerial but i do have a dish so for me hdhr isnt an option. what i have described above is a bit of work to set up but it is set and forget once done.

emby has been promising BDA support for some time now and even had it in a proof of concept version so maybe we will see it in the next year or so. if we get native support for BDA tuners then the complexity drops away completely.

[RobDenny 5]

Massive appreciation for that @Spaceboy, thanks ! 

[e-charge 6]

On 09/06/2022 at 11:01, Spaceboy said:

For some time now and even had it in a proof of concept version so maybe we will see it in the next year or so. if we get native support for BDA tuners then the complexity drops away completely.

Hi Spaceboy

Have you heard anything further re: BDA support? I only ask as I have a Blackgold dual DVB-S tuner which is no longer in use, and I'm pained to get rid of it as it worked so well with MCE. If it becomes the case that it is supported, I could then replace the two Hauppauge DVB-S tuners with this one.

Thanks,
L

[neik 837]

33 minutes ago, e-charge said:

Have you heard anything further re: BDA support?

IIRC, this is part of TVnext, join us here:

 

@Luke, one more asking for something that is within TVnext, how many more do we need?!