[mythtv-users] Hardware for Over the Air Digital

[Allen Edwards]

I have both internal cards and a HDHR.  The HDHR has a much better
tuner and it is very good.  Maybe there are better ones out there but
the HDHR Rx is the best I have seen.

The HDHR also runs very cool and I am guessing would pay for itself in
power savings although I have not done the measurements.  I use its IR
Rx for my remote.

In terms of having to use a splitter, it is true that your signal will
be down 3dB with a splitter but if you are close to the station or
have a good antenna without a long feed cable, it should be OK.  If
you put in a pre-amp, it becomes a non issue.  I would go with a good
antenna first as there are other issues you can get with digital and
rabbit ears even if you are close to the Tx.  If you get a strong
reflected signal off a building behind you, for example, your Rx might
have problems.

It also took me a week to get the internal Air2PC cards to work with
the AMI MB but as you have Intel, I think that would be a non issue as
the Intel chip sets are better. In fact, the ASUS tech suggested at
one point that the solution to the board not working was to get an
Intel board.  In the end, it turned out to be solved by some magic way
the drivers are loaded.

Anyway,  having both internal cards and the HDHR, my vote is for the
HDHR.  I have 4 tuners active and very occasionally use them all.

Allen