[mythtv-users] Tuner opinions?

[Dan Armbrust]

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Sunday 21 February 2010 02:46:54 pm Dan Armbrust wrote:
>> I'm looking to build a MythTV box... and I'm looking at tuner
>> choices... Sigh.  There are _way_ to many options out there.
>>
>> I need to be able to record ATSC from my antenna.
>> I need to be able to record NTSC from my cable connection (I have no
>> cable box, just analog cable - this is NTSC, right?)
>
> Assuming you are in the USA, yes.
>

Yep.  USA.

>>
>> One of my desires in the ATSC tuner is the best tuner possible.  My
>> current (in TV) tuner isn't the greatest at picking up my channels
>> (urban environment)
>
> The question is *why* is your current TV "not the greatest" at picking up OTA?
> You could have multi-path problems, or other interfering signals that the
> tuner is not designed to cope with. In many, if not most, cases improving your
> antenna system will be a better approach than looking for a "better" tuner.
>
> A tuner that seems "better" in one case might not seem so in another, with
> different reception conditions, there is no one "best" tuner for everyone in
> all cases.

I'm sure I have multi-path issues, but it's also one of the first TV's
that had an integrated tuner... early generation.  I recently had the
chance to use a new DVD/VCR with a digital tuner, and it worked much
better than my TV tuner.  So I'm blaming the tuner.

>> HD-5500 - only one connection, though....
>
> Requires you to use software encoding for analog capture, this means a lot of
> CPU, and limited codecs available (RTjpeg and mpeg4). Can't do analog and
> digital at the same time.

Well, I will have a lot of horsepower... but no need to be wasteful.

>
>> wintv-hvr-1600 - two connections - nice - and it appears that the
>> linux drivers support digital and analog?
>
> Maybe, but I'm not sure if they can both at the same time, or might require a
> reboot to change modes. I'm not familiar with the 1600 though.

Hmm.... I'll need to do a lot more research on that then - I know it
only has one tuner, so it would only do one at a time, but a reboot to
change modes would suck.

What I gather about the HDHR is that they pick up a DHCP address,
which MythTV finds... and from then on, MythTV can control everything
(change channel, channel scan, start/stop record) over the network
connection?

Thanks for the info.

Dan