renura Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Hi Guys, As most of you know, PC based Digital Terrestrial TV solutions have been available for about 4 years in Australia now. During this time we have gone from the humble single tuner digital only cards to the multi-tuners, sophisticated DVB devices of today, these include such solutions as: Single digital tuner PCI Single digital tuner USB Single Hybrid (Digital + Analogue Tuner) PCI Single Hybrid (Digital + Analogue Tuner) USB Dual digital tuner PCI (sort of) Dual digital tuner USB Dual Digital Tuner PCI-Express Dual Hybrid Tuner PCI-Express QuattroS (2xDVB-S + 2x Hybrid tuners) PCI-Express I think, from the hardware features point of view, we have just about covered what most people want. Notable absence from the above is a single tuner PCI-Express card, which will probably be out soon We have (of course) our own plans for more devices to be released in the next 12 months, but are largely improvements on existing solutions, rather than new solutions. What I am wondering now is…….what do you guys would like to see (in terms of digital TV tuner hardware) that would make your life more enjoyable? Any and all views are welcome. Cheers Renura
Mr.Bitey Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Something that fox cable can plug into :-) Preferbly removing all the encryption oh and the need for subscriptions Cheers, Piratey
Mcrackn Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Definitely a USB based CAM that will work with the Quattro etc. Also so we can record more than one Sat channel at once using the one card (multiple requests). basically making encrypted channels as easy to watch and record as fta currently is.
renura Posted March 21, 2007 Author Posted March 21, 2007 Something that fox cable can plug into :-)Preferbly removing all the encryption oh and the need for subscriptions Cheers, Piratey hmm, we may have to make Foxtel an offer they can't refuse
djOS Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 I'd be bang up for a "QuattroT (4x Digital* Tuners) PCI-Express" Card. *(Radio & Analogue TV = Worthless imo)
Knightod Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 I'll second the request for the quattroT Knightod
hired goon Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 G'day, Two DVB-T tuners in my Toppy are insufficient sometimes. I'm seeking at least 3 x DVB-T for my HTPC. I'd rather have one card than a combination of cards and USB devices (assuming the card with multiple tuners is of same or better quality than multiple cards). I have no need for analog tuners, satellite, etc. So a 3x or 4x DVB-T tuner card would be beaut. --Geoff
HoffY Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 I'll third the REQ for Quad T Tuner card (PCI and PCIe would be handy). I'm running out of PCIe slots. They just dont make enough on motherboards (at least.. not enough that the stupid VGA card manufactures wont make null invoid due to rediculously sized cards making the ports useless). its very frustrating. I would also like to add to this card a HDMI inputer for digital capture possibly. And to really put the cat amoungst it... for HDMI output. That would so rule.
kenneth1503559512 Posted March 22, 2007 Posted March 22, 2007 A cheap, good dual tuner for the Mac (that still uses eyeTV).
renura Posted March 22, 2007 Author Posted March 22, 2007 A cheap, good dual tuner for the Mac (that still uses eyeTV).Cheap no, inexpensive........coming soon
dogsrus Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 A dual HD DTV tuner network media player and PVR, able to play back any common file types, and have media extenders
Caillin Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 A dual HD DTV tuner network media player and PVR, able to play back any common file types, and have media extenders Check out http://www.linuxmce.com/ Gonna have a crack at setting this up this weekend. Still looking for a worthy replacement of the Xbox with XBMC.
trax Posted March 29, 2007 Posted March 29, 2007 Software wise more linux drivers for these cards would be a plus... hardware possibly input/capture ports for external devices (eg camera). Question for these multi-tuner cards do they accept one coax or do they need one coax per tunner?
renura Posted March 29, 2007 Author Posted March 29, 2007 Software wise more linux drivers for these cards would be a plus...hardware possibly input/capture ports for external devices (eg camera). Question for these multi-tuner cards do they accept one coax or do they need one coax per tunner? Yes Linux drivers are a good thing, analogue inputs are available already in many devices. As for RF inputs (antenna) most of them require one RF source to feed two tuners. The more advanced ones (eg the QuattroS) let you choose if you want to use one antenna for two tuners or feed each tuner individually. From that point of view, the future is here today
Slayer Posted March 30, 2007 Posted March 30, 2007 Currently a user of a Digitalnow Twindvb-t USB tuner. I would upgrade to a pciex card that featured 2, 3 or 4 DVB-T tuners with F-Type connections on the back (for better signal quality over the standard pal connection as well as stopping the cables from falling out everytime I move the computer from the cabinet) I would also really like the card to come with the signal sharing built into the drivers i.e all the tuners can be used from the single connected flylead into one of the inputs rather than having to split the signal and run 2, 3 or 4 fly leads Obviously compatibility with MCE, VMCE, Mediaportal and Webschedular would be a must. Software wise I haven't used DNTV for a long time but when I did it was nice and quick to setup and use but the one feature that really kept me away was the need to use a third party program to use my MCE remote with the software when most other dvb software was plug and play. If this feature was ever added I'd strongly consider having another look at the dntv software (currently using VMCE and Mediaportal) *fingers crossed*
sinjin Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 I'd like a PCI-e x1 card with 4x digital tuners Something like the QuattroT PCI-Express that was talked about but never came out (ie different from the QuattroS 2xDVB-S + 2x Hybrid tuners) Cheers
evil_josh Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 A cheap, good dual tuner for the Mac (that still uses eyeTV). Cheap no, inexpensive........coming soon Since this thread has been bumped - what's the progress on this Renura? Josh.
renura Posted July 24, 2007 Author Posted July 24, 2007 I'd like a PCI-e x1 card with 4x digital tunersSomething like the QuattroT PCI-Express that was talked about but never came out (ie different from the QuattroS 2xDVB-S + 2x Hybrid tuners) Cheers That makes one more of us. I'd love to be able to give you what you ask, unfortunately I need several thousand orders to make it happen. Having said that, I haven't given up yet.......
renura Posted July 24, 2007 Author Posted July 24, 2007 Cheap no, inexpensive........coming soon Since this thread has been bumped - what's the progress on this Renura? Josh. Work is under way to get the TinyTwin supported under Linux and the Mac.
evil_josh Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Work is under way to get the TinyTwin supported under Linux and the Mac. Nice one. Josh.
sinjin Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 I'd like a PCI-e x1 card with 4x digital tuners That makes one more of us. I'd love to be able to give you what you ask, unfortunately I need several thousand orders to make it happen. Having said that, I haven't given up yet....... In the start of the thread you were looking for ideas, and I gather to give you some competitive advantage. My 2 bob of comments is that the general population would flock to a 4x tuner (DVB-t) card and you would be selling 1000's It goes to the principle of keeping it simple. It will let people tape two shows at once and watch a third. Sometimes the shows are not even on a the same time but due to their proximity and the buffers used because the channels run over time their slot you get situations like this. Sometimes in addition, the tv is turned off, but DNTV is on and decoding a not needed channel, consuming one of the decoders. I know some people will say there is rarely two shows on at once, however when rating periods are on the channels will all put a good movie on the same day. The average consumer will purchase a solution that just works and they don’t have to think about priority, the average consumer will also probably not want to install two TV cards, like the more technical people. They would like a solution where you just push record and forget about it. I would suggest that if you can be first to the market with four tuners and build up some hype with another source (eg a computer magazine) you would be on a winner.
alanh Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 renura, What is the availabilty of DVB-t tuners which will decode MPEG4 and MPEG2 HD? There will be an NZ market for you next year. Alan H
renura Posted July 25, 2007 Author Posted July 25, 2007 renura,What is the availabilty of DVB-t tuners which will decode MPEG4 and MPEG2 HD? There will be an NZ market for you next year. Alan H Avilable now. Decoding is done in software and we have decoders that support MPEG4/H.264 decoding.
djOS Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 renura,What is the availabilty of DVB-t tuners which will decode MPEG4 and MPEG2 HD? There will be an NZ market for you next year. Alan H grab a new ATI Radeon HD 2400/2600 and they will do full HW decode for H.264, VC-1 & AVC
digitaladvisor Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 renura,What is the availabilty of DVB-t tuners which will decode MPEG4 and MPEG2 HD? There will be an NZ market for you next year. Alan H There a few contenders: The PC Graphic card (ATI/Nvidia) is playing catch up and making huge strides in getting Blu Ray and HD DVD nailed. There is proposal from the Media Portal team in a form of public tendering interest in producing a Blu Ray/ HD DVD hardware decoder on their Web Site. I am firmly of the opinion however that we are about 1/2 year away from having a Client Media Player that will do everything that a computer Home Theatre based does and do it better. Some developments are: Wireless speeds on the new protocol now better then 100mbps. The Sigma Chipset (latest) and the Media board prototype should be watched carefully It would develop into the best Media Player yet. The shift to background delivery of media in the home. You will not be concnered where the source is really coming from - you'll just watch it or listen. It could be Satellite/Terrestial/Internet/Stored downloaded/Live Internet Radio etc. And this could be iTunes/Mp3/AAC compressed/Loseless Flac/Blu Ray/HD DVD/H.264 @ HD - Disc based or Broadcast stream etc etc. Your resources move to the Server/Slave Server/Multiple Pcs/capture devices and off line storage over all CONNECTED PCs in the Home and all converged onto the media client. As for DVB cards - I think every Pc should be sold with a digital tuner card and decent sound speakers. Perhaps it highlights the inferior hardware that maybe within that shiny new PC case. Consider the resource savings - flat panel monitor/sound system etc etc. DA
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