Yo guys,
I have an Emby server and noticed that it will let me stream live and recorded TV. So I need a good tuner card that does HDTV ClearQAM. Preferably under $100.
Is $13 too expensive?
Pretty much all the tuners use the Realtek chipset.
Bonus, it can also be a Software Defined Radio (it works, I've done it)
And the things you can do with these is pretty amazing.
http://www.rtlsdr.com/
The only Achilles heel is the crystal for the tuner. But there are all sorts of docs out there for doing a crystal replacement mod.
it needs to have a cable connector. i used to have a hauppague card but they didnt support linux in 2012.
any suggestions that dont involve modding? maybe pcie?
I've given you my suggestion.
If you want to ignore it, that's on you.
For $18 bucks you could at least try it.
Or not. Suit yourself.
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It's the same thing running through the wire as the antennae - an analog signal. So as far as modding go I'd say it's a quite light one. Unplugging one cable and inserting another :)
he had indicated something about a crystal. Also, it is not the same signal. I have Digital Cable here. It must be compatible with a Digital Cable connection. Aka ClearQAM. We have Digital Encrypted Cable too. My apartment complex includes cable in the rent.
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I'm not sure you understand.
A tuner is just a tuner. Something that can hold a frequency, and receive it's signal.
A decoder is something that happens to that received signal.
Those are tuner cards. They also include the software to decode.... wait for it.... clear QAM. So they do everything. And since they are all hacked to hell and back again, your options for tuner and decoder software are infinetely better than having a proprietary solution.
As for the crystal, that is a sometimes thing. Not every tuner needs it. It's mostly of concern to HAM guys like me who want to be able to tune frequencies out of the air with more accuracy. For TV viewers, the software has fuzzy logic to adjust to the given channel - something you'll see in any tuner. It's akin to the fine tuning knobs on old analog sets. Not a big deal.
So, with all that said, you can now buy those 2 items with confidence knowing that they will accomplish the goal you have to be able to watch clear QAM TV from a cable source with that device.
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good to know and thanks for clearing that up. I used to own a Hauppauge 2250 but sold it when it didnt work right with MythTV. Now im hitting myself over it. Ill give the product a try and if it does the job, I might get a cable splitter and a second one to "multi-stream".
Well, it was looking like a great option until the total cost including shipping was closer to $30-$35. At that price, I went back to looking at external and PCIe based solutions.
I don't get it. Both of those links are for Amazon Prime. And even if it's $30-35 that's not bad and certainly no more expensive than something else.
Here's a Happauge card. $70 before tax or shipping
If you want more flexibility I would go with an HDhome run the base model has two tuners and is on the network so mobile devices can watch or you can record and watch at the same time.
It's under $100.
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I'd go with the HDHR as well. I've got a Prime and it works wonderfully.
if i had to decide between the Hauppauge and an HDHomerun, which is best option?
I also am confused about the HDHomerun versions. There are the Connect and Extend and I understand the Extend has hardware h.264 encoding but is that really necessary? Won't Emby do that for me during Live TV?
I also find listings for HDHomerun Dual models. I believe the model numbers are HDHR3-US whereas the model listed on the site for Connect is HDHR4. Difference?
Then there is the Extend model listed as HDTC-2US. How is that different from the other Extend models?
The main purpose is to be a DVR. But the option to watch live TV is nice to have. If my network connection is 50/30 unlimited bandwidth, and my server PC is an AMD FM1 Quad core with 8GB of RAM, will the Extend be necessary?
I am planning to upgrade the hardware to Zen when available and while there is currently only 1 SSD in it, I want to add either more SSDs to replace the storage drives or more HDDs in larger caps.
The nice thing about it is you could watch it via mobile. But since all you want QAM don't Cable Card I would go with the base model since it had two tuners.
right but both the Extend and Connect and apparently the Dual models are all Dual tuner and not cable card.
I haven't looked at their product list in a while give me a 30 minutes. And I will get back to you.
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ok the extend because of the on fky transcode is better if you don't have a middle device i.e. plex server doing it but the connect is cheaper and supports wireless ac so I would go with it .
But is you need to connect to it via mobile or raspi/roku without a server then go with the extend.
If you don't care about all, that go with the Hauppauge
heh, connect it is. all this run through an Emby server. wat about the difference between Connect and Dual? or models HDHR3 and HDHR4?