[mythtvnz] Hi Def - HD Homerun?

[Stephen Worthington]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 11:55:28 +1200, you wrote:

>Having bought a bloody great big TV, I see the point of HD (or more
>particularly I see the jaggies in SD).
>
>No more room in the backend, having already 2 PCI DVB-S cards, so
>thought of an HDHR. Whats everyone's experience?
>
>I see it has two tuners, presumably you can do multirec?
>
>How are the channels distributed on the DVB-T multiplexes?
>
>Any other hints/advice?
>
>The specific model seems to be:
>
>http://www.digitalpride.co.nz/view-product/103/SiliconDust-Dual-HDHomeRun-DVB-T/

Just adding USB DVB-T tuners would probably be easier (and cheaper).
There is one dual DVB-T tuner available that I know works, the Kworld
Dual DVB-T TV Stick (DVB-T399UR):


http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/TVs/Other/auction-382636244.htm

There are also $30 or so single Kworld USB DVB-T TV Stick II
(DVB-T395UR) tuners that work too - cheaper to get two of these than
one single dual one:


http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Peripherals/Other/auction-382866923.htm

I have a dual and two singles of these.

If you want USB DVB-T tuners that have support in older kernels, I
have two of these (Pinnacle PCTV Nano Stick) and they work well:


http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Peripherals/Other/auction-381600127.htm

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Peripherals/Other/auction-382092378.htm

I prefer them to the Kworld ones, but they are rather more expensive.
I use them on my main MythTV box, and the Kworlds on my laptop when I
am away from home.

This is the channel distribution from a recent scan of the Wharite
transmitter in the Manawatu:

Frequency: 690000000
  TV ONE
  TV2
  U
  TVNZ 7

Frequency: 706000000
  TV3
  FOUR
  TV3 PLUS1
  C4

Frequency: 778000000
  Maori Television
  Parliament TV 
  Trackside
  ChineseTV
  PRIME
  TV33
  Stratos
  Radio NZ National
  Radio NZ Concert
  BaseFM

There are a few more "ghost" channels that show up in the scan but do
not work (tvCentral, TV-Rotorua, Info-Rotorua), and some ones that
appear and disappear for use in updating MHEG and FreeviewHD box
firmware (Homecast SSU and MHEG IC Test Channel are present at the
moment).

You need three tuners to record from all multiplexes at the same time,
and I find that I am needing all three tuners about twice a week.  But
then I record far more than I am ever going to be able to watch.

You also need to consider more hard disk space.  The HD recordings
from TV One and TV3 take up 4.8 to 5.3 Gibytes each for one hour with
4 minutes of post-roll.