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[Z0001]

Hi all

I'd be very grateful if folk could recommend a HD tuner for Australia. I'm looking for something to provide live TV around the house with minimal extra cabling, so some kind of network tuner. I'd need 2-4 channels and I'd like whatever it is to be hidden away. There does not seem to be many options.

Cheers
Z

[jmone]

HDHomeRun : Network Tuner x 2 Tuners (if you want 4 x Tuners you get 2 x HomeRuns).  Just works and will pipe DVB-T to MC as well as Tablets, Phones etc.  Have been using them for years and they are very good.

[astromo]

What jmone said.

Choice piece of kit.

I've got 2 units. Had them so long I forget when I bought them.

The only hassle I've had was a bung power supply on one of them but that was after umpteen years of service. That was easily sorted with a generic PSU. Tweezy mate.

The other advantage is that it is a standard make referred to by the devs here, so in that sense it's well supported. Good community following on the forum as well.

The network functionality is what closed the deal for me. *note the sense of hope here* ... so that when MC Linux gets TV, I'm all set for the future.

All that said, and hopefully I get this right, any DVB-T standard tuner that's (?) BDA compliant should work with MC. I've tried a couple of different usb units and not had a problem ... but they don't network, do they?

[RoderickGI]

All that said, and hopefully I get this right, any DVB-T standard tuner that's (?) BDA compliant should work with MC.

I believe that is correct. Yaobing told me so some time back.

I use a DigitalNow PCIe Quad tuner card, which is BDA compliant and has been excellent. But it isn't a network tuner, so I rely on Mc to share TV around the house, rather than sharing the tuners directly. DigitalNow, a local supplier, seem to have fallen behind in their product offerings, and don't offer anything I would buy now.

I also think the SiliconDust HDHomeRun is probably your best choice. I think you need the Connect version to get H.264 streaming, which all our HD Channels use now, and would seem a good thing for future proofing. It seems to be the only HDHomeRun offered in Australia now anyway. When/If I need to upgrade it would be my choice.

[Z0001]

That's great, thanks!

And I'm guessing that channel and schedule set up is all pretty good?

Is recording scheduled through MC? If the HTPC is off is there a way to wake the HTPC?

Thanks!

[Yaobing]

SiliconDust offers two models, HDHomerun Connect and HDHomerun Extend.  The difference is that the Extend has a hardware compressor that compresses video to H264 while the cheaper Connect only streams raw MPEG-2 video.  If the Connect is the only one offered in Australia, it may well be because the TV stations already use H264, so there is no need to compress.

[jmone]

Correct, their is a single specific Australian model of the Connect (about A$200).   It supports all the FTA channels regardless of if they are MPEG-2 or H264 (but does not transcode any of the streams - no big deal).  I too had a PS fail after many years on their first model but apart from that, it is one of the few gadgets that just works.  They also have their own client app for Android Tablets that is pretty good but it is in beta so still a few bugs.  You can also stream live TV using MC to other MC Instances and also your Android Client (but you need to use the EOS app as JRemote does not support live TV streaming at this stage).

Recording:  MC will do the recording for you and works well.  You have the choice between two formats to record in, either TS (which is std) and the JRiver JTV (works better but you can not easily convert to other formats if you need to).

EPG:  MC can grab the OTA EPG for you OR/AND you can use IceTV if you are willing to pay a subscription for it.

[Z0001]

This is great folks.

I guess the HTPC needs to be on for scheduled future recording? Is that right?

[RoderickGI]

No, it can be in Sleep mode and MC will wake it to make recordings. In fact it will wake your HTPC a little in advance of the recording start time, so that the PC is up and running for the start time, including any padding before the program.

That is how I use my HTPC. I never shut it down, but let it sleep when not in use. MC keeps it awake while I am doing something on it, like watching TV, listening to music, or a recording is running.

[astromo]

No, it can be in Sleep mode and MC will wake it to make recordings. In fact it will wake your HTPC a little in advance of the recording start time, so that the PC is up and running for the start time, including any padding before the program.

That is how I use my HTPC. I never shut it down, but let it sleep when not in use. MC keeps it awake while I am doing something on it, like watching TV, listening to music, or a recording is running.

Agreed. The smart move is to setup MC with Tools > Options > Windows Startup > Run on Windows startup: Media Server

That way, you can be certain that a record job will be taken care of if your PC is rebooted and then nods off to beddy-byes.

[astromo]

EPG:  MC can grab the OTA EPG for you OR/AND you can use IceTV if you are willing to pay a subscription for it.

Check here Australia TV Setup for the array of options that are generally available. If anyone finds some thing else, feel free to add to the list.