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Windows => Television => Topic started by: tunes0710 on December 03, 2018, 02:03:48 am

Title: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: tunes0710 on December 03, 2018, 02:03:48 am
Hi all,
I currently have a JRiver server running headless and serving JRiver clients in the living room and bedrooms.
The two bedrooms do not have a TV Aerial or Sky cable available, so was thinking of putting a DVB-S2 card in the headless server and connecting a sky cable up to it.

What would happen if the media centres tried using it?
i.e. Bedroom 1 uses EPG to select BBC1
Bedroom 2 selects ITV
Living room selects Channel 4

Would it change the channel for each room to the last channel selected? i.e. Bedroom 1 would change to ITV and then Channel 4?
If I wanted to support multiple machines simultaneously, would I need to install multiple tuners? or at least a tuner with multiple inputs?
Would JRiver then allow each client to use a unique input, rather than trying to use the original input to serve all clients?

Cheers :-)
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: bigmuscles on December 03, 2018, 04:09:24 am
Hi, unfortunately jriver is like wmc where you would need a tune per channel you are watch so in your description, you will need a min of three tunes cards for what you are trying to achieve,  (because jriver dont support,multi mux channels), (ie here in uk all our hd channels are on same mux so in jriver you will need 5 tunner cards min). where other software like mediaportal, nextpvr, (on windows os) support mutli channel mux so if you had a dual card them two can allow you to watch virtual every channel across your pc's so one card can feed all uk hd channels to 5 pc's  (ie bbc1 hd , 2, itv hd channel 4 hd etc )

if you just want this setup for live tv with jriver you need lots of cards per channel

hope this has helped
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: Yaobing on December 03, 2018, 08:29:48 am
bigmuscles is correct.  Currently we require one tuner per channel, even for channels on the same transport.  supporting multiple channels on the same transport with one tuner is on my list of things to do.

To answer the OP's question, if you have only one tuner, then only one bedroom will be able to use it at a given moment, unless the same channel is requested.  When bedroom 1 requests a channel while living room is using a different channel, bedroom 1 will get an error saying no tuner is available.
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: tunes0710 on December 03, 2018, 11:29:15 am
Many thanks for the swift response from everyone :-)
I thought it would be something like that, ie. only 1 "room" able to watch.

So technically if 2 rooms requested the same channel, that would work ok?

Currently, if I had 2 cards and they both had 2 DVB-S inputs on each (giving a total of 4), are you saying I could only utilise 1 input on each (2 different channels simultaneously), however in the future you are hoping so that all 4 inputs could be used, allowing a maximum of 4 simultaneous TV channels to be watched?
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: Yaobing on December 03, 2018, 02:26:14 pm
Many thanks for the swift response from everyone :-)
I thought it would be something like that, ie. only 1 "room" able to watch.

So technically if 2 rooms requested the same channel, that would work ok?

Currently, if I had 2 cards and they both had 2 DVB-S inputs on each (giving a total of 4), are you saying I could only utilise 1 input on each (2 different channels simultaneously), however in the future you are hoping so that all 4 inputs could be used, allowing a maximum of 4 simultaneous TV channels to be watched?

I do not know what kind of device you have, but if it has multiple inputs, it may contain multiple tuners.  Check with the device manufacturer for info.

Each tuner can be independently accessed, even if multiple tuners are on the same device.

Yes, multiple client computers can access the same channel on the server.
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: RoderickGI on December 03, 2018, 03:28:14 pm
Could I just clarify that you don't need multiple tuner cards in your Server PC. You just need multiple tuners.

For example, I only record FTA TV (no Cable, Satellite, or IPTV), but I have one PCIe tuner card that has one input cable from the aerial and four tuners on the card. I can record or watch four TV channels at once, each channel using one tuner.

The more important consideration is the type of tuners you need, and what broadcast format they support. i.e. DVB-T, DVB-S, cable, etc. You need to have a tuner of the right type available for MC to tune into a channel of a specific type.
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: tunes0710 on December 04, 2018, 07:38:31 am
So for example,
https://www.tbs-technology.de/shop/DVB-S2-S-S2X-Octa-Tuner-PCIe-Satelliten-TV-Karte-TBS-6909-X
This card reads that it has 8 tuners although it only uses 4 satellite connections.

From this, would I theoretically be able to watch 8 different TV channels over 8 JRiver clients? or watch 3 different channels (on clients) and record up to 5 additional channels?
Providing the JRiver server could cope, that is....
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: Hendrik on December 04, 2018, 07:54:27 am
That is correct, the card should allow 8 channels to be viewed or recorded at the same time.
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: ErikN on December 04, 2018, 11:09:28 am

I have also found that you will almost always wish for more tuners. If pcie space is limited, err on getting a card with more. I don't think I've ever heard someone complain about idle tuners :)
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: RoderickGI on December 04, 2018, 04:20:38 pm
Wow. That is some tuner!

As long as all your TV is via Satellite TV, although it also supports IPTV streaming, Media monitoring, and Digital content distribution.
Title: Re: Watching TV on Multiple MCs
Post by: Fangio on December 10, 2018, 03:05:28 pm
supporting multiple channels on the same transport with one tuner is on my list of things to do.

Looking forward to this making it to the top of your list  :)