Recommend Hardware

Adam Sutton · 2012-08-21T15:10:14+00:00

I've created a wiki page [[DVBCards]] to make a note about known working cards, and peoples general thoughts etc... So far it only include [[TBS6981]] as th...

A T

THX, i wasnt sure as there was a V2 flying around and it was hard to find out.

Im using now the Technotrend S2-3600, works out of the box with Ubuntu.
And my DvbSky 960 works with v4l-dvb and the firmware file on the support page of their website.

Robert N

I use:

DVB-C

TechnoTrend TT-connect CT-3650 CI USB tuner on a netgear wndr3700/wndr3800 router running openwrt.
~# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0b48:300d TechnoTrend AG TT-connect CT-3650 CI

This piece of software is amazing! I use it as backend with xupnpd, and works like a charm!
Thank you very much!

Rob D

TBS 6985 (V2.0):
Works well as long as you use the open source drivers here:
https://github.com/ljalves/linux_media/wiki Did not work well at all for me with TBS driver. With Luis' driver it is running nicely using VFIO PCI passthrough to a Debian VM on top of an Arch host.
TVH Version: 3.9.2104~gfc7e0f4~wheezy

Gianluca Rapi

usb dvbt card: Hauppauge Wintv-HVR 900-H

usb dvbs card: Technisat SkyStar usb HD

My system is raspberry pi-2 with openelec.
Both cards are automaticaly recognized and working on tvh without any needed manualy installing drivers.

Dreamcat 4

We have:

DVB-T/T2 OR DVB-C:
August DVB-T210 v1 or v2
Which is same as Geniatech T220 or T230

Both are fully supported on 3.19 linux kernel.

2x Refurbished units, £12 each

DVB-S/S2:
Telestar Digibit R1, or 'GSS.Box', or Inverto IDL400S

From Amazon.de

I can recommend those tuners ^^ as being cheapest.

Whilst also working acceptably with tvheadend.

Tvheadend Server:
Any Intel 'x86_64' architecture machine.

Even a modest or cheapest Intel CPU is fast enough.

Software:
* ubuntu-15.04
* docker

Tvheadend running inside of a docker image.

That is what we have currently, and cannot see yet on the market anything else technically better to upgrade to. So it's recommended. :)
<<

Levente Cseh

I'm running a system with an I3-2120 CPU and 12Gb RAM, with 1 x Cine S2 v6 + Duoflex S2 module, and a Cine C/T v6.5+ Duoflex C/T module.

The S2 cards are the best I can recommend, but the C/T cards have a huge zapping time. I'm using a Castles Tech USB smart card reader for decoding DVB-T channels, but I can tell you the old system I had with 4 pcs of PCTV Picosticks 74e was much faster concerning zapping time.

The whole unit is mounted in a 2U Chenbro rack case in a cabinet in my basement.

Lyubomir Trifonov

for a dedicated DVB-T system, I have great results with pocket sized travel router, and USB Dongle
- the router: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020

- the dongle: http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=35&Level=4&Conn=3&ProdID=257

Build it yourself, or get it pre-configured at www.tvrouter.org for $45 ($50 shipped)

Cheers!

Campbell Long

Using a Geniatech HDStar DVB-S2 TV Box without issue on the Tvheadend 3.9.

These can be bought online for about $40 USD which is one of the cheapest I've ever seen.

Dreamcat 4

Campbell Long wrote:

> These can be bought online for about $40 USD which is one of the cheapest I've ever seen.

Even cheaper were the ones I bought a couple of months ago:

2x refurb August DVB-T210 (v1) for a total cost of < $37 for both of them, including delivery & sales tax.

The August v1 being a Geniatech T220 clone. So it can be used in either T2 mode or DVB-C mode.

Admittedly they were refurb to be 1/2 price of new ones. Otherwise it would have cost about the same (each) as your $40 ones.

Those refurb units came exactly like the brand new ones (no signs of previous use whatsoever), and work perfectly, and including a 6 month warranty. It's a shame but they are no longer available.

So it seems that the Geniatech T220 / T230 and HDStar (and all their re-branded clones) are all pretty much the same family / grouping / price as each other. Barring USB and demodulator chip changes.

Yvan Janssens

I personally had a really bad experience with the TeVii S470 - I use Tvheadend on a rackmount in a datacentre with roofspace and this card is relatively unstable and prone to lockups, requiring to physically reboot the server.

On the other side, I've got a really good experience with the Technisat SkyStar USB HD (not the CI version) - I've been using those on Raspberry Pi's and VMware Virtual Machines without any issues, and most Linux distributions include the kernel modules. Downloading/installing the firmware is straightforward, and lockups seldom happen - I've got four of those connected to a server in a DC, and it can run for months without stuttering while using TVHeadend. However, I must note, the Windows software which comes with it is fairly limited - you're better off purchasing the full version of that software package if that's your thing. I don't use the remote (since it's in a DC), so I can't tell if you can run it on XBMC with TVHeadend in the background and the remote to control XBMC.

c128 m

I'm currently (based on some excellent advice from the forums here) using:

3 x DVBSky T9580

My system is based on Ubuntu 15.04 and the cards are supported virtually out of the box (firmware just needs to be dropped in) with kernel 3.19.*.

I've literally hadno problems with these cards at all, they've worked perfectly for months now - really impressed. I don't use the DVB-C side of things, mind you, but use the DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 tuners to give me 3 of each type. The DVB-T2 tuners are all for UK Freeview, 2 of the DVB-S2 tuners for UK Freesat and the final DVB-S2 tuner connected to a 4-port DiSEqC switch for Astra 19.2E and Hotbird 13E.

Also - a recommended motherboard:

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=775

A recent upgrade, but I've found this an excellent companion for these cards so far - a low power motherboard using an integrated J1900 processor - barely taxes the quad CPU when under reasonable load and uses a minimal amount of juice. I have my tvheadend server setup for WOL so that it wakes from S3 from Kodi clients (WOL is not mentioned as supported by the motherboard/onboard NIC in the manual btw, but it is :) ). At ~£50, with only memory to add, pretty well priced too.

In addition, both with this new motherboard and my past Intel DG45ID, the T9580s use MSI interrupts by default and do not re-order themselves on reboot; module unload/load on sleep/resume is just a matter of unloading

smipcie si2168 m88ds3103

and loading

smipcie

. I had a hell of a time with continuity errors and reliable sleep/resume with TBS cards (using both TBS and open source drivers) but with the T9580s everything has been fine.
<<

Fred Fred

Inverto - IDL 400s
http://www.inverto.tv/products/product.php?id=242

Do run this custom firmware for it: https://github.com/perexg/satip-axe/tree/master/dist

Megasat Sat>IP Server 2
https://www.megasat.tv/en/produkte/megasat-satip-server-2/ Do not get this one, I had a bad time with it.

Dreamcat 4

+1 for

Inverto IDL 400s
or
Grundig GSS1.Box
or

Telestar Digibit R1

This ^^ is all the same product under different brand names. But you definately need to install the latest 'v10' satip-axe CFW on it. Which solves a longstanding bug with the bandwidth / stability. Or otherwise the latest official firmware (not sure which min version contains the same bugfix).

piotr w

Using two of these on a RPI2 with powered usb-hub without any issues:

TechnoTrend_TT-TVStick_CT2-4400 a.k.a. "Edision Optimuss DVB-C/T/T2"

Robert Trapp

Got the elgato eyetv hybrid running on openmediavault 2.X with 3.16 kernel.

Need some hand work for the drivers which can be found here http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Elgato_EyeTV_hybrid

Cheers Robert

Sulla Sulla

I'm using four DVBSky S960 external USB receivers for DVB-S2.

In linux with a 3.19-series kernel with drivers downloaded from linuxtv.org and the firmware files from the manufacturer's website they work like a charm. The kernel supplied drivers do not work correctly, however.

Flo Lusch

Hi there,

I'm looking for a DVB-C USB Stick with CI Slot for the RPi2.

After searching in google etc., my favourite would be the Terratec H7.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Flo

H Hafner

Well I had some concepts build up for hardware as well, not very up-to-date and in german:

www.receiverbox.de

Anders Gustafsson

Four USB-sticks currently on 4.0.7

DVB-T

2 pcs DVB-T + DAB + FM Radio Realtek RTL2832U R820T software defined SDR HDTVwbGT15 - Work just fine

DVB-C
USB Dongle DVB-T2 / DVB-T / DVB-C + FM + DAB Digital HDTV Stick Tuner Receive SN

This is based on mn88473

PCTV tripleStick (292e), (Silicon Labs Si2168)

The tripleStick started acting up after a kernel upgrade, but works OK now when I added a separate USB card for it.

joky joky

Hi,

I use a Digibit R1 Sat>IP Receiver, connected with a cross-cable to an separate LAN port of a PC (AMD Phenom(tm) 9150e Quad-Core, 4GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 8200).

The Digibit R1 has 4 DVB-S/S2 receiver and should also support unicable, for a price of about 130 EUR (32,50 EUR each) it is quite good value.

I recommend the alternate firmware "satip-axe" from (surprise!) perexg to make the receiver running really smooth.

I still looking to enable HW acceleration and I'm also working to eliminate some few errors in the streams causing kodi to get out of sync when watching several hours. Maybe the dish needs some better tuning,..

Regards

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