Recommend a PCIE x1 S2 Tuner Card For Sage

[burtonpark]

Using 3 NOVA s2 HD Cards , and found them to be rock solid
Would like to add more but mobo only has PCEx1 slots left!

Dual would be great!

[starfire]

Well I can't recommend it as I don't have one but see the TBS 6980 now seems to be supported and is dual tuner PCIe.

Looks like a few forum members have these.

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by starfire

Well I can't recommend it as I don't have one but see the TBS 6980 now seems to be supported and is dual tuner PCIe.

Looks like a few forum members have these.

Is there somewhere more local to purchase from? That website is in China.

[starfire]

I've only seen them pop up on eBay occasionally but still from China I think.

Maybe wait for a reply from someone who has one on here or try PM'ing them.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

I have one of these cards but I do not currently use it at the moment as I had problems with it's reliability, also only one of the tuners worked consitently with good reception quality from within SageTV.

No doubt other will have had better experiences, my problems may be related to me using Windows 7 64 bit and that my SageTV server runs 24/7.

I have had better experiences with the Technotrend S2-3650, it is usb so you can continue using your existing cards or the Technotrend S2-3200 is a good ISA card.

Hope this helps,

David

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

the Technotrend S2-3200 is a good ISA card.

It's actually a PCI card but those slots are getting almost as rare as ISA slots were 5 years ago. I own one of these cards & it is very reliable which was actually the first DVB-S2 tuner on the market over 4 years ago.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

Yes of course you are right the S2-3200 is a PCI card not ISA, I must of had somekind of a flash back to the days of ISA cards. I also used to really like the TT-2300, a great card.

I have had my S2-3200 for many years and have found it to be reliable with good reception. I have recently added a couple of S2-3650 which seems to be equally reliable and they also have a CAM interface.

Ta,

David

[burtonpark]

So if there arn't any dual cards PCIex1 cards around, Does anyone use the firewire FireDTV products and find them reliable and fast to tune?

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by burtonpark

So if there arn't any dual cards PCIex1 cards around, Does anyone use the firewire FireDTV products and find them reliable and fast to tune?

Yes I do. I use a couple of FireDTV-S2 cards & have previously used the older FireDTV-S cards. My only issue with them now is that the manufacturer (Digital Everywhere) sadly went out of business as these were definitely the best tuners for use with a CAM. The drivers have been updated and appear to work properly with Windows 7.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

I had several of these tuners but I sold them because the Windows 7 (64 bit) drivers did not work properly causing crashes and the tuners would lock up.

Have the drivers been updated?

Thanks,

David

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

Hi,

I had several of these tuners but I sold them because the Windows 7 (64 bit) drivers did not work properly causing crashes and the tuners would lock up.

Have the drivers been updated?

Yes it appears that even though the company went out of business that their software engineers updated the drivers on their own time. Of course what will happen when Windows 8 ships is another matter perhaps they will Open Source the drivers?

I am using the latest November 28th 2009 drivers & they work perfectly with Windows 7 32-bit.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

It does look like Digital Everywhere updated the driver from 5.6 to 5.7 as per:-

http://www.digital-everywhere.com/en...sid=1186575943

Although it does go on to say that no further development will be completed and that these drivers are "as is", also there is no reference to fixing the 5.6 driver errors which caused crashes/lock ups in Windows 7 64 bit.

I will try to track down a FireDTV-S2 and give it a go in Windows 7 64 bit and see if the new drivers have fixed the problems.

Ta,

David

[Bacon2002]

MCE-Refugee,

I got hold of a FireDTV-S2 tuner and to my surprise and great relief the new drivers seem to work fine with Windows 7 64 bit, whilst I have only been using the tuner for a couple of days so far all seems well.

This is both great news and a little frustrating, it's great because at last I again have a reliable cam solution when used with Diablo Wifi's and fausto but at the same time it is a little frustrating as I sold four of these tuners earlier in the year (for far less than they were worth) as at the time they did not work with win 7 64 bit and I wrongly assumed that the drivers would be left unfinished.

Still I have managed to get hold of a couple of FireDTV-S2's and I am very please.

Thanks for mentioning the new drivers,

David