Bragging Time-Who has the most tuners in thier HTPC

[Brent]

I'm sort of curious about who around here has the most tuners in their HTPC system? A guy over at the Snapstream forums claims to have 15 tuners in his setup all with one server PC and I think all tuning DirectTV. This was not an enterprise customer (business) either, just a home user. While I'm amazed that he finds 15 simultaneous channels of content to ever record, the geek in me is intrigued. Anyone around these parts using a lot of tuners on their setup?

For the record I have 5 total (a PVR500 (dual), PVRUSB2 and SiliconDust HDHR(dual).

[carlgar]

I currently have 6 (pvr 500 and 2 HDHRs) but I have another PVR 500 I could use. I currently have no need to go to 8.

[Addict]

I've got one! <grin>

Good thread, though. I always found it interesting when I see those with so many tuners. Must have a lot of folks living in the same home with varied show interests!

[mdnttoker]

How but also stating how you're hooking up all these connects without signal loss!

I'm using an Electroline drop amp on the line coming into the house, then using a low resistance tap to go to the cable modem and then the high resistance tap output and a 3 way splitter to get 3 splits for the tuners.

[carlgar]

I have a 8 port Electoline drop amp feeding my HTPC. 5 ports are feeding my 6 sage tuners. Another port is feeding my FusionHDTV usb tuner which I use only with its own software. I could switch this over to another PVR 500. The 2 ports that are currently unused I have reserved for another HDHR if I see a need.

[jominor]

I've got 3. Two PCI Hauppages and one USB2 Hauppage. Basically enough to remove 98% of all conflicts.

[BobPhoenix]

I've got 3 nVidia DualTV's(6 tuners) currently and will be adding a network encoder when the HD-PVR comes out.

[ToxMox]

I have 10. Two HDHomeRuns (4 tuners) One PVR-1800 (2 tuners) and two PVR-500s (4 tuners). All the HD ones are connected QAM.
Then I have the following leftover and not hooked up from years of playing around:
3 x PVR-USB2
1 x Aver m780
1 x PVR-250
2 x Nvidia DualTV MCE

[Mark57]

I've got six tuners composed of two HVR-1600's and one HVR-1800 (3 HD & 3 SD ). I'm doing all my HD OTA via a Winegard SquareShooter antenna from Solid Signal mounted in my attic. All my SD is from Cox Cable but after HD who wants to record SD?

[evilpenguin]

Only 5 tuners here: 1 HDHR (2xHDTV), 1 nVidia DualTV (2xSDTV), and 1 firewire cable box.

I think this thread needs a poll

[NEOSG]

10 total

4 - 2 HDHR - 3 QAM - 1 OTA
1 Fusion - OTA
1 ATI - OTA
2 x R5000 Dish 211
1 Hauppauge USB - Cable
1 Hauppauge USB - Dish 811

[toricred]

I've got 8 (2 x PVR-500, 1 Saber2020 dual tuner, and 1 HDHR).

[Deacon Crusher]

Interesting topic.

For me the tuners are about different channel coverage and quality and signal strength rather then really having 4 or 5 shows at the same time that need recording.

I currently have 6 and am dieing to go 7, it's in my sig, but here it is in big type.

2 tuners via an HDHR that is connected to an OTA/ATSC outdoor antenna, this gets top proriority in Sage, so anything available via these channels gets recorded from those tuners. Getting great pictures here (I've had some trouble with FOX HD recordings coming from QAM, was messing up my Sarah Connors chronicles recordings so set this up.)

2 tuners via an HDHR that are doing QAM from comcast cable, those are next in the SAGE priority list.

Here's where the 7th will go. A Hauppauge/Sage HD PVR doodad so I can take component in from my cable box, that'll get me whatever Hi-def channels aren't available over ATSC or QAM.

2 tuners via a PVR500 so anything I need that isn't available via a better connection comes from these tuners.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I think this thread needs a poll

I'm not sure if non-moderators can add a poll after a thread is created, so I added one. I saw 10 above, so I made that the highest choice.

- Andy

[Brent]

Thanks Andy. The poll thing is definitely a good idea for this post.

To add to my comment above, I also feed my 5 tuners with an 8-port Electoline drop amp. In that mix is a cable modulator that feeds a few other tv's so we can turn on the living room SageTV Set and turn on the kitchen or bedroom TV and tune to channel 77 to see the same content on those televisions. Makes it nice since the livingroom is open to the kitchen, but the livingroom TV isn't viewable in the entire kitchen.

[guho]

4 tuners:
1 PVR150
1 PVR250
1 OnAir USB GT for QAM cable HD
1 SA4200HD cable box via firewire network encoder on a Mac mini.

[kevine]

7 but at 1 time had 9.

[Lucas]

Seven.

2 Hauppauge PVR250 + PVR USB2
2 Technotrend T1300 DVB-T PCI Cards
3 DVB-S/S2 Technotrend S4200, USB S2400 and USB S3650

Mainly for different channel line ups here in Europe.

Most I record is about 3 shows concurrently.

[MacDaddy]

7 tuners in total:

2 QAM => 1 x HDHR
2 QAM + 2 Cable => 2 x HVR 1600
1 Cable => 1 X PVR 150

Using an Electroline EDA-UG 2802 unity gain amp to drive all the computer based tuners.

[ybrew]

I've got 10.

1 HD Homerun (2 tuners). OTA Antenna. Not currently used as I don't currently have any OTA HD conflicts.

2 bluebird OTA HD tuners.

3 PVR 500s. I think the tuner is bad on one of them. (The s-video inputs are all good though).

I've got 3 DTV receivers connected to those. 2 are controlled via USB-UIRT. One is a dedicated single channel receiver for my inlaws (they want to watch spanish soaps on one channel only - this makes it easy for them).

I've got basic cable included with my internet and got two pvr 500 inputs dedicated to that.

So technically I only have 7 tuners currently in use. I do have 10 connected and could turn on all 10 at any time if needed.

I rarely get conflicts, but can't say I never get them.

- Edit - I found a good 1-1000mhz amp to split the signal for the cable. Works really well and cost maybe $25. I think it's powered but not positive.
Using a standard DTV 8way multi-switch for the dtv receivers. I've got 2 HD DTV Recievers waiting in the wings (old samsung tuners I got from friends at work). I'm ready for the hauppauge component capture device as soon as it's released. At that time, I'll cut off one of my current SD dtv receivers and add both HD DTV receivers, so I'll be using a minimum of 8 tuners at that time.