HdHomeRun Tuner

[Steve52]

I just purchased a HdHomeRun dual tuner to use with sage, the new black one with dual tuners that is very small. It is the HDHR3-US. I liked the idea of eliminating hardware and IRQ's from my Sage server. I know a lot of sage users use and like the HdHome Run but in my case it will not work. The device installs easy and the Sage intergration is smooth. I had high hopes that I could move my tuners out of my server. I need to add that I purchased it to use as an OTA tuner. I am sad to say that as a tuner for ATSC OTA broadcasts it failed miserably. This device has very weak tuners in it. I have been using 4 Vbox DTA-150 PCI tuners for about 5 years and these 5 year old tuners beat the signal strength of the HdHome Run by a very large margin. I am going to return the HdHomeRun, so does anyone know of a current tuner that has at least the signal strength capability of a vbox DTA-150?

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Steve52

as a tuner for ATSC OTA broadcasts it failed miserably. This device has very weak tuners in it

I also have had mediocre success with an HDHR. My problem was that I live behind trees, and close to an airport, and I have a lot of multicast. The HDHR deals poorly with that, but tuners based around LG and Samsung demods to just fine. I ended up going with USB tuners. I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ms_ohs_product

This has a fairly new Samsung based digital demod, and deals quite well with multicast.

Drew

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by drewg

I also have had mediocre success with an HDHR. My problem was that I live behind trees, and close to an airport, and I have a lot of multicast. The HDHR deals poorly with that, but tuners based around LG and Samsung demods to just fine. I ended up going with USB tuners. I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ms_ohs_product

This has a fairly new Samsung based digital demod, and deals quite well with multicast.

Drew

Thanks for the info!
The product you linked only shows compatibility with 32 Bit operating systems. I was hoping to change over to windows 7 64 bit on my Sage server. Do you know of any USB tuners that will work with Sage, have the chips you referenced, and are compatable with Win 7 64 bit?

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Steve52

Thanks for the info!
The product you linked only shows compatibility with 32 Bit operating systems. I was hoping to change over to windows 7 64 bit on my Sage server. Do you know of any USB tuners that will work with Sage, have the chips you referenced, and are compatable with Win 7 64 bit?

Sorry.. My sage tv server runs on (64-bit) Linux, I've never tried it in windows. But from a little poking around, it looks like there are 64b windows drivers. I downloaded ftp://ftp.pctvsystems.com/TV/driver/...(2.3.3.32).zip

After unzipping it, it looks like it has a 64-bit driver for this stick. Eg, the stick I bought shows up in my linux box with USB vid=2304 devid=023A. If you look in the .inf file for the win7 64-bit driver, that stick is there:

$ unzip PCTV_340e_801e_\(2.3.3.32\).zip
$ lsusb | grep Pin
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 2304:023a Pinnacle Systems, Inc. PCTV 801e
$ grep -i 023a PCTV\ 340e\ 801e/64\ bit/*.inf
%PCTV801e.DeviceDesc% = MOD7000.Device,USB\VID_2304&PID_023A            ; PCTV 801e, 1f08

I also have one of these: http://www.amazon.com/KWorld-ATSC-Di.../dp/B001LQEEEA This one appears to have win7 x64 drivers.

The Kworld is tricky, as there are 2 versions with the same model number. Only the V1 works in linux. At any rate, it also uses a "good" demod (LGDT 3305). In general, it gets better reception than the Pinnacle (was able to pick up stations 55 miles away off the back of an attic mounted CM4228). However, it has a reputation in the linux community as being flaky. The sticks belonging to the original linux developers died. Mine is still going strong..

Drew

[Steve52]

Can anyone verify that the Kworld USB tuner KW-UB435Q will work with Sage under Windows 7 64 bit?