# Which TV card (MythTV)?

## MartinB

I've recently got myself a cable TV subscription, but don't have a TV and wanted to set-up my PC (AMD64 3000, 1GB, 6600GT, SBLive) for watching and recording TV using MythTV, but I'm a bit confused at what features are supported on all the different TV cards.

All I really want is to be able to watch and record standard TV through cable and use a remote control; nothing special.  I went to a few computer shops to see what hardware is availabe, and they have the following:

Haupage WinTV PVR-150

Haupage WinTV PVR-500

Pinnacle PC-TV Analog PCI

Pinnacle PC-TV Analog PCI-Pro

So, which of these would be best for MythTV?  I've read that the PVR-150 will work, but will I be able to watch TV and record on this card?  The PVR-500 is a bit on the expensive side.

The other thing I'm concerned about; will the remote controls included with these cards work with MythTV?  I've seen no mention of supported remote controls.

Thanks,

Martin

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## KaZeR

Hi Martin,

I personnally use a PVR-350 card, and it's really a good hardware. It's basically a PVR-250 (old design of the new PVR-150) with a TV Output. I also have a remote, which is working fine.

I believe you shouldn't have too much troubles with a PVR150. For the pinnacle cards, i can't help, i only have two old bttv pctv rage  :Smile: 

I think the best place to ask would be the mythtv-users mailing list. If you're not subscribed and don't want to, i can relay your question there and post the answer here.

BTW, you talk of a cable subscription, shouldn't you need a specific card for that?

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## MartinB

Thanks, I'll probably go for the PVR-150 then.  I'll give the mailing list a try too first just to make sure it will work (I'm running a pure Gentoo system; no Windows to fall back on :p).

EDIT: As for the cable subscription, I've been told that I should be able to plug it directly into the card (I haven't even seen it yet; I haven't actually even moved into the appartment where it will be set-up)...  I don't really know though, I've never even owned a TV, much less learned anything about the different methods of recieving TV channels.  I just assumed that it would be pretty much straight-forward plugging a cable into the card instead of plugging the cable into a normal TV.

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## joaander

I've been using the PVR-150 for about a month now with MythTV. I had a few setup problems initially related to specific a version of ivtv (0.4.1 or 0.4.2, don't remember), but those versions aren't in portage anymore, so you shouldn't need to worry. I'm currently using ivtv-0.6.3 which is the newest stable release in portage. Do note that certain versions of ivtv require certain kernel versions: http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Main_Page

Have fun with MythTV. I'm certainly enjoying the commercial detection feature :)

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## beandog

Even if you get a TV tuner w/o a remote, or just want to use a different one, you can always try the Streamzap USB remote.  Natively works with LIRC.  I've got one, and it's got a lot of buttons on it and it's a good grip, too.

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## MartinB

Thanks guys.  joaander, I assume that the remote for the PVR-150 also works then?  If not, I will buy it without the remote and just buy the Streamzap.

EDIT: Oh yah, maybe I should've mentioned this before, but it doesn't make any difference that I'm running a 64-bit system, right?

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## joaander

I'm just a poor grad student, so I got the cheaper 150 "Media Center Editition" which doesn't come with a remote. Though I recall reading in reviews that the remote that comes with the 150 works fine in Linux.

And to answer your AMD64 question: That's the machine I have the card running in :)

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## brundage

The PVR-500 is really just a single card with two PVR-150's on it.  I use multiple 500's with my mythtv setup.

```
0 mythical /home/brundage % modinfo ivtv

<snip>

version:        0.4.3 (tagged release)

vermagic:       2.6.9-gentoo-r8 K7 4KSTACKS gcc-3.3

<snip>

```

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> So, which of these would be best for MythTV? I've read that the PVR-150 will work, but will I be able to watch TV and record on this card? The PVR-500 is a bit on the expensive side.

 

Each tuner does one thing at a time - tune to a channel and dump the output somewhere.  It could be to your monitor or to a file (recording).  The 150 can watch TV *or* record, but not both at the same time.  Think about how many channels you want to tune to at a time, for recording or watching, and get that many tuners.  At my house, we rarely watch "live tv" so it was just a question of how many shows we wanted to record in the same timeslot. *MartinB wrote:*   

> The other thing I'm concerned about; will the remote controls included with these cards work with MythTV? I've seen no mention of supported remote controls. 

 MythTV does not come with remote support.  To use a remote you must install and configure lirc (http://lirc.org), so check there for support for a specific remote control.  I use a streamzap - it was cheap and came with a USB IR receiver.  I could also set lirc up to listen to my sony tv's remote.  The tricky part is getting a hold of an IR receiver.Last edited by brundage on Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## brundage

 *KaZeR wrote:*   

> BTW, you talk of a cable subscription, shouldn't you need a specific card for that?

 No. A tuner card is basically a "cable ready television". It can tune any of the "basic cable" channels.  If you have a more elaborate cable subscription, like digital, then you need to do more complicated things to record TV.  If you can not plug your cable feed directly into the back of your television (like you need a box on top of your TV) then you need to start thinking about setting up an IR blaster.  :Very Happy:   Plus you can only record as many channels as that box can tune to at a time - almost unvariably one.  For this reason, I suffer basic cable.

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## madams

I'm using PVR-500 and a PVR250 (with remote), no problems, remote works fine.   There is a good post somewhere (will look around for it, been a long time since I set it up) on how to capture the codes coming in and mapping them to the MythTV functions so you don't have to use the crappy remote that came with the PVR-250 (i.e I just use one remote for cablebox, TV, etc)   Much easier than manually mapping through the lirc config files.

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## MartinB

Thanks for the replies.  I didn't realise that I would not be able to record and watch TV simultaneously, although I don't really anticipate doing much recording anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much.

I only took the basic cable, so I don't think I should need any set-top boxes or anything like that.  Actually, I only took cable TV because the company wouldn't let me have cable Internet without also having cable TV, so the MythTV set-up is really more to justify the presence of the cable TV instead of simply paying for something that I'm never going to use just so I can have an Internet connection. :p  Damn monopolising cable company.

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## ferg

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> I only took the basic cable, so I don't think I should need any set-top boxes or anything like that.  Actually, I only took cable TV because the company wouldn't let me have cable Internet without also having cable TV, so the MythTV set-up is really more to justify the presence of the cable TV instead of simply paying for something that I'm never going to use just so I can have an Internet connection. :p  Damn monopolising cable company.

 

Hi MartinB,

Being in the UK, I guess that you are going to get either NTL or TeleWest.  AFAIK neither of these will work with your standard DVB-C cards. You may be able to get some that will understand the signal from a SetTop Box, but I'm not too sure what these would be. 

Additionally the cards that have been recommended to you are analogue only. The basic 5 analogue TV channels may come through with the digital (DVB-C ) signals, but I'm not too sure about this. Analogue cable is long gone in the UK now.  It's all digital.

Personally unless you are wanting some of the extra channels, I would go for a DVB-T card.  That is one that will receive Freeview from a decent aerial.  you can get a Hauppauge Nova-T PCI for about 40 quid.

I have a pair of these along with a Skystar2 DVB-S (satellite). Works pretty good.

Cheers

Ferg

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## MartinB

Oops.  Sorry, I forgot to update my profile.

I moved out of the UK to The Netherlands last month and am getting cable from UPC, which is analogue (they have a separate digital package that costs more) and doesn't require any set-top box, so I think it should work.

Right, I've fixed my profile now.  :Smile: 

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## ferg

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> I moved out of the UK to The Netherlands last month and am getting cable from UPC, which is analogue (they have a separate digital package that costs more) and doesn't require any set-top box, so I think it should work.
> 
> Right, I've fixed my profile now. 

 

 :Smile: 

In that case please ignore everything I said   :Smile: 

Cheers

Ferg

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## Mr.Pop-N-Fresh

Is there any difference (as far as gentoo) between a regular and a 'MCE' edition of the Hauppauge cards (the PVR-150 and/or PVR-500)? Anyone know? The Hauppauge site says it requires Windows MCE, but it also says the regular editions require XP, MCE or 2000... So I don't know if that necessarily excludes Linux... I guess I was just wondering if they're the PVR version of a winmodem.  :Rolling Eyes: Last edited by Mr.Pop-N-Fresh on Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## joaander

The MCE works fine in linux. There are two differences from the normal version.

1) No remote control is included. Presumably because anyone with MCE already has one

2) There is an FM radio tuner on the card too, which as I understand it is a requirement for a card to get the MCE sticker. 

Note that I haven't tried to use the radio tuner on my MCE in linux.

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## lonegd

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> I've recently got myself a cable TV subscription, but don't have a TV and wanted to set-up my PC (AMD64 3000, 1GB, 6600GT, SBLive) for watching and recording TV using MythTV, but I'm a bit confused at what features are supported on all the different TV cards.
> 
> 

 

You might want to check the PVR Hardware Database which has info on the cards used by people running PVR software such as MythTV and Freevo.   :Very Happy: 

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## DooBeDooBeDo

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> I didn't realise that I would not be able to record and watch TV simultaneously, although I don't really anticipate doing much recording anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much.

 

You can watch and record at the same time.

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## ferg

 *DooBeDooBeDo wrote:*   

>  *MartinB wrote:*   I didn't realise that I would not be able to record and watch TV simultaneously, although I don't really anticipate doing much recording anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much. 
> 
> You can watch and record at the same time.

 

I would add the proviso, that it is possible to watch and record different channels at the same time if you have more than one tuner.  You do need a separate tuner for each channel you are tuned to!

This is also dependent on whether the software that you are using is capable of doing this!

Cheers

Ferg

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## rawbeefman

Is there a quality difference between the 150/250/350/500?  Other forums have told me not to get the 150, to get the 250 instead because of the increase in quality.  I dont think this is the case, but I just want to know for certain before I buy one.

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## lbrtuk

 *ferg wrote:*   

> I would add the proviso, that it is possible to watch and record different channels at the same time if you have more than one tuner.  You do need a separate tuner for each channel you are tuned to!

 

As an aside, technically, if you're using DVB, several channels are usually being transmitted on the same frequency, and with a few software tricks you can record data for more than one channel at once. As long as they happen to be on the same frequency. I don't know if mythtv can do this though. I'm sure it will be able to one day.

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## ferg

 *lbrtuk wrote:*   

>  *ferg wrote:*   I would add the proviso, that it is possible to watch and record different channels at the same time if you have more than one tuner.  You do need a separate tuner for each channel you are tuned to! 
> 
> As an aside, technically, if you're using DVB, several channels are usually being transmitted on the same frequency, and with a few software tricks you can record data for more than one channel at once. As long as they happen to be on the same frequency. I don't know if mythtv can do this though. I'm sure it will be able to one day.

 

That's pretty interesting to know.  As far as I know MythTV cannot presently do this.  However, i always use stable releases, rather than newer ones, so perhaps the newer ones can.

Cheers

Ferg

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## dargosch

 *MartinB wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I didn't realise that I would not be able to record and watch TV simultaneously, although I don't really anticipate doing much recording anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much.
> 
> 

 

Acually, after having had my MythtTV box up for about 18 months now, I would say that it's the other way around. With MythtTV, you'll record stuff and watch them later rather than watch live TV. I think I have entered live TV mode about as many times as I have demoed the box  :Smile:  and it has been noted more than once on the mytthtv-users list that live TV is one of the least used features. My experience is that MythTV gets you off the couch.

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## ferg

 *dargosch wrote:*   

>  *MartinB wrote:*   
> 
> I didn't realise that I would not be able to record and watch TV simultaneously, although I don't really anticipate doing much recording anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much.
> 
>  
> ...

 

I'd agree with you pretty much here.  I've not changed fully to the "MythTV way", but it's very rare that I will "channel hop", as I used to.  Now I generallt browse the listings,  choose something to record, then watch something I 've previously recorded!

Never short of something to watch!!

cheers

Ferg

EDIT Nice blog BTW

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## infirit

 *rawbeefman wrote:*   

> Is there a quality difference between the 150/250/350/500?  Other forums have told me not to get the 150, to get the 250 instead because of the increase in quality.  I dont think this is the case, but I just want to know for certain before I buy one.

 The quality is good for all cards but my prefference is a PVR-350 because of 2 very simple reasons. 1: It is supported very well by the ivtv driver and 2 has a superb tv out (no tv out on any gfx card I used could match this).

The PVR-250 has no tv-out but is the same as the PVR-350.

The PVR-150/500 have good quality but it depends on the tuner it has. Recently Haupauge changed to a samsung tuner which had some quality issues in the beginning because the developers did not had a datasheet. They got a datasheet and it is working well now.

The 500 has 2 tuners and will split the signal in 2 on the card. If you do not have a good cable signal it will get worse.

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## lbrtuk

 *ferg wrote:*   

> That's pretty interesting to know.  As far as I know MythTV cannot presently do this.  However, i always use stable releases, rather than newer ones, so perhaps the newer ones can.

 

For more information and a toy implementation, http://dvbd.sourceforge.net/

And now I'll stop taking the thread off topic.

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## keenblade

Hi. I'm about to buy a tv/radio card. I liked the model PCTV Hybrid Pro Card (310c), very much. Is it any good for gentoo?

[url]http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Analog_Digital+PVR/PCTV+Hybrid+Pro+Card+(310c).htm[/url] 

Or could you recommend a similar card that works for gentoo?

I need a hybrid tv card, with stereo fm radio and remote control. Also divx recording capabilities is important. (I'm under impression that this card does this at hardware level.) 

Thanks

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## nixnut

merged above post here.

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