network tv tuner solution

Beans on toast Dave

Beans on toast Dave

Beans on toast Dave

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have been running WMC for ages now but fancy something a bit different

running a plex server and thinking of a lifetime pass to enable the tuner function
would like advice of what tuner to get for this and was it any-good streaming tv through the house?

can it be as good as WMC with a dedicated Ariel and tuner?

thanks
 
The simplest option is DVB-T via something like a HD Homerun, it’s almost idiot proof* at this stage, consider that you need the ability to transcode live TV potentially depending on the client. Plex has added support for DVB-S in the beta’s iirc via the likes of the Sat-IP tuners, you can also use a Linux based (OpenPLI works reasonably well, ViX etc. not so much) sat receiver to provide tuners to or if you want to use a dedicated DVB-C/T/S card, then the TBS stuff is probably the easiest, whichever option you choose, you’d pipe it via TVHeadend to present it to Plex. You could also use one of the DVB/S USB tuners and a Pi for SatPi or similar. If you tell us what card you have, that would help.

*Excludes special edition idiots.
 
I was asking about the tuner card you were using with your previous WMC set-up. Also what OS will you be running here? The HD Homerun and Sat-IP solution work directly with Plex and require no drivers, it’s as simple as clicking add and they are recognised, rather than a dedicated card that you may use something like TVH as an intermediate. Plex also has a list of unofficial community supported tuners, but generally TBS + Linux + TVH does the job nicely and is largely fire and forget once set-up, it’ll also accept ‘other’ sources such as IPTV, but Xteve is probably easier in that respect.
 
challengedavid said:
its a usb pctv 290e tuner, i have tried before with plex and it really did not want to work properly (not officially supported)
server is w10
Click to expand...

Pi running TVHeadend (e.g. You could use the Libreelec distro), should support this, and then use something like Xteve or Antennas to present TVHeadend as a HDHomerun to Plex.
 
So it’s a Sony CXD2820R chipset, you would need to use an intermediate server like TVH to present that to Plex, as Plex on Windows isn’t my idea of fun, I would personally probably look at one of the Pi based options to do that, something along the lines of this: https://www.htpcguides.com/configure-pctv-triplestick-292e-tvheadend-on-raspberry-pi/

While it’s not the exact same card, running something Ubuntu based on a Pi, for that card you need the dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw and dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw in lib/firmware and it should work. You can then get TVH to present the tuner to Plex in a recognised manner. Windows wise I would guess that the W7/8 driver ‘should’ work on W10, if it does then you could run TVH via Docker and pass the card to it, but again Windows + Docker + questionable driver situation isn’t my personal idea of fun.

If you want plug and play, buy a HDHomeRun Duo or Quattro, for DVB-T2 it’s stupidly simple.
 
ok, does the plex frontend work as well as WMC now?

i just want to make it as simple as possible, also have an upcoming house move and this would simplify running tv throughout the house with no need to run coax all over
 
If we assume that you have a decent signal and that your server is capable of transcoding live TV for as many clients as you need, and you have the bandwidth between server and client(s), then yes, it works and is serviceable.

TBH if it were me, then for simplicity I would choose SatIP for satellite stuff due to the flexibility it provides in terms of tuners and clients (KODI etc.) and the price (starts at 70ish for a dual tuner set-up), again you can run a SatIP server on a E2 based receiver if you have one. DVB-T (well T2 in the UK) would either be HDHomeRun again for simplicity, or you’re looking at your chosen tuners + intermediate software to pass it to Plex. How many tuners do you want/need and what’s your budget?
 
An HD HomeRun Connect 2T will set you back £79.99 delivered if you look in the amazingly obvious places, 4T is £119.99. You could spend less, but if you want plug and play simplicity, unless you have a Pi and fancy using your existing card or going with Docker on a win host and trying it that way, take the easy option from the usage scenario/set-up you describe.
 
Avalon said:
An HD HomeRun Connect 2T will set you back £79.99 delivered if you look in the amazingly obvious places, 4T is £119.99. You could spend less, but if you want plug and play simplicity, unless you have a Pi and fancy using your existing card or going with Docker on a win host and trying it that way, take the easy option from the usage scenario/set-up you describe.
Click to expand...
thanks for all your help!
 
I use MediaPortal to share my DVB-T/S card around my home network from my dedicated media PC. It works really well and is totally free of charge.

I'd definitely recommend you check it out before parting with any coins for the Plex subscription.
 
well bought the tuner and plex,

impressed with the tuner but not plex as it has no support for my samsung tvs
after a few emails got a refund from plex

can stream to the tvs via dnla but would like a nice front end with epg

any ideas?
 
Why on earth would you run Plex on your Smart TV? Samsung can't even manage to keep player working on recent TV's. Buy a proper client and stop wasting your time.
 
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