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[guest]

Rather than use digital tuner cards with (usually) somewhat questionable long-term support I ended up using stuff from :

http://www.silicondust.com/products/models/hdhr4-2dtuk/

That's their latest model, I have previous stuff from 2011 in the loft which still works (not HD the UK way) although hardly anyone here ever watches live TV now.

The unit basically takes the incoming digital video signal & feeds it to whatever logs in - works with pretty much anything IME as long as your client app (MythTV/VLC/whatever) can auth/connect & most do. Myth works for sure.

NB : I haven't used the latest product as linked above but they work the same way in hardware terms - take the DVB-T/T2 signal & make the video bitstream available to network clients.

[sevenlayermuddle]

That's an interesting device Rizla, I'd not come across it before.

But MythTV already uses pretty much the same architecture.. all it wants is a raw data multiplexed bit stream from the tuners, which is then captured bit by bit onto disk.   It's quite clever in fact,  if the bitstream from a single tuner carries more than one channel in its mux, Myth can demux and record up to five of those channels from that single tuner.  I had a quick look and I think the multiple record benefits apply to the the 'HomeRun' too  so I'm not surprised it works, but I see no great advantage either over cheap USB sticks or internal cards.

Long term support isn't usually an issue as all the tricky stuff, like graphics hardware and video rendering, are completely dissociated from the tuners - in my case they are in two physically separate LAN distributed PCs, which can be more 'modern' if needs be.  The bug I hit last night wasn't a long-term support issue, it was just a bug, and it was fixed PDQ - just my rotten luck that RH had meanwhile 'frozen' their kernel.

I think you are right about live TV being on the decline but I still find that the live TV picture (and sound) quality far surpasses internet equivalents.   And you just don't get these occasional freezes and glitches that ruin iPlayer for me. 

[Chrysalis]

Seems its similar is some aspects to the vix based set top boxes, they are running on linux so not reliant on propriety third party software that expires when they want to sell a new model.  Like that box rizla linked to I can watch live tv or any recording from any device on my lan via http streaming.

[sevenlayermuddle]

But I bet you can't double up any of these STBs as a server hosting Bugzilla, Subversion, Nas etc... 

Another advantage of Myth is 'enhanceability', you generally can be as 'bleeding edge' as you want.  Some of my Myth hardware (still in use) dates from 2008/9, when Freeview HD standards hadn't even been agreed upon, let alone any hardware sold.  Yet on the actual morning that Freeview HD started here in 2011, I had all (/both) our TVs showing and recording HD in time to see the end of BBC Breakfast. 

[Chrysalis]

sevenlayer, probably could actually

I have shell access to my stb, can install various linux packages like on a normal linux distro.

[guest]

but I see no great advantage either over cheap USB sticks or internal cards.

The advantage is that you never need to concern yourself with what OS you use & whether it has drivers for the hardware which are any good

I had them working on a Pi with XBMC for a while but frankly nobody here watches live TV except once in a blue moon...

[sevenlayermuddle]

As the saying goes...

There are many ways to skin a cat

Even if saying so on these forums might get me in quite serious trouble.   

Suffice it to say, I'm happy with Myth.   

[sevenlayermuddle]

I am finally (tempting fate) declaring this project to be a success.  MythTV is running well, and old recordings & rules restored.  My SVN repos are all back up with intact histories, and today my bugzilla database has been restored in all its glory.   

Satisfyingly, instead of simply restoring the user filestore,  above were laboriously restored from database backups that are created on a nightly basis using home brewed cron jobs.  So at least I can now be confident that my backups actually work and really do save the required data.   

I have yet to decide what to do about the ML kernel issue, but that is not urgent or pressing.  I have looked at CentOS Plus kernel and while I  don't think it will resolve the problem I encountered, I admit I have not actually tried.   I would rather come back to that question once I have decided whether or not I want buy any new DVB tuners, as the new tuners might 'move the goalposts'.

Many thanks, especially to B'Cat, for assistance.     

[roseway]

Well done 7LM

[burakkucat]

Excellent news, 7LM. 

I'm pleased to know of your success.