DVB-TC dual tuner adaptors

[bsod]

Hi,

Just purchased a DUO2. It comes with one DVB-T tuner from all accounts. For whatever reason, the reseller can't get additional tuner modules and suggested I get them online. Before going down that path I wonder if anyone here could tell me if the DVB-TC terrestrial tuners will pickup the FTA channels in Australia. From what I understand we use the DVB-T standard. If it does, can anyone recommend a reputable dealer in your neck of the woods to get one from?

Regards,

Craig

 

[Eragon]

The DVB-T tuner and the DVB-T2 tuner are both compatible with the Australian terrestrial channels.

For a possible reseller look here:
http://www.vuplus-community.net/board/forums/where-i-bought-my-vu-retailers-list.13/

 

[bsod]

Many thanks. The reseller I bought it off says it will come with 1xDVB-S2 and 1x DVB-T tuners. We wasn't clear if the T tuner is a plain T or T2. Guess I'll find out in a few days time.

Regards,

Craig

 

[stick50jr]

Many thanks. The reseller I bought it off says it will come with 1xDVB-S2 and 1x DVB-T tuners. We wasn't clear if the T tuner is a plain T or T2. Guess I'll find out in a few days time.

Regards,

Craig

I have a duo and a duo2 in Adelaide (Australia). The duo2 internal tuners I have are 1 x dual DVB-S2 and 1 x DVB-C/T. These DVB-S2 tuners work well on Optus C1/D3 & D2 and the DVB-T works well (it has happily worked in Alice Springs, Adelaide and Carrickalinga... so appears to be fully compatible with the Australian HD broadcasts). The latest internal terrestrial tuner is DVB-C/T2 which should also be backwards compatible with DVB-T & work in Australia.

The internal DVB-T tuner is cheaper than the newer DVB-T2 tuner.

In addition to the internal tuners, I also use external usb DVB-T dual tuners. On the duo2 I have two Hauppauge Nova-TD (= 4 tuners on 2 usb devices) from e-Bay. Thus I have seven tuners on my duo2. The five DVB-T tuners allow me freedom to record from five different frequencies/transponders (ie five different providers) simultaneously. The duo2 is a very powerful stb and will happily record up to 16 different programs simultaneously. (I have tested with 10 programs using multiple programs on my five tuners... eg two programs from each of ABC, SEVEN, NINE, TEN and SBS).

My duo also works with up to 2 x external tuners (1 x usb dual tuner device).

The Avermedia Twinstar (usb dual DVB-T tuner) also works well on the duo2 but not fully on the latest duo kernel (driver limitation).

I bought my duo2 from Austria... where did you buy yours from? I see that 'warbo' is cranking up support in Australia agai

www.vuplus.com.au

Cheers
Stick

 

[bsod]

Hi Stick,

bought mine from the Australian distributor. Can't post the URL but it's the official VU+ URL with a .au added to the end. I think they are only just starting up. Only had the one unit. The sales person said they were organising a bulk purchase of DUO2 units, but no eta on when they will arrive. The unit I purchased has the one S2 and one T tuner. I plan to replace both with as many T2 tuner cards as I can internally. I think it has 4 slots internally, so 4x dual tuner should be more than ample for my needs.

This is replacing a BeyondWiz DP-S1, about 6 yrs old. Still works well but has had a few mods done to keep it going. Their new T3 model seems a bit of a mess firmware wise and the construction of them is pretty cheap and nasty. Have a friend who has one as it's constantly crashing (worse with each released f/w), the tuner cards don't align properly with the case mounting brackets, so you have to bend things to make them sit properly. Pity, it had promise. I'll probably keep the DP-S1 as a backup unit or gift it to someone.

Not sure who this 'warbo' person is you are referring to, but the person running the Australian website is a Craig Van Der Veer, unless warbo is nickname or handle they use. From my correspondence with him to date he seems fine, perhaps a little tardy in replying to e-mails, but then again it's easy to get used to the "instant" reply gratification of e-mails, so maybe it's my own impatience

I would be interested to know who you got yours through and what OS dealers you have dealt with for buying tuners, or did you just use e-bay?

Regards,

Craig

 

[angelofsky1980]

Hi Stick,

bought mine from the Australian distributor. Can't post the URL but it's the official VU+ URL with a .au added to the end. I think they are only just starting up. Only had the one unit. The sales person said they were organising a bulk purchase of DUO2 units, but no eta on when they will arrive. The unit I purchased has the one S2 and one T tuner. I plan to replace both with as many T2 tuner cards as I can internally. I think it has 4 slots internally, so 4x dual tuner should be more than ample for my needs.

This is replacing a BeyondWiz DP-S1, about 6 yrs old. Still works well but has had a few mods done to keep it going. Their new T3 model seems a bit of a mess firmware wise and the construction of them is pretty cheap and nasty. Have a friend who has one as it's constantly crashing (worse with each released f/w), the tuner cards don't align properly with the case mounting brackets, so you have to bend things to make them sit properly. Pity, it had promise. I'll probably keep the DP-S1 as a backup unit or gift it to someone.

Not sure who this 'warbo' person is you are referring to, but the person running the Australian website is a Craig Van Der Veer, unless warbo is nickname or handle they use. From my correspondence with him to date he seems fine, perhaps a little tardy in replying to e-mails, but then again it's easy to get used to the "instant" reply gratification of e-mails, so maybe it's my own impatience

I would be interested to know who you got yours through and what OS dealers you have dealt with for buying tuners, or did you just use e-bay?

Regards,

Craig

You can make a review of your dealer with a post in the Vu+ Retailers section of this board
About internal slots of Duo2 box: 2 slots avaiable for Plug&Play tuners. More tuners can be added with USB DVB devices.

 

[bsod]

Hi Angelofsky1980,

thanks for the heads up on the number of internal tuners supported. Just some clarification if you can. From images of the back of the unit it appears there are three expansion slots. So could I install 3 x DVB-T2 cards in the unit for a total of 6 tuners, or is their some s/w limitation that restricts it to 4 PCI/PCI-X tuners in total?

Regards,

Craig

 

[Eragon]

From images of the back of the unit it appears there are three expansion slots. So could I install 3 x DVB-T2 cards in the unit for a total of 6 tuners, or is their some s/w limitation that restricts it to 4 PCI/PCI-X tuners in total?

The case indeed has 3 slot opens but the mainboard has only 2 slots, then what matters is the mainboard, and so only up to 2 plug-in tuner modules.

 

[angelofsky1980]

Hi Angelofsky1980,

thanks for the heads up on the number of internal tuners supported. Just some clarification if you can. From images of the back of the unit it appears there are three expansion slots. So could I install 3 x DVB-T2 cards in the unit for a total of 6 tuners, or is their some s/w limitation that restricts it to 4 PCI/PCI-X tuners in total?

Regards,

Craig

Dual-DVB-T/T2 is not yet avaiable on market. If you have different news, poste here (without hesitation) a link to a official Vu+ reseller who sell these kind of tuners.
DVB-T and DVB-T2 tuners made by Vu+ have an input and a loop-back connector.

 

[stick50jr]

Not sure who this 'warbo' person is you are referring to, but the person running the Australian website is a Craig Van Der Veer, unless warbo is nickname or handle they use. From my correspondence with him to date he seems fine, perhaps a little tardy in replying to e-mails, but then again it's easy to get used to the "instant" reply gratification of e-mails, so maybe it's my own impatience

I would be interested to know who you got yours through and what OS dealers you have dealt with for buying tuners, or did you just use e-bay?

Regards,

Craig

Yes 'warbo' is the handle used by Craig Van Der Veer on 'Austech' dot 'info' Australian website. He started up quite a few years ago, and I bought my Vu+ Duo from him. He is a reliable chap in my experience. However, his VU+ activities became dormant when the Foxtel and Austar cards became impossible to use on non-provider boxes. For this reason, I had to go O/S to get my Duo2

I purchased the Duo2 from LeoSat in Austria. With an internal twin DVB-S2 and a DVB-T, it cost me about A$800 including freight. When it arrived, the carton was saturated (courtesy of Australia Post!) but fortunately it has performed brilliantly. Your price through Craig will be slightly better and you'll have h/w support in country (if ever needed)

Both the Duo and Duo2 are still working well.

As others have said, there are only two slots... so only two DVB-C/T/T2 tuners would be possible. This is why I have the extra tuners as usb devices (see my original post). Now that the Duo2 is on linux kernel 3.13.5, it supports quite a lot of devices. I purchased mine via e-bay but check which ones are supported via the linux kernel before committing to purchase.

cheers

 

[bsod]

My bad. I assumed the 2 in the DVB-T2 signified it was a 2 tuner card, but all the adds for them I now notice only say tuner card, whereas the DVB-S2 cards are advertised as DUAL tuner cards. So it now looks like I need to plan on getting a additional DVB-T/T2 card and a USB tuner. Bit of a bugger the m/b only supports two tuners. I can only hope VU+ release their dual tuner terrestrial tuners sometime soon because their website material for the DUO2 plus strongly indicates support for 2 x dual tuners for both satellite

Dual-DVB-T/T2 is not yet avaiable on market. If you have different news, poste here (without hesitation) a link to a official Vu+ reseller who sell these kind of tuners.
DVB-T and DVB-T2 tuners made by Vu+ have an input and a loop-back connector.

One of my friends pointed out this German site to me. Because I still can't post real URLs , the site is called digital devices with a .de country code. The product is a DD-Cine-C2T2-V7 tuner card.

Was wondering if by cutting down the bracket if it would fit, assuming the connector is compatible. Then there's the issue of driver support. Not sure if VU's firmware or Blackhole support the chipset this card uses.

Regards,

Craig

 

[stick50jr]

My bad. I assumed the 2 in the DVB-T2 signified it was a 2 tuner card, but all the adds for them I now notice only say tuner card, whereas the DVB-S2 cards are advertised as DUAL tuner cards. So it now looks like I need to plan on getting a additional DVB-T/T2 card and a USB tuner. Bit of a bugger the m/b only supports two tuners. I can only hope VU+ release their dual tuner terrestrial tuners sometime soon because their website material for the DUO2 plus strongly indicates support for 2 x dual tuners for both satellite


One of my friends pointed out this German site to me. Because I still can't post real URLs , the site is called digital devices with a .de country code. The product is a DD-Cine-C2T2-V7 tuner card.

Was wondering if by cutting down the bracket if it would fit, assuming the connector is compatible. Then there's the issue of driver support. Not sure if VU's firmware or Blackhole support the chipset this card uses.

Regards,

Craig

DVB-S2 refers to a DVB standard. You can get either a single or twin DVB-S2 tuners on a single card/slot. If you had two x twin DVB-S2 cards, you'd have four DVB-S2 tuners. Alternatively, you can get two x DVB-C/T/T2 internal tuners (= two tuners) in your two slots. You could then get two x usb dual DVB-T tuners (= four tuners) to give you a total of six tuners to receive Australian DVB-T programs.

As previously noted, I have been using 5 x DVB-T tuners (and 2 x DVB-S2 tuners on a twin tuner card) happily for some time.

I wouldn't want to try non-VU+ tuners on the internal slots... Could damage the motherboard and wouldn't be supported anyway.

 

[bsod]

DVB-S2 refers to a DVB standard. You can get either a single or twin DVB-S2 tuners on a single card/slot. If you had two x twin DVB-S2 cards, you'd have four DVB-S2 tuners. Alternatively, you can get two x DVB-C/T/T2 internal tuners (= two tuners) in your two slots. You could then get two x usb dual DVB-T tuners (= four tuners) to give you a total of six tuners to receive Australian DVB-T programs.

As previously noted, I have been using 5 x DVB-T tuners (and 2 x DVB-S2 tuners on a twin tuner card) happily for some time.

I wouldn't want to try non-VU+ tuners on the internal slots... Could damage the motherboard and wouldn't be supported anyway.

True, but as long as they are the same bus (PCI express I assume) they should be ok, but as you point out, driver support will be the issue. One reason to wait for the VU+ dual tuner. I assume they are working on one, does anyone know for certain? I tried e-mailing them about this but no replies yet.

Craig

 

[Eragon]

A dual DVB-C/T/T2 tuner plug-in module (with 2 completely independent tuners inside) will bring some problems about the antenna connections and possible signal attenuation, as the loop-out connectors would be missing from the module (as they are missing from the dual DVB-S2 tuner).
Of course any skilled user could overcome this limitation using some splitter (e.g. to connect the terrestrial antenna to both the 2 tuners or to a TV set), so there are chances that Vu+ will release this new plug-in module in the future.
But IMHO I'm not very confident, so better look for working external USB DVB-T/T2 tuners...

 

[bsod]

A dual DVB-C/T/T2 tuner plug-in module (with 2 completely independent tuners inside) will bring some problems about the antenna connections and possible signal attenuation, as the loop-out connectors would be missing from the module (as they are missing from the dual DVB-S2 tuner).
Of course any skilled user could overcome this limitation using some splitter (e.g. to connect the terrestrial antenna to both the 2 tuners or to a TV set), so there are chances that Vu+ will release this new plug-in module in the future.
But IMHO I'm not very confident, so better look for working external USB DVB-T/T2 tuners...

Hi Eragon,

yes, I suspect you are correct. Was hoping to try and avoid using USB tuners, just from a neatness perspective. The unit I was considering initially is local to Australia by a Korean company called Beyonwiz. The model was a T3 and is a triple tuner (internal) or quad tuner with a USB tuner as well. It also based around on Enigma2 and MIPS dual core CPU, but the firmware has been customised for Australia, and is somewhat immature, or as my friends who have them say, full of bugs and only getting worse with each new release. So with that in mind, and then hearing of the VU+, well it wasn't a difficult decision. Time to look for some USB tuners now and a additional DVB-T/TC tuner.

Thanks to all who have replied to my post.

Regards,

Craig