I’m moving to a new home in the L.A. area and it has a pretty clean shot to Mt. Wilson. So I thought since I have an extra little server not being used I would set it up as an OTA DVR.
I’m leaning towards the HDHR Quad just because it’s external and could be used with any type of server. But I’m also considering the Hauppauge QuadHD PCI-Express TV Tuner. I’m looking for the unit with the best RF performance.
Has anyone done a side by side comparison of the two? Sensitivity, selectivity, intermodulation rejection?
I’d suggest the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Connect Quatro. IMO, its just more versatile. I was thinking about getting one as well to replace my older HDHomeRun dual tuners (old white version).
Never used the Hauppauge noted so can’t vouch for it either way but I have two Quatro’s now. I live in the burbs of STL MO. and pick up about 32 of the rough 40 channels near me and they are perfect. Just using a Mohu leaf with antenna amp split to both devices with very short cable runs to each. Now if Plex itself would keep working we might have something…
@MarkAllen45 said:
Never used the Hauppauge noted so can’t vouch for it either way but I have two Quatro’s now. I live in the burbs of STL MO. and pick up about 32 of the rough 40 channels near me and they are perfect. Just using a Mohu leaf with antenna amp split to both devices with very short cable runs to each. Now if Plex itself would keep working we might have something…
I really don’t have any issues with the DVR engine itself. Every so often the transcoder will crash while watching something (live or recorded) but other than that it’s been pretty stable for the past 3 server updates. I am using my current setup with two Primes on cable so maybe that makes a difference?
I’m leaving that setup alone which is at my dads house and building this setup at a new place I’m moving into. Mostly just to tinker with it. I have my little Supermicro MiniServer just sitting here doing nothing. It was my WMC headless server before I switched to Plex exclusively. I feel for the price I paid for it I need to use it for something…
I use the Hauppauge QuadHD and it is great, no performance issues recording 4 things at once in a several year old OptiPlex 7010. I get 30-32 SNR (I would guess that is max?) signal to all the full power networks that are 20 miles away using a pre-amp. They have a signal monitor for windows you can run all the time and they gave me a script to run to launch four instances of it that I keep up on the screen all the time. Helps for aiming the antenna, tune in 4 channels you care about and aim while looking at the signal strength of four channels at once.
@jmfolcik I also have the quad tuner from Hauppauge. I can’t get the signal monitor to work with this card in plex. Is there a trick I am missing. Any help would be appreciated. I’m running Windows 8.1 by the way.
@kd6icz said:
I really don’t have any issues with the DVR engine itself. Every so often the transcoder will crash while watching something (live or recorded) but other than that it’s been pretty stable for the past 3 server updates. I am using my current setup with two Primes on cable so maybe that makes a difference?
Judging by user comments and from helping people it does seem to be a bit more solid using cable vs OTA. With cable you tend to get a solid signal that is roughly the same for every channel. With OTA, weather, tower distance as well as use of amps comes into play. It’s not uncommon to pickup channels on towers in different locations with various signal strengths, not to mention UHF, VHF-Hi, VHF-LO bands which might require different antennas. So it’s not uncommon for OTA to have far more issues especially for those in the suburbs.
As an example where I’'m located I have several Latino stations in South Jersey less than 20 miles away but they do me no good since I don’t speak Spanish. My closest usable stations are 42 miles away. Next is 60+ miles away. I also need UHF for the bulk of my channels, VHF-HI for 2 and VHF-LO for 1 (ABC). Each of those has sub channels so I’d miss out using without covering all three bands. I built my own out door antennas and get a good signal without the use of an amp.
If you live near a city or broadcasting tower(s) you might be able to use a small antenna like the Mohu’s but I couldn’t begin to use one of them as they don’t have the needed gain.
So needless to say OTA can be a major pain and the difference in quality signal between channels can cause Plex issues since everything runs though the transcoder and can be touchy at times.
I see them on sale a lot for $120. Best Buy just had them at that price as well as Amazon.
All around it’s just more versatile and without it being inside the computer there is far less chance of heat or RF issues. To me there are enough things that can go wrong recording things that I don’t need to contribute to it.
The HDHomeRun is also more versatile with it’s built in DLNA server, HDHomeRun software, ability to access it from multiple computers, etc. To me that’s worth the extra price but this is just one person’s opinion.
I’ve had more then 2 dozen Hauppauge cards over my tenor so I’m not bad mouthing them by any means. I just think the Silicon Dust devices give you more bang for the buck.
The reason to are considering
Hauppauge WinTV quadHD
Internal device free up space
As long you PC server has power even when your network is down it well keep on working.
Support both ATSC and Cable TV QAM ready is lucky and have and open channel
HDHomeRun Quattro
I believe it has direct live view so no Server is needed if I recall so long you have a device can support MPEG-2 or you need compatible app
Bad part if your network goes down no recording, no live view your SOL
The OTA HDHomeRuns can also receive clear QAM as well but this is a mostly useless feature these days. I don’t think you’ll find many providers still doing clear QAM as that makes “theft” very easy.
That last point is a debatable. You could just as easy say the Quattro is still available for other apps, even if the PC/server crashes or stops working correctly. I think most people would have far more PC crashes then they would local network outages.
I think the OP has enough info at this point. If it’s purely a price issue get the Hauppauge. If he wants maximum flexibility or plans to run multiple Plex servers then the external LAN device makes most sense. Both are supported by a ton of different software so there is no wrong choice!!!
