I couldn’t find a r/linuxhardware alternative community, so I decided to ask here.
I have a TBS5530 DVB-S/T/C USB device and I am not happy with it due to https://github.com/tbsdtv/linux_media/issues/193
I don’t want to recompile kernel or use out-of-tree media_builds everytime I upgrade my kernel (ubuntu22.04).
Therefore I am looking for a device that has built-in kernel driver or simply loadable one with apt install linux-modules-XXX .
I prefer USB devices since I use it with both my desktop & laptop.
Does anyone know such hardware available to buy ?
Note to myself: seems I am 175th subscriber and this is my 1st post. yay !
In my experience the whole DVB driver situation on Linux is really messed up. Seems to be partly because of difficult communication with the linux kernel maintainers and partly because of lazyness of hardware manufacturers (they don’t care). Another problem is that DVB really runs out of favor. It is not “cool anymore” as everyone uses streaming services nowadays and so less and less “spare time developers” still care about “TV”. This even seems to be visible in less and less DVB hardware still developed.
I would just give up on the idea to still run a tuner directly on a PC. Get yourself a “SAT>IP” tuner, add it to your network and stream your TV programs over your home network.
Edit: It is even possible to set up your own Sat>IP server with “minisatip”. So you could get a mini PC, plug the tuner(s) you already have, only care about getting them working there and bury this dedicated TV streaming server somewhere in the house.
Running DVB-S2 for many years and SAT>IP (think of it as Satellite decoding to rstp) seems to be the way. I’ve not thought about a smaller PC to host my current card and welcome your suggestion. I’d github’d minisatip a few weeks ago and the penny didn’t drop!
I had planned to go for an Enigma2 based device and go from there.
In my experience the whole DVB driver situation on Another problem is that DVB really runs out of favor. It is not “cool anymore” as everyone uses streaming services nowadays and so less and less “spare time developers” still care about “TV”. This even seems to be visible in less and less DVB hardware still developed.
I’ve noticed this recently. Some of my family still likes to watch broadcast TV bit our DVB-S receiver is starting to get old and cranky. I started to look at computer based solutions for this, as media PCs were the hot thing for a while and I figured solutions would be fairly mature at this point. We are already suing Jellyfin for media playback so I figured it made sense to to look look for computer based TV as well.
Unfortunately it seems to have passed through maturity and is heading into obscurity. Tuners seem hard to find, drivers are poorly maintained and playback software is looking long in the tooth also.
Do you have any particular recommendations for DVB-S IP devices? I’d been looking at conventional tuners up until now.
The “digital devices” tuners are pretty solid.
I would not suggest getting the PCI express tuners as the driver situation is just as bad as with the other manufacturers, but if you get their IP tuner you should have something that lasts a long time.
I got myself a Hauppage PCIe digital tuner and installed it in one of my servers that’s on all the time. Using TVHeadend, you can easily stream it to any device on your network, or use something like Wireguard or Tailscale if you want to use it outside your network.
It doesn’t require a custom kernel, but Hauppage recommends using theirs for quicker updates.
Interesting. But PCIe DVB-S tuners from Hauppauge seem to be rare. Seems like they primarily offer USB tuners, now.
Yeah, I haven’t had a need of one in awhile, but Hauppauge used to be the best devices for use with Linux.
If in doubt, grab a USB device that’s listed as having a compatible driver on the TVDB
Can you use something like a rtl-sdr for its original intended purpose of decoding digital tv?
Only for DVB-T which is already offline in some countries.
Thanks, I know very little about how DVB works but that makes sense. What is the limitations for DVB-S/C ?
I’m pretty sure there are many more differences between DVB-T and DVB-S/C, but an obvious one is that DVB-S requires a back channel to the LNB which would be missing. The tuner has to be able to communicate which polarisation and frequency level is needed. The LNB will then make the required selection.
Cool, I stopped being lazy and looked up the DVB standards. TIL: a bit about digital broadcast transport methods.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re hooking it up to, but I had good success with this Hauppauge USB tuner hooked up to one of those flat antennas. I used it on Ubuntu Server 20.04 if I recall correctly, and they have a PPA as well as fairly helpful Linux instructions. Some of their other products might do the satellite and cable channels as well as over the air, but I have no experience with it, so your mileage may vary.
I used DVB-S/S2 cards and DVB-T sticks for many years with VDR, but a few years ago I gave up and got a separate tuner box (Octagon SF8008). I was fed up with the kernel module compilation, and the DVB cards or USB boxes only lasted a few years until they died. Every time I wanted to record something, the desktop PC had to run. All the time I used the PC the cards were powered and that probably didn’t help with their longevity.
Sounds familiar.
I’m using TBS octa DVB-T(2)/DVB-C tuner card, which is streaming the channels to my LAN (by using Tvheadend, Mumudvb, or Astra), but I was also frustrated about compiling the driver for it whenever there was a kernel update (https://github.com/tbsdtv/linux_media). Eventually I created a Debian virtual machine and configured the tuner device available for it by using AMD IOMMU and Qemu/KVM PCI pass through. It has worked very well, and there’s no need to update the kernel if you don’t care about the security and vulnerabilities ;D
The card I’m using: Multimedia controller [0480]: TBS Technologies DVB-S2 4 Tuner PCIe Card [544d:6178]
I’m using cards from https://www.digital-devices.eu/; a Cine S2 v6.5 from 2015 and a DuoFlex S2 v4 from 2017 for 4 DVB-S2 tuners total. I’ve found them to be of high quality and the upstream kernel supports them.
Unfortunately, it seems the modular hardware I’m using is no longer sold. The cheapest currently available product is an expensive 8 tuner card.
